World Wide Aquarium & Pets — Local services in Philadelphia

I've chosen this store more than once to stock a freshwater planted tank. They have a nice selection of some better than basic fish. HOWEVER, I've had a terrible experience with the health of their fish as well as the demeanor of a few of their staff members (dismissive and condescending... feels like they give inaccurate advice to make a sale vs educate and set ppl up for success in the hobby). I will not go back again. I considered going in to "return" my dead pleco I bought 2 days ago... but it'd be more about principle and not worth the cost. Would've preferred my fish to stay alive. He did have a hemorrhage on his fin that I unfortunately only noticed after getting him home (had not removed him from the store bag yet.). The worker that helped me with him was also VERY rough with getting him in the net so that didn't impress me. I asked him about the coloring of multiple plecos in the same tank and he said the lighter ones were stressed... so that should've been a sign that I should've be more observant and less trigger happy. I bought 2 snails at the same time as the pleco and they are moving around and doing ok luckily. I did a thorough and lengthy acclimation (stores pH is about 6.6 and mine is 7.4) Tested my water parameters (which I do almost daily out of ocd desire).. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5 nitrates. I put them all into a quarantine tank..(which the worker said wasn't necessary?!). Also tried feeding the pleco, but he wasn't interested :( . My display tank has 1 blue gourami from world wide aquarium (from summer 2019). He is very healthy (good color, bubble nests and good swimming patterns) and so sweet (greets me or swims towards me every time I walk by),. but unfortunately he is the only remaining fish from a total of 5 male gouramis all purchased at same time (more poor advice imo and against my judgement and knowledge at the time). The other gouramis that died were all dwarf and it could be dwarf gourami disease... but still.. the dying trend is suspicious of something from their setup and not in the stores favor at least for me. Very...

I really want to like this place but have some reservations based on my visit there:

Pros: they have a wide selection of fish and can order others for you if they don’t currently have them in stock nice selection of aquatic plants and other products, with reasonable prices employees were very chill, friendly, and helpful

Cons: bought some frogbit which turned out to be infested with aphids. Was not a nice surprise to come home to… great reminder to always bleach/peroxide/alum dip your plants before adding them into your main tank they do not know whether the fish they get from their supplier are wild-caught or tank bred. This is kinda important because wild caught fish are more likely to carry parasites and imo should be medicated preventatively during quarantine, not just observed for 4 weeks. Additionally, if you care about conservation and sourcing fish responsibly, you can’t make an informed decision on whether to buy or not. on a similar note, they do not hold back new fish arrivals in quarantine or under observation before selling. This + the above means that when you buy fish from here, you have no way of really knowing whether they are coming into your tank with any parasites that are incubating in their systems, and since you can’t know whether they are wildcaught, or came into contact with wildcaught fish since the shop’s tanks house multiple species, you basically have to medicate all the fish you might...

I hate to post a negative review on a small business however I am hoping to save someone from purchasing a mite infested reptile. My experience happened about a year ago but I just saw another recent review complaining about the reptiles having mites still & this hasn’t sat right with me since. The staff was very nice and allowed me to go in the reptile room and handle a ball python I was interested in. Luckily I am educated on what to look for when purchasing a ball python and I saved myself from bringing home mites to my other bps by inspecting the snake in store. As soon as I started checking the snakes scales small black bugs started coming out from under the scales and running across the poor snake. If you see one reptile with mites ALL the reptiles in that store have mites. Mites multiply like crazy and will spread from tank to tank quickly. As soon as I told the employee I was checking for mites and then saw the mites, he looked very embarrassed and shocked I knew what to look for. He didn’t even try to offer an explanation or say anything when I gave the snake back and left. This just tells me they bank on uneducated people purchasing their animals. I can’t believe they are still battling mites a year later. I haven’t been back to the store since and unfortunately do not plan...