Exotic Aquatics

Pretty decent pricing on fish and a good selection. I’ve had great service the few times that I’ve been here, so I can’t speak to the bad experiences of others. I will update if my experience changes

This place is a nightmare. The shop is dirty. The owner never returns calls. He screamed at me for calling his cell phone when he NEVER returned my call after 7 calls. Cy is a monster. Do not shop there.

The staff here are friendly, professional, and knowledgeable. They clearly love reptiles.
I, however, was fish shopping & got the impression that the staff was just as concerned with answering my questions as making a buck. I saw no dead fish in any of the tanks.
While I don’t like the bettas in cups, every place seems to have them & at least at Exotic Aquatics, said cups are a little larger than usual.
I would definitely shop here again.

Anyone who knows anything about fish in Boulder knows to go to exotic aquatics. With over 35 years of doing business in Boulder they have established a reputation of being the best. Spend some time getting to know the staff and you will see that they are knowledgable and hard working people with a love for the hobby who want to see their clients tanks thrive. Get to know the owner and you will see that he is an honest hardworking American who cares deeply for his clients and has an unrivaled knowledge of the hobby. No other store in Boulder takes the time to quarantine their fish like this place does. Their fish are kept in large display style aquariums and anyone who knows enough to know what to look for will see that the fish are disease free and strong eaters. Just ask an employee to feed the fish for you and see for yourself. Don’t listen to joe-Petco-shopper’s review. Trust the professionals who care and stick with Exotic Aquatics.

This is a torture-​chamber for freshwater fish. I stopped in (for the last time) today, and in walking through the freshwater selection, counted 5 dead fish, some dead long enough that bacterial mats had formed around them on the gravel. Not to mention so many dead bettas-​in-​a-​cup that I couldn’t bear counting. There was only one person working, and he didn’t even notice me coming in or out.
I badly wanted to save a cute little Corydoras catfish hiding in a mostly-​empty cloudy tank with one big cichlid, a few dead goldfish, and a few shrimp. But seeing the 20+ daisy-​chained, poorly filtered tanks, I just knew I couldn’t risk hurting the fish I already have at home by bringing home a disease.
I originally gave them 3 stars for their dry-​goods selection. But this second, utterly depressing visit made me realize that I don’t want to support this store and what they do to their fish, and frankly, you shouldn’t either.

Huge tanks with overcrowded and stressed out fish. Standard kind of gross aquatics store.

I shopped here often and they always had what I needed. The fish seemed healthy and didn’t introduce new diseases into my tank.

I went into Exotic Aquatics today looking for ideas for fish for a new fish tank. The employee was friendly and asked if I needed anything, but spent most of his time on the computer in the back of the store. Its pretty cluttered inside, too, but it wasn’t too hard to get around. The fish here seem to be a bit more on the rare (expensive) side, which is pretty much out of my budget — but that wasn’t my issue with this store. Looking around at all of the tanks, they had some pretty cool fish, but the tanks were dirty and the sides of many tanks were covered in algae. Lightbulbs were out over several tanks, so I couldn’t even see the fish in those tanks.
Worst of all, though — and why I walked out of the store without purchasing anything — were the tanks that had dead fish in them. There was one tank that had a dead fish that was floating on the top of the tank, with another lying on its side clearly in the process of dying. It had something white growing all over it as well as all over the gravel on the bottom of the tank. Even worse than this tank was a tank of goldfish — more than half of the goldfish were dead and lying on the bottom of the tank! Several more were swimming sideways or off kilter, clearly not well. Both disgusting and sad, and shows they clearly don’t even look in the tanks or take good care of the fish. I would never buy a fish here, because they are clearly not taken care of.

I like Exotic. I have now been doing business with this store for years. I must say that you shouldn’t go to this store if you are in a hurry. This store is small and has a lot of different items for different tanks (ponds, salt water, fresh water, and even reptiles). However, you will get helped and you will get what you need. I’ve had the owner help me out in times of dire need with the salt water tank. He has even had to come to my home. Their pricing is normal for their products. I always find this store is helpful and has a very cool selection of salt water reef products. The staff is also friendly and upbeat.

I been here a few time, sometimes I get lots of help and someone who really knows their stuff, other times the staff has no clue. The guy today was really smart and helpful, gave me good advice and wasn’t pushy. It’s called exotic aquatics, so I couldn’t imagine they are that much into ponds, maybe, but I wouldn’t expect it. It is cramped, and a bit «dirty», but to me that’s part of the fun. If you want clean and industrial go to petco, they have bright isles and limited selection too. I’ll keep going here and Aqua Imports.

It’s cluttered and sometimes you have to hunt around for what you want. Few of their dry goods are priced, and the staff has no idea what the price is. However, you can occasionally find a great bargain on dry goods and tanks here. Prices, when they are marked, or someone on staff actually knows it, are reasonable.
Fish selection is mediocre, but they do a good job of ordering a fair amount of a single species and stocking it in a single large tank.
Staff is generally friendly and helpful (in terms of promptly ringing you up or getting stuff), though not that knowledgeable.

This place was pretty gross. I can’t imagine a reason for returning.

You couldn’t find a more disinterested place to do business. It’s filthy and I feel sorry for the fish in here. Not only that, but they couldn’t recommend or offer a proper solution for removing chlorine from water for a large pond, and only handed us solutions for use in aquariums, yet the stock all kinds of pond supply. We went to another place, and they gave us what we needed right away, along with other great advice.

DO NOT SHOP HERE. This place is a graveyard for fish. We recently purchased 2 saltwater fish that promtly died within three days of getting them home. Might I add that we have tons of healthy fish that have joined the tank over time and nothing like this has ever happened. The tanks are overcrowded and dirty and the staff seems to just want to make a buck. HIGHLY RECOMMEND NOT SHOPPING HERE. Love, an angry citizen.