Athens Aquarium & Fish Store

Great customer service the guy was friendly they have beautiful fishes highly recommend this place A+++++

I’ve been in and out of this store over the years, primarily because they are the only place left in Athens, since Animal Kingdom closed, that has a pretty good variety of live fish, both fresh and saltwater. Recently, however, I needed a new motorized filter for my fish tank because the old one had finally quit after 21 years. I picked one, they told me it was guaranteed for a year, insinuating I could return it easily if defective. I got this thing home and, while it cleaned the water well, it was very noisy, almost like I had a gasoline weedeater on top of my tank, relative to a quiet household. My old one was noise free until the day it died. Since I paid nearly twice the price for it (about $ 50,00) I expected similar performance. When I brought it back, a very inattentive guy said he would «look at it». I asked why he could not exchange it, and he said «We can’t take it back if it isn’t broken» and wandered off for a while leaving me standing there. I am thinking «Excuse me, but I’ve only had this thing 3 days and it is unacceptably noisy for a normal house, what about that year warranty?». Essentially I was treated like it was my fault they sold me a poor product, and that I was invading their space to ask for an exchange. The store finally did exchange the unit for another type that does work fine. However, these folks could use some training in customer relations. I could have bought this same item on eBay for about $ 20.00 and gotten a better return policy. I paid more because I wanted to support local business. That’s fine, but in this case local business doesn’t seem to like supporting me. I will probably still get fish here from time to time, because there isn’t any other place this side of Atlanta to go for that, but I’m sticking with eBay for all the hardware.

This is the best place in town for all of your aquarium needs. The selection is great, the help is friendly, and the prices are reasonable. There is a good deal of valuable information available on their website and they know what they are talking about. Justin McGuinness, the owner, holds a fisheries biology degree from the University of Georgia.