Connies Tropical Fish-Castro Valley

I walked into this store today and was really disappointed. I simply wanted to purchase a small 2 – 3 gallon freshwater tank. I’ve seen these tanks at Petsmart, Petco, and Aquarium Concepts in Dublin for 25 – 30 dollars. At Connie’s, the same exact tank I wanted was 79.00!!! What a huge ripoff! Mind you these are plastic tanks! Even their tiny ½ gallon betta tanks were $ 40.00…compared to being $ 10-​$ 12 at these other stores. I really shook my head at this. I wanted to support a small business, but honestly I felt like customers are being taken advantage of. I also noticed that alot of the fish displays with fish in them were dirty and also there were birds there that seemed unhealthy. The fish store I highly recommend over this store is Aquarium Concepts in Dublin– the tanks are immaculate and the selection is huge for tropical and freshwater fish. They also have great prices.

Eh… I prefer the coral store in Hayward. This place sells fresh and saltwater fish, coral, as well as birds and reptiles. That said, I don’t think they excel at any of them.

I love this place. I came here for a Beta and wound up getting goldfish too and a much larger tank than expected. They make it seem easy. But sadly its not. I love my fish but omg, goldfish are hassles. But I still love the staff and selection!

Didn’t even know about the kois and koi ponds in the back. Angel very helpful and knowledgeable about koi’s and water filtration and systems. Took his time to review with me about what I needed and what I wanted. A nice set up, prices are pretty average, and they have small koi’s too. It was clean and you can actually see all the koi’s swimming around without having the sun reflect off the water. They carry koi food, medications, testing kits, and pretty much anything related to koi ponds. Definitely go check them out and ask for Angel.

I feel super bad writing this review but this place is TERRIBLE. The few reptiles that they do have are in such horrible conditions. They have a baby desert tortoise who looks so malnourished and can’t even open his eyes and to top it off all of they’re heating lamps were freaking off. What the hell!!! That’s a desert animal who needs to be in at least a temperature of 85 degrees. It’s so sad so see places like this that don’t properly care for their animals at all. Also they had at least 15 turtles in a way too small space. Don’t buy animals from places like this! Only good thing is that the place across the way with all the koi fish seemed to be better taken care of.

This place is a hidden gem — the staff is very knowledgeable and friendly. Recent change of staff enhanced overall experience: staff is excellent, service was great, and animals are happy. Josh and Cameron are my go-​to guys. Every time I come in after doing my research, these guys help me out, do their own research, and even save me money while yielding great results everytime! No complaint here. Thanks, Connie’s, for excellent service!

Best tropical fish store around the area. Josh and the other young workers are really knowledgeable and very helpful.

I was lucky enough to be assisted by Faith. She was kind, patient and very knowledgable. I will definitely be returning. I was extremely impressed by her perfect customer service.

Really nice and informative staff. I did not feel rushed. Parking can be a bit crazy but worth the drive to Castro Valley. Great variety in hermit crab supplies and shells.

I absolutely Love this store. The staff here have a passion for fish and animals and genuinely care about all there customers. Josh is very amazing when it comes to reef tanks!!! Excellent Customer Service!!!

Now don’t judge based on the stars as I will let you know exactly why they got this review.
Minus 1 star for price. Now I understand demographics but it is one of the priciest tropical fish stores I’ve been to (and I have been to them all)
Minus 1 star for staff lack of attention and or knowledge. 2 out of 3 times I was their wasn’t acknowledged or answers were not provided.
3 stars because 1 of the 3 times I was greeted by a friendly knowledgable person who was very friendly and attentive. (Of course he was the owner)
Selection is so so, prices steep, only thing is if staffing was better the prices would seem worth it.

Staff were all very friendly and helpful. Staff were knowledgeable. Good prices and good variety.

Bought a Chameleon here.
I get a lot of live food supplies from here (crickets, worms). They are always friendly.

Hank and his crew are the very best there is. All of them are so knowledgeable, and very cool. Great customer service, and if something goes wrong he will take care of you in anyway he can. He’s a loving father, and good person.
Jerry G

Customer service is huge to me, so I was a tad hesitant to try the store when I saw it criticized for that in some of the reviews. I’m happy to report that I had an absolutely fabulous experience when I visited for the first time today.
I walked in mid-​afternoon and was immediately greeted by a friendly guy behind the counter who asked if I needed help. As a relatively inexperienced fish owner, indeed I did — and he was happy to oblige. I ended up buying some plants, rocks, and a few snails to help out with algae control for our goldfish tank.
He took the time to talk me through the various plants available and give me tips on how to either plant them or anchor them to rocks. We talked a bit about why a previous generation of snails may have vanished (hint: who knew that goldfish might actually EAT little snails??! The new ones are much more sizeable!). He even gave me some helpful information about how to keep more CO2 in the tank (to help the additional plants thrive) by putting my air pump on a timer — something I’d never even considered.
I spent a little time walking around and was impressed at the overall selection. A previous commenter critiqued the algae in some of the tanks, but even as a novice fishkeeper I understand that some algae is normal and natural, so that didn’t bother me a bit. Prices may have been a big higher than you’d see in a chain store, but I love the idea of supporting a local business so I was happy to pay a little bit of a premium.
They’re celebrating their 50^th anniversary this summer, which is impressive as heck to me… and I can see why. They’re officially my new go-​to place for aquarium supplies and hand-​holding. :-)

They took my channel catfish off of my hands and traded in for some tin foil barbs, that had some kind of disease and wiped out the whole thank and they in turn eventually died. They were more than happy to sell me medecine to cure their diseased fish that they sold me.
what made me sad is the large channel caffish would of been better off at Lake chabot since they just picked it up by hand and threw it into the tank. Then they put other mean fish in their which beat him up pretty bad.
First time I ever cried about a fish.

FAKE REVIEWS! its obvious these reviews are made from friends and families. $ 27 for a skunk clown fish you can buy else where for $ 9.00. Grab bag sales are practically retail pricing, this is not grab bag price. This place is a joke and a waste of gas! how this place stays in business is beyond me? go shop around people!

Love love love Connie’s. Been in here a ton of times and EVERYONE is awesome.
Great assortment of fish, live rock and plants, tanks, and accessories.
Pond in the back.
Not Asian owned.

when i was younger, Connies use to be in Oakland and they would have alot of fresh water and salt water exotic fishes… Eels, Barracudas, catfish.etc.
Now the location is in Castro Valley, they still have the exotic fishes that you wouldn’t find in your commercial chain fish stores. Staffers are very knowledgeable, location is huge and filled with fish items. They also have a pond outback.
Prices are excellent, not sure you can get a better deal. Especially when they have their 50% off sales. I will be visiting soon to get more goodies…

We’ve been coming here for a while; in fact I got my first tank here: an all glass 50 gallon freshwater setup.
Recently just started up a reef tank and am currently in need of some inhabitants, so I brought my parents here since they like looking at all the pretty fishes. A display tank full of colorful and active damsels immediately caught their eyes and along with the tiny price tag, it was pretty much decided that they were going to walk out with a damsel or two despite my protests due to the species’ inherent aggression.
Mom then asked an employee (I think it was Hank?) for their opinion and I was surprised that he too was hesitant to sell the fish due to their aggression. He wasn’t just interested in making the sale, as he went on to inform the parents of the possible issues involved with having these species. I let the parents buy two anyway to appease their inner child, hopefully things work out well.
In addition to the great service, their Saturday bag sale also has some serious potential. The first Saturday I went they only had a few bags, but they had TONS the second time and the pricing was ridiculously competitive as well. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a bagged cleaner shrimp that was selling for $ 20. DEFINITELY going to visit more often to sample the bag sale.