38 Aquarium

This is the Aquarium store equivalent of those snooty record store clerks. You need to have your game down before talking to these guys. Their cliental is probably all known to them and any new guy that walks and isn’t buying a huge Arowana isn’t that interesting to them.
They do have some amazing fish.
The Thai guy who used to be around the corner was a lot friendlier, gave me all sorts of tips on breeding fish /​raising fry, but has sadly retired. I think the Chinatown aquarium stores might be a thing of the past soon. Too Bad

This fish store has since moved to Mott St. Still awful. And still probably a front for something. They were only selling one kind of fish and nothing else.
Nothing. Else.

horrible service, i called them and just because I spoke english, the guy said I don’t know and hung up on me, right after that I tried calling again and phone rang for a long time and no one picked up

Visiting 38 is like stumbling across a steaming turd that you soon discover is not a turd at all, but the finest Belgian chocolate.
Walking through the door, we were greeted (leered at) by a dumpy Chinese gent who blew cigarette smoke in our general direction and proceeded to ignore our existence while vomiting up his own lungs for the duration of our visit. If you can get through the cloud and the overwhelming feeling of unease, you are in for a treat.
This shop has some of the finest and rarest fish you’ll find in the city. Show quality flowerhorns and arrowanas are his specialty, but you’ll find large dempseys, gts. parrots, africans, rare koi, bichir and large predatory catfish. Granted the prices are through the roof on many of the show fish, but Belgian chocolate isn’t cheap.
If you’re a serious fishkeeper or just a fan of seriously creepy dudes and secondhand smoke, it’s worth a visit.

There are several aquarium stores in the area. They are mostly all small, cramped, and offer a limited range of fish. Go to one of these for what I call sushi restaurant fish, or fish that you would normally see in an aquarium at a sushi restaurant. South American cichlids, arrowana, red parrots, that type.
This place is right on the corner, hard to miss. This one probably has the most limited selection, and is on the more expensive side. The fish are generally larger ones here, so if you are looking for large show fish, this might be your place.

One of the five aquarium stores in the area. I believe the other four stores are superior to this one. The livestock is generally healthy, but at the same time it is very limited to early large oddball fish: koi, redtail catfish, arowana, flowerhorn cichlids, etc. Prices are fair, but t all of the other stores offer much better prices. I would rather go to win tropical aqaurium, another store on the same exact block.

I was wandering the area and stumbled upon this place. My older brother loves fish and we had an aquarium growing up. So I wanted to check this place out. There were a lot of rare fish in here with a price tag to match it. The guy who works there is really laid back and asked if I wanted any help with choosing fish.

I went here today with my boyfriend to buy a tank for our new goldfish. We strolled around the store looking at the fish for a few minutes. Then we tried to ask the three men working there for help. Two of them did not look up from what they were doing, and the third one silently turned his back on us. We said «Excuse me» a couple of times before he deigned to turn around and look at us. We told him we were looking for a fish tank. Again, he didn’t answer. Then we asked a second guy, and he ignored us. So we asked the third guy, and he said «yes, we sell tanks» and asked us what size we wanted. We told him and the first guy who turned his back on us suddenly piped up that they were out of stock. Initially we thought maybe he was turning his back on us and being so rude because he didn’t speak English. He spoke English fine. He just made it crystal clear that they did not want our business. I’ve never been treated so rudely by a salesperson in my life. I don’t know how they stay in business.
I am only giving them 1 star because there is no option for 0!