There's local fish stores in Boston? I'm a little north of town, but all I can find is the two big chains.
I'm originally form NJ, and knew of 3-4 places beside the chains that were within a 15-20 minute drive. I'd love to find a plae to go window shopping at.
Yup, window shopping and drooling is fun! It took me awhile to find these places, but here's my run down:
Tropic Isle in Framingham - tons of stock and good for seeing different types of fish in person; coral selection is terrible and over-priced; fish tanks are over-stocked and not always clean (and there have been a few times when I'll literally see a dead fish in almost in every tank); fish prices vary - some are good some not so good. I've bought a few fish from them and all have done well so far, but I was very picky in looking for healthy stock, and shopped around for the best price. I think they are good for viewing fish and picking up things like food, plumbing supplies, etc.
Skiptons / Unique Aquaria in Boston's South End - coral selection is phenomenal, but prices are sky high - easily 5x what you will pay elsewhere or online, even after shipping. I did use them for a service call and the guy that runs the service department really knows his stuff - that was worth it. Fish selection is so-so, and fish prices are what you see elsewhere on most stuff. I've heard they don't really take much care in acclimating their fish or quarantining the more delicate species, and have also seen dead fish in their tanks.
Oceans in Glass in Salem, NH - By far my favorite store for fish - their tanks are impeccable and you can tell they really pay close attention to things like not overstocking tanks and taking consideration for which types of fish they put together in tanks. Fish prices are a little higher than what you would pay online, but they frequently have 15% off sales on the weekends and with the quality of fish I think their prices are worth it - they aren't high enough to send me away. Coral selection needs work, but they've occasionally had some very nice pieces, its just a small selection.
Jay's Aquatics in Salem NH - The place to go for local coral, IMO. Prices are very reasonable and he occasionally frags up big pieces so you can really nice frags of things like frogspan, trumpets, acans, etc. The store is a bit crowded with equipment, and I've found the fish selection to be 50/50. When I make the drive up there, I usually stop at both this place for coral and oceans in glass for fish.
I almost always do my research online first and have asked questions both to guage knowledge and honesty at all of these places - the two places in Salem seem to have staff who are knowledgable, though I'm still cautious about taking advice w/o doing my own research. Tropic Isle is only interested in selling livestock and could care less about giving you bad advice about things like what type of fish can be housed together, how many you can add a given time, and how big of a tank certain fish need. They also have a lot of young kids working there who don't always know what they are talking about. Skipton's staff seems knowledgable, but their stuff is so ridiculously overpriced that I wouldn't buy from them anyway. Seriously, they quoted me a 1" frag of an exotic chalice for $1200, which you can get online for $300.
Anyhow, let me know if you have any questions about these places and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction! :)
