All About Animals - Fitchburg, MA

[mloebl]

Sells pets of all different types; fish, hamsters, reptiles, scorpions, tarantulas, sells/raises birds, hedgehogs, puppies. Run by a couple of women who bought out Puppies Plus I believe, one of them was a vet from Indiana(?). They employ a lot of local childeren from the area that are troubled teens from what I have heard. Some of the kids have some salt water experiece, but usually you'll need to talk to one of the two women if you have any more serious questions (so you ocasionally may need to wait 10 - 15 mins if they are pretty busy.) Friday is usually the best time to go as they get their shipments on Thursdays. Open 7 days a week, until 8 or 9pm I believe.

They have a pretty good freshwater selection, and a few dozen saltwater tanks. They have a varied collection of salt water fish that change on a weekly basis; usually have the "classics", as well as occasionally rarer stuff such as scorpion fish, eels, octopus, sting rays, different angels, etc. Typically has a pretty good selection of inverts. Prices are reasonable for most fish but can vary (I've gotten great deals on some fish, but other ones I can definintely get cheaper elsewhere), but that's pretty normal for an LFS. Shrimps however can be quite a bit more than you could get at a larger chain ($25 for a skunk cleaner.)

They carry soft corals, anemones and LPS unless they get an incorrect shipment of a couple SPS once in a blue moon. Live rock is a few dollars a pound, and they will often lower prices if you buy a lot of it.

They will sell both new and used tanks and equipment/supplies and I have gotten discounts when buying a setup all at once with supplies.

I've been going there now for over 2 years. Never had a bad experience and never had a problem returning a fish that died or part that malfunctioned. Very open to bartering from what I've seen. For example I helped them once with a laptop issue, and they gave me some freebies. My friend has done this as well. Will do custom orders of fish/corals, but not sure how the prices are for those. If you're local they are worth checking out.

-Mike

[willray]

Well said.I have been helping them (Debbie and Tammy) for over a year doing odd jobs.The corals they get in move pretty fast so as Mike said friday saturday and sunday are the days to go.It's not uncommon for their livestock to have been sellected personally by them.They have been getting livestock from Exotic reef imports the last few weeks and the store is a fully stocked with s/w supplies.This goni came from them

[mloebl]

willray,

Nice to see someone else goes there, not sure why but seems to have fallen thru the cracks. Chatted with a few fellow BRS members that never knew it was there.

I should have also put in that when I helped them with their laptop, I had no intentions of getting any sort of compensation, just was helping them out (they've had some rough times.) After picking out the livestock I wanted, I went to pay, and they refused to take my payment since I helped them out. :)

Some of their corals are VERY nice and I should have mentioned well priced as well. You can often come out of there with a good sized LPS/softy for $25 - $35. I got my sps in this thread (http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20171) from them for about $30. It had some STN when I first put it in on 1.5 of the branches, but still a good deal.

-Mike

[Apone]

Can you please tell me where this store is located?
I cant find them in any online yellow pages.

[willray]

next to Demoulas/MarketBasket. Johnfitch hwy Fithburg ma 978-342-0780.

[mikestod]

I agree, its a pretty unknown place but a good deal to find a bargain. They don't carrry much equipment but they're always willing to special order anything they can get.

[Zedx6]

Well figured I would chime in, I have stopped in several times over the past couple years, as stated some prices are great and some are not. They do seem to get a variety of things even things they should not, such as certain corals that they are not set up for, Staff is friendly but as mentioned are sometimes busy so they may not get to you right away, but also may be a little lacking in knowledge of the hobby. Honestly IMO I have seen things that had me saying I would not go back in there but I always seem to stop back in and see if things are any better, recently seems they cleaned up ther tanks and are trying but then I see things that I question if they really are. Just my 2 cents, if you are local to the area I would stop in and check it out.

[focus]

Just stopped in today, great customer service. They would special order anything I want. I'll more than likely buy my LR from them Corals etc. Equipment is like most other stores. To rich for my blood. The place was clean, didn't see any sick fish. Nice selection, a shame my tank isn't running yet.

[stang8s]

They will take frags in for credit/cash too!

[Firedancer718]

Well, we've learned the hard way and won't be going back to All About Animals in Fitchburg again.

We've overlooked the poor atmosphere of the store, and the large number of VERY young kids either working there or running around. Also, the puppies roaming around the store leaving little "presents" for customers to step in leaves very little to be desired.

In addition to that, each time we've been in we've been saddened to see the poor condition of the tanks, livestock and the lighting system they have the corals they're attempting to sell under. They've never had MH, and apparently they're bulbs blew all at the same time. So the fish & corals are under flourescent lights. Not pc lights mind you.. just plain old flourescent lights.

Each time I've been there there has been numerous dead corals, dead fish and fish absolutely covered in ICH.

So to my main point.
My husband and I have been in there a few times. Trying to overlook the poor conditions, we looked very carefully through the tanks and noticed a few fish that looked healthy. About a week later Doug went back to check on the "healthy" fish that he was interested in.
At that point, my husband (zedx6) went back and saw a Lavendar tang. She looked quite healthy so he took the risk and brought her home. No flames please.. (we didn't qt her, bad us.). She did very well for about a month. No signs of ich, and she was eating well.
At the 6 week mark, she started looking very thin...not doing well at all. Three days later, she died.
We had her for 6 weeks.

Second time we made the mistake of purchasing a fish there : bad us again.
Doug went in on the way to his hockey game. Noticed a bi-color angel that looked OK. He thought it "might" have ich, so he left.
The following week, on his way home from hockey he stopped again. The bicolor was still there, only looking pretty healthy at this point.
He came home, we discussed it and decided to go back during the week and buy the angel. We went back, looked around, saw the bicolor (looking healthy). We noticed a tank full of Red Sea Purple tangs COVERED in ICH. They were in a 100g tank along with a giant Naso tang (looked healthy), and a few other fish that had ICH too. She had a UV sterilizer in the tank, and this appeared to be her QT. She explained to us that practically everything she got came in with ICH. That's when our lightbulb should have gone on, but it didn't, and I digress....we still took home the bicolor.
Well, were we ever sorry.
We brought him home... (again BAD us, no qt). He looked healthy. Now we know looks are decieving and we have a QT set up now. Too little too late.
We noticed the next day he wasn't eating (he ate at the lfs). Scratching on the rocks. LIGHTBULB! We went into panic mode because he was in our display! At 8:30 pm, Doug ran to petco, picked up a tank came home and set up a treatment tank. We were up so late trying to get all this done and get the fish treatment asap.
He lasted 4 days.

We've learned a very HARD lesson. It looks as if now we have to deal with setting up a new tank for our other inhabitants, including inverts, and treating our display to rid of the parasite.
I could absolutely cry. Oh, sorry.. I have cried.
Now, I'm not blaming the lfs for our stupid mistake. But I am blaming them for continually selling sick fish, and making rediculous excuses.

I can only hope our remaining livestock can fight this and win.

Sadly,
Firedancer

[grundig5]

Sorry to hear about your ich problem...I bought some LR from them a few days ago and it is quite nice and healthy looking. Good prices on LR but they dont have all that much of it right now.

[stevenp]

Stopped in there today for my first time. Drygoods looked pricey and they didn't have much SW livestock to speak of, not sure if it's normal or if they're just temporarily out of stock.

I didn't spend a whole lot of time in there beacuse place smelled horrible from all the birds, puppies etc and I have a weak stomach for that stuff.

Steve

[mloebl]

I do kind of want to change my review since the first one after visitting a few of the nicer stores. Deb and Tammy are both very nice and friendly, but they have been getting a lot of bad stock lately. After seeing some of the nicer LFS in the area and the livestock quality/variety, have to say I probably won't be getting much more than LR if I need it from them. I do notice that many of the tanks seem to have at least one sick or dying fish. Maybe they've just gotten too busy worrying about all the other animals so fish fell along the wayside.

-Mike

[xtreemboda]

i am J.R. i help with the salt water fish and corals, you can usually see me there on the weekends as i work there to support my addiction(my reef tank) so that being said i move corals so fast there i keep up with them with pc lights water changes and my show 55 in front has a skimmer so if you have ever been to the store you'd see that all the coral tanks have pc lights and the fish and some softies have reg florsent lights which is perfectly fine
the store will special order anything you want for not extra charge if its available to us ill try to get it for you. my company has been busy so i havent been there in a while but recently have been there, i understand all the comments as they are opinions of all and for the most part i probably know all of you that stopped by and am hopeing to see you soon!!!
you can call me at 978 580 5995 or the store and ask for J.R.
for the salts and corals

[SaltCreep]

I checked this store out today while looking for a new place to eat breakfast.

Man....old school pet store.

I wouldn't mind the smell and the crazy schools of lil annoying kids.....if there were someone there to answer a question or two.

I don't mean the Petco Spanish Inquisition "Hi what can I help you with? Hi do you need any help? Hi can I have your social security number?"


I just mean someone available to go up to and ask a question.

They had one or two interesting corals that I might have purchased, but none of the dirty tanks were labeled and nobody seemed to actually work there.......

[focus]

Bought 2 corals last weekend. You have to ask for help. After that smooth sailing. Nice hammer and blasto or acan or favia, not sure what it is. They said blasto but seems more like an acan??

[SaltCreep]

There were no employees there to ask!

Today however I went back and it was eventful (cool banded pipefish ) and I got great help and a good deal.

I am still amazed that there would even be a store in Fitchburg that would have live rock....banded pipefish......etc etc.

So I now revise my original review.

It seems that if you hit the store at the right time it makes all the difference.

[grundig5]

It seems that if you hit the store at the right time it makes all the difference.

I apparently hit it at the wrong time today. There were probably only 3 corals that I could find. There was a beautiful cbb in the live rock tank and it looked very healthy...but it was the exception. Many other tanks had little to no water movement, and I counted 3 that didnt seem to have running filters. There were 2 or 3 dead fish, but again, maybe I just hit the store at a very bad time. I've been there before, but I dont remember it looking the way it did tonight. Maybe I will try the weekend when they apparently get new stock in...

[xtreemboda]

try thursday night
or sunday night

[Kiah]

I just visited yesterday and met JR and Deb. What wonderful peopleworking towards establishing a dream. Next time you are in take the time to ask for one or the other and chat with these folks about their help (it will give you an understanding of why some may not be as knowledgeable as others), and plans for the future. I found "All About Animals" to be a truly unique store among the masses out there. The store was very clean, well run and had a good variety of animals and very reasonable prices. For those of us in Central Mass it's a gem.

Thanks so much Deb and Jr (John, JR, junior???) for the conversation and deals. I certainly will be back.

PS - everyone is doing great in their new home!

[SaltCreep]

I stopped in again to snag a cleaner shrimp. My yellow tang had been swimming up to every fish in the tank and doing that "clean me" posture. The flame hawk thought he was nuts.....
When I got there they had just received 5 boxes of corals.

The boxes were all opened but not put in tanks, so I didn't want to really poke at them ( fishstore etiquette ).

I planned on comming back later, but they said go ahead check out what's in the bags......maybe the owner will give you a deal on an unopened bagged corals.


It was really hard to see what was in the bags, and they had no idea what they were getting ( they didnt order specific items, it was a 5 boxes of misc. coral order ) but they seemed to have some really cool stuff.

There were one or two SPS in there as big as your hand and a plethora of other unidentifiable mystery corals , I picked out a large bag of what appeared to be polyp rock and got an exceptional deal from the owner.

I thought it would just be a humungus brown polyp rock.........but it turned out to be very colorful Zoa's !

There are "lime" ones and "lime" with orange centers which I have dubbed "Fitchburg Freaks"tm.


I have to stress that this is not a fish store, it is a PET STORE that happens to have some salt tanks. While looking at fish you may step in parrot crap. There are puppies and bunnies and kids running amok everywhere.
They don't have a wall of sparkling acrylic tanks.... there is no clear labeling system....no super filtration systems.....odds are you will see dead fish.

All of that stuff doesn't bother me that much but some people may not appreciate it.

[pantinor]

Cool store, yeah its old school for sure. You just have to be there when JR is there. He was a great help today. I got a cool fire shrimp at a great price, and live brine shrimp portion. Also got a friendly peck from dakota the maccaw.

[Dragonfish]

hi can some 1 post there address, thnx