There are 2 Petcos, 2 PetsMart, 3 Walmarts, and 4 LFS in Boise. There are also 2 Zamzows, which are a local chain Garden/Pet Supply store. All within a 12 mile radius.
The 2 Petcos tend to overprice and tend to have a very general selection of fish. They carry both sw and fw and have decent staff. They have 2 people there that know a lot, but some of what they know is outdated. When some of their stuff goes on sale, its great. The quality of their tanks is pretty good. They treat quickly and place the tank under quarantine.
The 2 Petsmarts tend to be the cheaper of the area. One of them is newer and nicer than the one, but the older one has 2 very knowledgable and experienced staff. The older one is cheaper and the fish and tank quality at both tend to be pretty good. The staff at the newer one is quite ditzy and incompetent and it makes me wonder how the tanks are doing as well as they are.
I would not buy fish from any of the 3 Walmarts, but one of them has slowly been getting better and better. The fish in there are seperated correctly, there are very few sick or dead fish, and there are even plants in the tanks now. There are also little pictures and description of the various fish they have, including the fish of the month, the Violet Goby advertised as fw. There is even a little sign above the tanks that reads "Associates: Do Not Feed The Fish!"
One of the lfs has great sw stuff, but their fw fish are sickly and everything is overpriced but their drift wood
The other lfs that does both fw and sw has great pricing and usually has healthy tanks. The staff there is usually good. The other two lfs are sw only and I just do not have enough experience there to pass judgement.
The 2 Zamzows are decently priced. One of them is absolutely terribly, more dead fish than live ones, and some of those dead fish had to have been in there for days. The other one is really nice and aquatics is run by a knowledgable and experienced hobbyist. They have decent pricing, they quarantine and treat their fish promptly, have good advice, they special order what I want and usually get it in on time. Their tanks and fish are good quality.
OOOO and Kasakato, the thread might have died, but you bumped it four times, so long live the thread :joke: