CONTRIBUTED BY KANDY

Fish 015

My youngest son likes lizards, dinosaurs, sharks, snakes and fish.  If its a hairless animal, he likes it. So this Christmas we decided to invest in an aquarium. Its a gift that wouldn’t get tossed to the side after a few weeks.

We purchased a basic aquarium kit from the BX that came with filter, heater and thermometer so that when we move back to the states, any replacement parts shouldn’t be hard to find.  (Not to mention, in case something wasn’t working, returning it wouldn’t be a problem.)  However, we found nice tank accessories at Pet Box.  Living in Japan during the holidays definitely has its benefits.  All of the stores are still open!  So we were able to surprise the boys on Christmas with a couple of new Angel Fish (also from Pet Box.)

We did our homework with the tank, proper set-up and how to treat the water for a freshwater aquarium.  However, we didn’t study up on the temperaments of fish.  I guess I thought there was a Fish Whisperer that did that.  Just two Angel Fish wasn’t a good idea. They tend to fight in order to show dominance.  So we went back and got two more and an algae eater.  (He’s adorable and my son calls him a “lizard fish.”)

They were very helpful in choosing our fish and we were able to exchange one of our Angel Fish who didn’t seem to be adapting well to the tank. Pet Box’s fish policy is nice in that you can exchange your fish within seven days for a new one if it seems to be sick.  All is happy now.   (Pet Box is directly in front of Jusco in Chatan, just off of the road that is adjacent to hwy 58.)

So to all of you aquaruim enthusiasts, what is your favorite store?

8 COMMENTS

  1. I Have not heard or seen the store Da Vivid, but there are a couple of fantastic fish stores down in Naha. The Pet Box Chatan is a great start but to see some fantastic stores, travel down to the Pet Box Okinawa Bianco store. Just google Okinawa Bianco, to get directions. It is the nicest Aquarium shop i have ever been in. Another new shop that just opened recently (January 2016) is a store called Believe just off 58. It is on 34, almost right at the intersection. Its a tall 3 story white building with an orange sign “Believe”. You will not see the building on google streetview or map right now, that is how new it is. If you are heading north from the Naha airport on 58 it would be a left on 34 then its immediately on the right. Not much parking underneath but there is an empty lot around the backside of the building. Obviously Pet Box Chatan and Makeman are easier to get to for Kadena/Foster folks but these other two stores are a must for any aquarium enthusiast.

  4. We’ve had our best luck so far with fish from makeman. Our last set of fish came from da vivid, everything looks great in there, but one of our fish from there brought in ick, which meant we had to get another tank to be a hospital tank to treat that and the other fish it spread to. Next time we’ll probably go back to makeman or try petbox.

  6. 6 months ago we started out with 3 guppies and 1 tank from Makeman and now we have over 100 and 3 tanks! 1 male tank, 1 female tank and 1 fry tank. No more fish for us.
    🙂
    I did buy a balloon molly from PetBox and it died within the first 2 days, took the body back and got an IOU letter from them. I had a bazillion errands to do that day and didn’t want the new fish to tag along – that was 3 mths ago.
    Has anyone been to the aquarium store on 23?

  7. Back in the states Pet Smart was great for fish returns – they’d take back ANYTHING – we noticed one of our bala sharks was missing and found him behind the tank. It was obvious from his shrunken and dehydrated state that he’d checked in to Fish Heaven days before. Thinking, “It never hurts to try” Hubby pried him off the floor, put his stiff carpet-fiber-covered carcass in a baggie of water… AND THEY REPLACED OUR FISH!