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Allan's Aquarium & Pet Center
Category: Pets Pet Stores Pet Stores [Edit]
845 Lincoln BlvdVenice, CA 90291
Neighborhood: Venice
(310) 399-5464
- Hours:
Mon-Fri 11 am - 8 pm
Sat-Sun 11 am - 6 pm
19 reviews for Allan's Aquarium & Pet Center
19 reviews in English
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Review from Sarah M.
8/14/2011
Allan's aquarium is your one stop shop for all your pets needs. Of course they specialize in aquarium/fish items.. but they have pretty much everything. You can even see and pet animals :) They have a whole room where you can look at and purchase beautiful fish.
The owners are awesome. It's a family run business, and I love that. The prices are fair and the staff are really knowledgable and helpful :) -
Review from Patrick C.
Los Angeles, CA
12/29/2011
This is a great store. I travel quite a way to shop there. They have a great selection. The staff is knowledgable and willing to help.The prices are more than reasonable. If you are looking for a " pretty place to shop" this may not fit the bill. But if you are looking for great selection, prices, and knowledgable staff this is your place.
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Review from Donna N.
Los Angeles, CA
12/11/2011
It's a depressing place to shop in...yes they have all the gross things that you will need to feed your exotic pets, but it sure is a downer of a place i.e the help, decor and astmosphere
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Review from Marko M.
4/7/2011
I've been wanting to come into this fish shop for almost 10+ years now. It's a cute (old) little blue building in Venice along Lincoln Blvd. There is a small parking lot in the back and there is plenty of street parking.
I walked into this place and learned that it is not only a fish shop, but it has lizards, iguanas, mice, rats, turtles & birds. This place also sells food for just about every kind of pet that you might own.
You walk into the store and they have tanks full of lizards and iguanas stacked about 15 feet high. Pretty COOL! Downstairs is the live animals and pet feed. Upstairs is the fish tanks and other larger items that take up too much floor space.
The fish selection is pretty cool! They have a large part of the store allocated to fishes - both fresh water and salt water. They sell everything from feeder fish (guppeis & goldfish) to arrowanas. They have a very extensive selection of fish, and the prices are reasonable given today's market prices for fish. My favorite fresh water fish was some kind of "Heart Molly" - which was a large white guppy that had a "tatoo" (inked somehow while not injuring the fish) of a heart. All fishes were white, but the tatoos were in colors of blue, purple, pink, and red. At first I thought it was neat, then I thought it was mean to the fish. I asked how it was done, and they told me that they calm the fish so they can put a "stamp" tatoo on the fish. It's permanent and kinda cute.
My favorite salt water fish was the Japanese puffer fish (actually brackish water). Cute little fish was about the size of a dime, and had the potential to grow to a small basketball size. Looked like sushi (fugu) to me! :) Just kidding! The place also sold Lion Fish (fish with the long tentacles / spines that are deadly). COOL!
What I liked about the store is that this is a one-stop shop for anything that you need. The staff here are super friendly and knowledgeable. They work really fast and are super professional. There were a LOT of people in here when I went into the store on a week day at 1:00 p.m. I can't imagine how crowded it gets on a weekend!
Even if you want to go into the store to stare at fish to release some stress from your busy day, this is one pet store that will help you do just that! Great products, reasonable prices, and hard working staff! I'm a FAN! -
Review from Brooke I.
Monterey Park, CA
4/1/2011 2 Check-ins Here
Saw this place on the way to the beach and decided to stop by and take a look around.
This place is pretty big. It didn't look as big as it was from the outside. And there is parking in the back of the establishment.
Inside, they had stuff for every kind of pet. Birds, reptiles, fish, dogs, cats.. it was pretty cool. The selection of fish is nice too. All their tanks are labeled with how aggressive the fish are and the fish's names. This is where I discovered Heart Mollies. They are fish.. With different colored hearts on them.. (wtf.. how did they do that?!). I had no idea fish like that existed until I came over the Allan's. They also had my favorite! Convicts!!! Woot!. On top of the wide selection of fish, they had tanks of all sizes and styles. I'm definitely coming back here to get a tank for my room, I found one that was a perfect fit.
If I went on about everything inside this pet shop this reveiw would be pretty lengthy.. So, overall, this place was pretty chill. Anything you need, you'd probably find here. They had a good selection of fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. And they all looked relatively healthy. They also had a bunch of different varieties of food. Live, frozen, freeze dried.. Pretty cool.
Its a nice change from the typical chain pet supply stores. If you're in the area and need some supplies, check it out :) -
Review from Brian P.
7/3/2011
Recently moved to California and I needed a store to help stock my new tank. These guys have a nice (although not gigantic) inventory of fish. I have purchased several fish from them and all are alive and doing great 1 month later. Staff is perhaps the most knowledgeable you will ever find. They really know their stuff . Prices are not exactly a bargain... but staff and healthy stock more than make up for that.
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Review from Jeanie C.
10/19/2010 8 Check-ins Here
This place is a little crazy, packed to the rafters with stuff for every imaginable kind of pet, and very Venice. Definitely worth checking out even if you don't have any furry/finned friends of your own.
I always got good service from the employees here, everyone was also super polite and helpful. And, they've got salt water for a buck a gallon (I need it for my tank's water changes). 'nuff said. It looked like they have some good deals on tanks in the upstairs section - I'll come here when I'm looking to expand my mini-ocean. I can't comment too much on their coral department other to say that they have some, but don't specialize in it.
also.. what's up with the squirrel underpants??Listed in: Reefer Madness!
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Review from Natalia R.
Venice, CA
7/16/2010
I needed to buy food for my dog and took my niece and friends over there. They said there were pets there and wanted to pet them.
The employees saw three girls coming inside the store and never acknowledged them. They kept shouting about how pretty the guinea pigs, fishes and bunnies were but still no one bother to talk to me or to them.
If we were close to the employees, they would quickly walk away. Seeing that kind of treatment, I no longer had interest in buying anything there.
One of the girls asked one of the guys if she could pet the ducklings and they said "no". She told me that she used to go there all the time before and they were allowed to pet the animals. -
Review from Adrian L.
6/19/2009
What an awesomely bizarre store. They have rabbits, ginea pigs, crabs and fish, among other things. There's your usual assortment of pet supplies, but what stuck out to me was:
a) A store bird that had a snarky sign describing said store bird's circumstances. I laughed out loud, not gonna lie. (DONT ASK TO BUY IT! THE SIGN SAID THAT TWICE!)
b) SQUIRREL UNDERPANTS. Totally the only reason I came in (my good friend is a squirrel lover, so it seemed fitting) and I am very pleased with my underpant purchase. The guy told me it was "to hold their nuts." I was equally pleased with this corny joke.
Come here instead of petco/petsmart. Support your local businesses, guys! Especially when they sell novelty squirrel underpants. -
Review from Edgar C.
Los Angeles, CA
1/29/2011
Me and my siblings came into this place when looking for this restaurant on Lincoln which turned out to be one of the worst places I'd ever been to. Luckily we ran into this pet shop. My sister ended up getting my younger brothers pet rat (Charlie) here which turned out to be one of the sweetest little rodents I've come to know. They carry a lot of wonderful reptiles and plenty of fresh and saltwater fish. I'm a fish person so this place was perfect for me. Freshwater fish are priced fairly cheaper then other pet shops I've been to which is always a good thing! Staff was quite friendly and knowledgeable. I'm coming back.
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Review from William C.
Los Angeles, CA
8/25/2008 2 Check-ins Here
4 stars. My search for crayfish presentations is over. Allan's has a big tank of crayfish and sells each for 99-cents. and they look pretty healthy. The crayfish are about three inches long and look pretty healthy. They also carry elodea/anachris but were out of it today.
Other than that, Allan's sells other fish, rabbits, birds, reptiles, and live crickets. The store isn't as well-kept as a big chain superstore, but it appeared to be well-stocked with aquarium accessories, pet food, and other "pet stuff". We were helped pretty quickly.
They take credit cards and are open weekdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sat. and Sun., 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. There's a parking lot out in the back, but the entrance is on Lincoln Bl.
Verdict: Not a big pet-store person myself, but I have found a good source of crayfish and elodea for life science projects. -
Review from Chelsea W.
Long Beach, CA
5/6/2010
I just discovered this store and I am so happy I did! They have a pretty good selection, but I called ahead to make sure that they carry the food I need for my puppy. They were very nice on the phone and made sure they had it before I came in. Also, another great thing was that it was acutally $5 less than what I was paying at the large chain pet stores.
They are closeby which is awesome because up to this point I have had to drive 20 min just to pick up some food or treats for my pup! Once at the store, the staff was very helpful in finding the right kind of chew toys/bones for my pup and they offered to carry the big bag of food out to my car!
Would definitely reccommend going here! -
Review from Hòa P.
Hollywood, CA
4/22/2009
Allan's is one of my favorite places to go when I'm looking to add another critter to one of my tanks. I can only speak for the aquatic stuff and they've got a pretty decent selection of equipment, tanks and fish (both fresh and saltwater).
My favorite thing is their fish room and I like to stop in every once in awhile to see what kind of odd creatures that they've got. Unlike larger pet store chains (Petco, Petsmart, etc) who often carry the same types of fish week in and week out, Allan's often has ones that you normally won't see and sometimes one's that I've never even seen before. They also have the standard gold fish, etc as well, but I prefer ogling at the weird looking ones with crazy colors, funny shapes and eyes all over the place.
Their prices for fish and tanks are really good IMO. Their pricing on equipment, food and supplies are just average though and I'd suggest shopping around for filters, pumps and bigger ticket items online first. Allan's is definitely worth a visit if you're setting up a new tank and want to stock it up without breaking the bank or if you're in the neighborhood and want to check out what kind of exotic critters that they might have. -
Review from Heather S.
Santa Monica, CA
11/24/2008
I won't lie, I only really like Allan's because I get to hold the bunnies without some cranky store lady looking over my shoulder asking "you buy??" For a while they even had chicks that you could try to catch and coddle before they looked at you with those "I'm gonna peck your eyes out" look.
As for the rest of the store, I've never been let down. I have 5 fish requiring two tanks and some tadpoles-turned-frogs that I got from Allan's in the first place. Unfortunately, 1 of our tadpoles never developed, prompting me to wonder if I had some evolutionary marvel in my frog tank but miraculously the damn thing disappeared one day just out of the blue. I'm still not sure if it got sucked into the filter, my cat got it somehow, or the two adult frogs were just REALLY hungry but its gone now and that's all I have to say about that.
Their merchandise is moderately priced. Goldfish food is less than other places and fully equipped tanks are relatively inexpensive. I generally go now for crickets (1 dozen for $1.07). The only downside is a recurrent bum that tends to lay in the middle of the parking lot driveway. I don't really know what that's about but it can make parking a little difficult. -
Review from Lisa P.
Los Angeles, CA
8/15/2007
I dont like this place at all. I used to go all the time. Ok, so I go and I look at the rats. They are attacking or the one is attacking all of them. There is blood everywhere. I complain and they didnt do anything about it. I came back and saw the same thing. Plus my fish i bought here all had ick before they got into my tank and killed everything. Thats why i give it no stars.
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Review from Bunny C.
Los Angeles, CA
4/15/2010 6 photos
I just love this place its an icon business of Venice. True to its zip code this place is unique, odd, funky, and very knowledgeable on fish, reptiles, and other odd pets you might find. If you are interested in fish and want to learn more this is THE place.
The staff here is amazing, odd, but amazingly knowledgeable of animals. As cat and dog person, I think they could use some help in this department. They carry alot of good foods along with some junk stuff, their toys and collars leave alot to be desired, I think their attention is on what they do best, fish and reptile along with birds.
The prices on dog and cat food is really good tho and is what makes me come back besides the odd staff (they are funny to listen to).
Allen's takes care of its customers and something I find wonderful about this place is that they take exotics from people that no longer want them or the kids decided they did not want the pet... you know the story. I saw this one mom bring in these poor reptiles that were obviously neglected by the kid and the guys took them in and cleaned them up right away and put them into a very nice clean cage. As I stated the staff really care about the animals and are very helpful.
If you in this area, shop here for the great prices and a bit of flare and history of Venice Beach. -
Review from Art O.
Los Angeles, CA
12/22/2009
Allan's Aquarium is an icon on Lincoln Bl. They've been here for more than four decades. I was into tropical fish back then, but they didn't last more than a week after purchasing it. The only fish that lasted year after year, was a gray catfish. Eventually, the catfish had croaked on me too! Tropical fishes were too finicky for me to handle. Used to buy pigeon food too, since I used to raise pigeons.
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Review from Jane X.
Hilo, HI
8/7/2009
been coming here since i was a kid. got 2 bunnies here when i was 6, and lots of fish since. i would have given it 5 stars, but many fish i have bought from here (opposed to other places) died within days.
i love how the second i walk in one guy that works there (cute guy that reminds me of spencer from the king of queens) hands me a bunny to hold.
i remember thinking it was hilarious as a 13 year old to see "bitch pads" for dogs in heat HAH HAH.
anyway whenever i am on the 10, i go here even with no intent to buy anything. when i go here, it is like going to disneyland but free. -
Review from Anthony G.
Santa Monica, CA
1/31/2009
I went in there without a clue. My daughter wanted frogs. The helpful guy behind the counter hooked me up with everything I needed & told me how to set it up. Now, I have a really pretty aquarium with 5 happy African Dwarf Frogs. I'm happy, my daughters happy, Allan's get a good review!
