az pet & pondz, reading.

address: 4274 perkiomen ave., reading pa 19606.
website: www.azponds.com
phone: (800)722-8877.
hours: m-f: 1000-2100, sat: 1000-2000, sun: 1100-1800.


selection, 8/10:
surprisingly very good. about 1/4 of their freshwater selection is cichlids and other predatory fish. i have seen some uncommon fish such as cichlasoma festae, crenicichla spp., etc. there. there. it is the only place i've ever seen a gold jack dempsey. they claim to be able to special-order stuff, but have never followed through.

health, 5/10:
somewhat disappointing. given their nice selection, it is quite disheartening when the fish don't last a week. i seem to have about a 50% survival rate with their fish past a week. to sum this up, here's a synopsis of my last two trips: first, went and bought a dozen fish (~$91). after having to go back later in the day (credit card machine was down), i took my fish home. by morning there were only three survivors, by the next day only two (a jag and the gold dempsey). they all seemed to have some sort of an infection (not ick) focused around the eyes. thankfully it was not contagious, as none of my fish seemed affected at all, apart from targeting the sick new fish. we went back about a week later as we were in the area, and all of the tanks i had purchased out of were being treated. they offer no guarantees, so caveat emptor.

staff, 7/10:
helpful, but not terribly knowledgable. generally pretty courteous also. if i had a nickle for every time that the guy apologized for the credit card machine being down i would have had enough cash to pay for the order. they even called their technician in to try to fix it and tried calling the owner to see if they'd make an exception to their no-check policy (though he could not be reached). when all else failed, they put my fish aside and offered to hold them until i could get back down to get them. most questions asked of them are answered by them looking up stuff on a pc in the fish room, which is just fine.

prices, 6/10:
the prices were significantly lower when i started going there last year. they seem to increase a little each time a go, possibly an indication of rising shipping costs. as it stands now, they're generally higher on most common things. all-in-all, given the nice selection, health notwithstanding, the prices are fair and you can often pick up an uncommon fish for less than you might expect to.

overall, 26/40:
it used to be that we'd go to reading to go to az and anything else was just incidental. too many such trips have ended with dead fish and higher bills. that said, it is still the best place in reading and we make it a point to stop in whenever we're in the area and rarely come away empty-handed.