Big Al's Ottawa East

More expensive than petsmart. Very questionable pet business. They accept animals as trade ins so they can make a profit… I don’t know anywhere that does this so buy animals from them at your own risk. Poor customer service. Most employees are condescending. And there is an extremely rude cashier who literally raised his voice at me in front of a long line of people just because I was returning an item that was on sale. I was not told it was final sale, nor was it indicated on the receipt. Honestly ridiculous and shocking behaviour for a place of business. May make a formal complaint against this person.

Huge variety of products to carr for your pet at fair prices. Staff are knowledgeable and one was kind enough to explain the key parts of bearded dragon ownership and let us meet one. Once we talk my husband into one, will totally be coming here!

We've been visiting the shark for years. Pick up our fish and supplies as needed and selection is really good, plus the prices are reasonable. Every time we visit, the marine fish selection makes me feel like setting a saltwater tank!!

I like going to big als for the hardscape section, They have a good selection but like most things the prices have gone up especialy on wood. They have the best prices on fish tanks. The fish section is huge, most tanks are clean, unfortunatly the fish are often sick, passing fish through quarantine is a must. As for the marine section I always found it very lacking and improperly kept. The plants sold there are too expensive. And often not very healthy. As for the reptiles and amphibians, they seem "ok" The staff were always nice though.

Not fond of the shark in that enclosure & hope the rumours about it being suitably re-homed shortly come to fruition. However, we travel a fair distance to come to this place for FW aquarium animals as well as equipment & supplies for both aquaria & reptiles. Thus far, over multiple visits, we've been pretty pleased. The staff, particularly Lexi in aquaria & the staff in reptiles have been very knowledgeable about their animals & care requirements. Sure there are a few more straight-faced folks it takes a bit of time to warm up to, but frankly, given the amount of animal-care-directed work they're doing a bit of patience & good will is in order. We've seen clean tanks, healthy fish, invertebrates & reptiles suitably housed for in-transit periods. It seems the staff take quarantine seriously, treating & isolating those that come in sick. We've bought dozens of fish & invertebrates & none have come home with parasites or other infection. There's literature at check out & on animal purchase receipts explaining the nitrogen cycle & the necessity of properly acclimitizing aquaria animals to new aquaria. The aquaria animal prices are reasonable - in house frozen feeder product exceptionally reasonable. Equipment & other supplies range from good value to pricey - as is true in every retail establishment. Huge selection in animals & supplies. Staff have been up front about what they know & don't know with the vast majority being helpful & knowledgeable as their care duties allow. Have not yet met a staffer pushing sales over appropriate animal care, which is what has brought us back time & again. There's one kinda morose management guy that hangs out behind cash who can suck the joy right out of shopping at Al's if he's encountered. We avoid him, hope he gets a back-of-house office soon & wish him a joy filled holiday. All in all, I'd recommend Al's for equipment & supplies as well as FW animals. Seems like staff works hard to provide both good animal care & help customers. To management's credit, staff are mostly animal nerds like we are & we appreciate that. They provide decent care to our animals before we even bring 'em home & that matters. Looking forward to seeing Toothless suitably re-homed.

We’ve been walking around Big Al’s twice a week for a few months to find the perfect pet. The staff has been so patient and Mike has been so helpful and caring and really took the time to make us feel comfortable and excited for our new Beardie . Awesome team with lots of knowledge and a perfect place to enjoy all thing aquarium!

Sadly the shark tank water wasn't impressive, used to seem better kept ans clearer, he also seemed happier... probably because there also used to be a bit of a sound veqrier created in front of his tank...it's a shame the young lady that over a year or so ago worked there no longer does, as she really kept good care of him and also did wonderful feeding and knowledge about his type of fish etc . demonstration which would be wonderful for small field trips for stay at home learners right now... March 2021

Als has a large selection yes, but the staff are not knowledgeable about anything- twice i’ve gone in and was told misinformation that resulted in a death of one of my expensive fish, have not replaced it yet, as well as selling me fish that aren’t compatible together ?? seems like this company cares more about the money rather than the wellbeing of the fish.

Very large fish store got great selection.of products of both reptiles, salt and fresh water products, etc... The fish are healthy for the most part and A good selection of fish too. Descent prices, sadly they've got alot of aptasia in the salt water tanks and possibly worms etc things we can't see with the naked eye possibly, and the chromis I got there were ridden with disease sadly... The coral selection is just sad and terrible!! They've got absolutely nothing going for them in that department, and they're also VERY over priced for the BTAs and corals to begin with... The inverts are good selection though and good prices.

I feel incredibly bad for the poor shark, who's tank is not much bigger than 3x his own length. He swims in a circle the entire time. He should be moved to a public aquarium at least, where he'd have more space than a bedroom. About 5 years ago, I went in looking to purchase a 60 gal tank but for the life of me I couldn't find somebody to help. I ended up leaving, and buying at PetSmart. Any time we've purchased fish, they've died - even if they are the same varieties you'd find at a chain like PetSmart. I'd prefer to support this smaller business, but it's hard especially when their return policy is 50% of the purchase price, for 7 days. PetSmart is 100% refund for 14 days. Small businesses can't compete with large ones, but it makes it hard to support them when their livestock often doesn't last. Fish tanks look a little scummy, and there are scant amounts of salt water fish may be supply chain issues. Again, it was kind of tough to find an employee there to help you.

Directions to Big Al's Ottawa East with public transportation

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