Natural Life Aquarium

Wow this store is great. Im new to the hobby,almost a year now. Ive been looking for a store that has good saltwater fish and have been very dissapointed with the quality of most bay area stores. The fish in this store seemed more active and vibrant then any were else ive been. I bought a clown tang my third one the first one I purchased mail order and it died three days out of the bag. The second I purchased from a store in san mateo and it never ate for three weeks and died. John fed the fish for me and it ate like no tommorow. I paid 30.00 for the fish and have had it for a week. It is the best fish in my tank and all my fish will probably come from this store from now on. These guys really know their business. The store was located in sunnyvale and the owners just reopened in south san francisco.
They both seem freindly (John and Manfred) The selection was better then most of the stores ive been to and they are only half stocked because their systems are not all ready to stock yet. when fully stocked I beleive this will be one of the best saltwater fish stores in the bay area. The prices seem fair to me even though the reviews ive read say different. Ive purchased fish online for the same prices they sale them for. The dry good prices seem a little high, but for the help and knowledge I received I feel its a fair trade, and the few items I did purchase they were willing to give me a discount. I recommend anyone who is looking for quality salt water fish go to this store you will not be dissapointed.
kevin 21:50:07 3/30/2011
 

Bad news, another aquarium store has gone out of business. Sad!!
Rat 21:34:25 3/26/2011
 

Great selection of salt, not much fresh but this store does have alot of product. Manfred the owner is freindly and will help you out. But that Matt guy is really a pain in the butt. If he's not cussing he just not happy and it shows when he talks to you. He seems knowlegable, if he is by himself, I leave.
Rat Fink 22:35:23 6/11/2006
 

I try to be fair in my assessment of these guys and I still think they have plenty of good/healthy marine fish in the store compare to Seascapes or petCO. Other than that, everything else is over priced. I research all my products thorougly before letting go of my money and I KNOW this store is over priced. Example, I wanted to buy a 48" Aqualite and the store wanted to charge me about 220 for aplain old light. I found out at another store was selling for the same price except it had more features on it i.e. moonlite. I ended up spending over $900 for a more powerful light (10,000K Metal Halide). Go to show...you have to be up front and willing to negotiate if you want business. This store could have had my business if they were willing to bend a little. The other store obviouly did and I ended up spending over $1200 (lights +fish + anemones) there.
peninsula_dude 15:18:12 3/23/2006
 

I like the owner. He seems like an honest guy. I agreed with other postings regarding prices. It is too high. I wanted to buy lights for my aquarium...but they priced themselves out of the market. So I had to buy it from somewhere elese. I still hope they will be around though. I have bought fish from them and thy are all doing GREAT!
Penisula_Dude 10:23:52 3/20/2006
 

Price high. but clean tanks and healty looking fish. aquarium lighting was also very high. but pretty knowledgeable staff. will tak the time to talk to you, and don't act all high and might like other stores.
saltwaterfishlover 13:42:54 3/13/2006
 

Let's start with the cons:

-a bit on the pricey side

Now let's go the pros:

-great selection
-educated, and helpful staff, and very honest
-healthy specimens
-very clean

Natural life aquarium is the way the fish store should be ran. My only knock on the place is the prices, but as you can see, the pros greatly outweigh the cons. I've been to many fish stores, and I like this place.

Andrew 00:08:59 3/06/2006
 

Newbie with fish and recently went in to ask for help with a cloudy tank. I brought a sample and was told that it was near the end but to add some bacteria to speed up the process. I went home, followed all instructions and fish immediately began dying. When we went back in a week with some of the dead fish we were met by Matt who spent most of the time telling us how important he was. Without testing the water or looking at the fish he made the determination that we had just over-fed them and thus killed them. THe fish had been doing fine previously, but the water was still cloudy and being new at it I was impatient and just wanted to be sure. Thankfully I did not take his advise and went to another store (Aquatic Life Forms) who did test the water and told us to go home and immediately do a 75% water change to get that bacteria out of the water. He was amazed that they had recommended the treatment that they did and clearly said that their advise was not the best. Sorry, but they have received my last business.
Mary 11:07:10 9/24/2005
 

This store has more salt than fresh. The staff is friendly and helpful. Tanks are usually clean. Parking close to the store is okay as long as it's not close to lunch or dinner time, if it is you can use 1 of the parking garages. The owner Manfred keeps all the prices off the tanks with fish ID's, but when asked for info about the fish he will either go to the list behind the counter or look at the fish and name a price. Sometimes he is really high with the prices. Lots of dry goods, prices on the high side.
If you are into salt it'a a great store but bring your credit card as it's pricey.
Fish Geek 18:51:42 5/21/2005
 

Clean store, clean tanks, good service and friendly. Located in Town & Country, so parking in really tight, unless you want to walk from one of the parking garages. No prices or types of fish on the tanks.
Lots of saltwater and limited freshwater. More dry goods that most stores.
Axelrod 22:19:14 4/05/2005
 

Located in a Town and Country mall thingy, so parking is tight. This store focuses on saltwater, and they have a big saltwater selection, including coral. The freshwater selection is much smaller. The fish seem to all be in excellent health, and for the most part, with appropriate tanks. (I did see some baby clown loaches in with mollies, which probably isn't the best combo...) The tanks are very clean and well-maintained, the fish are disease free, and were being fed high quality foods while I was there.

The customer service is excellent--I was asked if I needed help as soon as I walked into the store, and the person who rang me up was friendly and funny. The staff seem very helpful, friendly, and informed, and were busy taking care of the fish and tanks when they weren't helping customers. It's a big, clean, organized store and there is a large selection of tanks and dry goods.

The big downfall of this store is that the prices are really kind of crazy. Food prices are over the top. The fish are not priced (or ID'ed, for that matter) on the tanks, so they could theoretically really take a beginner for a ride.

Overall, a good store, especially for the saltwater enthusiast with a lot of expendable cash. This place is not, however, a store for the thrifty bargain hunter.
loachie 08:07:18 4/03/2005
 

The owner was very helpful and the tanks were VERY clean... the only down fall is that there are no prices on any of the tanks(so he could probably rip you off if he wanted) and they don't have a huge variety to choose from. Still though I was very impressed with the cleanliness... I wouldn definately give this place a try if you're a beginner.
Holly 08:54:27 3/14/2005