Fish Stores by State / New York
Best Fish Stores in New York
New York's aquarium scene runs from a 40-year-old storefront on the Lower East Side to reef specialists tucked into strip malls near Buffalo and Rochester. The state's hobbyist culture was shaped early by Chinatown fish markets and immigrant-owned pet shops that pivoted to aquatics when big-box chains moved in during the 1990s, and that lineage still shows: several of the stores below trace back to a single owner who started with a handful of tanks decades ago and never stopped. Queens has become an unlikely discus and reef-coral hub, with multiple shops shipping livestock up and down the East Coast, while upstate cities like Rochester, Syracuse, Buffalo, and the Albany area support tight-knit, hobbyist-run saltwater and freshwater shops that punch well above their size. What unites them is not scale but obsession — owners who test their own water chemistry, hand-pick coral shipments, and know regular customers by name. This directory highlights independently owned stores, not chains, chosen for verifiable reputation and longevity.
Top 10 Fish Stores in the USA
Our national ranking methodology →Curated by our editors from the state-by-state directory below — the shops that stand out even against the full national field.
Amazonia Tropical Fish
Shares an operator with USA Fish Stores.Full disclosure →
1That Fish Place - That Pet Place
Lancaster, PA
At 88,000 square feet and running since 1973, this Lancaster institution is widely cited as the largest independent pet and fish store in the world, a scale and breadth no other shop in this pool comes close to matching. It functions as a destination stop for hobbyists nationwide, not just a local supplier.
Tropical and marine fish · Coral and invertebrates · Reptiles and pond supplies
2Aqua Forest Aquarium
San Francisco, CA
As the first US store built around Takashi Amano's Nature Aquarium philosophy and the American distributor for ADA products, it holds a unique historical position in the country's aquascaping movement. Its influence radiates well past San Francisco through the aquascapers it trained and the supply chain it anchors nationally.
Nature Aquarium style planted tanks · ADA products (US distributor) · Aquascaping
- 3
Aquatica Aquarium Gallery
Valley City, OH
A 20,000-gallon display gallery paired with the state's biggest African cichlid selection gives this store a rare combination of showroom ambition and genuine specialty depth. Few aquatics retailers anywhere pull off that scale and that level of focus in the same building.
African cichlids · reef corals · custom acrylic aquariums
- 4
Nahacky's Aquarium
Melbourne, FL
Open continuously since 1961, it's among the longest-running aquarium retailers in the country, predating the modern fishkeeping boom by decades. That six-decade record of surviving industry shifts is a distinction almost nothing else in this pool can claim.
Freshwater and saltwater fish · Pond supplies · Reef equipment
- 5
Monster Aquarium
Flushing (Queens), NY
One of the largest freshwater-only operations in the country, it stocks exotics from discus to platinum alligator gar at a depth rarely seen outside specialist importers. Standing out for sheer scale inside the dense, competitive NYC aquatics market is itself a national-caliber feat.
exotic freshwater fish · discus · arowana & gars
6King's Discus
Seattle, WA
A dedicated importer-breeder sourcing discus, flowerhorn, and rare cichlids simultaneously from South America, West Africa, and Southeast Asia, backed by its own in-house breeding program. That breadth of direct sourcing plus captive propagation puts it closer to a wholesale operation than a typical retail counter.
discus · flowerhorn and rare cichlids · bettas
- 7
Elmer's Aquarium
Monroeville, PA
Running since 1969 with a 300-tank showroom spanning freshwater, marine, and pond, it's the kind of multi-generational, full-line operation that's grown rare as the hobby has consolidated around narrower specialists. Its longevity and category breadth make it a benchmark rather than just a regional favorite.
Freshwater tropical fish · Marine fish and coral · Pond supplies
- 8
Austin Aqua-Dome
Austin, TX
Housed in a genuine landmark two-story dome, it's one of the few fish stores in the country recognizable by its architecture alone, paired with a freshwater-and-saltwater range broad enough to anchor a major metro. That combination of physical distinctiveness and inventory depth is unusual on a national scale.
freshwater tropicals · saltwater/reef · landmark dome building
- 9
C-Macs Aquarium
Charlotte, NC
Beyond retail livestock, three-plus decades of custom aquarium design, installation, and commercial maintenance give it a professional-services depth most fish stores never develop. That dual identity as both a shop and an established design-build firm sets it apart from typical retail-only competitors nationally.
freshwater and saltwater fish · custom aquarium design and installation · live plants
- 10
Zooxae
Elgin, IL
Its reputation rests on disease-free, quarantined livestock and magazine-ready display tanks across freshwater, saltwater, and aquascaping supplies at once, an operational-quality bar that stands out in a pool where most stores are judged on selection size alone. Consistency across multiple specialties, rather than dominance in one niche, is the harder trick to pull off.
quarantined freshwater and saltwater fish · corals and marine invertebrates · aquascaping supplies
Top 7 in New York
- 1
Caribbean Forest LLC
Rochester, NY
Rochester's best-known marine specialty shop, family-run since 1994 with custom-built tanks and a loyal reef-keeping following.
saltwater fish · corals & anemones · marine invertebrates
- 2
New York Reef Aquatic
Flushing (Queens), NY
A Queens reef specialist that grew from a hobbyist's tanks into an East Coast-wide source for hardy, well-acclimated coral.
SPS/LPS coral · zoanthids · saltwater fish
- 3
A Reef Creation
Buffalo (Cheektowaga), NY
Western New York's leading saltwater specialty shop, run by an owner who started as an aquarium-maintenance tech in 1999.
saltwater/marine fish · tank-raised clownfish · live coral
- 4
Eddie's Aquarium Centre
Cohoes (Albany area), NY
The Capital Region's longest-running fish store, family-run since 1975 and widely called the best in upstate New York.
freshwater & saltwater fish · planted aquariums · koi & pond supplies
- 5
Monster Aquarium
Flushing (Queens), NY
One of NYC's largest freshwater-only shops, wall-to-wall with exotic tanks from discus to platinum alligator gar.
exotic freshwater fish · discus · arowana & gars
- 6
ABC Reefs
Solvay (Syracuse area), NY
A hobbyist-founded Syracuse-area saltwater and freshwater shop that grew out of a basement coral operation.
saltwater fish & coral · freshwater fish & plants · new tank setup consulting
- 7
Brooklyn Zoo & Aquarium Pet Store
Brooklyn, NY
A 9,000-square-foot Mill Basin pet emporium since 1990 with one of Brooklyn's largest fish and coral departments.
tropical & marine fish · corals & invertebrates · custom aquarium builds