# Discovered a really nice rep shop- Torquay



## MissCat (Mar 9, 2009)

Aquator Fish and reptile shop- Torquay

Aquator - Home

Popped in there on Sunday as we accidentally found it!
I'm not an expert on shops, but here were my observations:


Very well laid out
Clean
Friendly-SMILING staff
Some super enclosures for the lizards and some amphibians
Basic, but clean and simple racking for snakes- this is a good thing I think, it made it easy to see what snakes there were (clearly labelled) and I assume that had I have wanted a closer look at a specific snake the staff would have obliged me. And it gave me a nice idea of what a good racking system could look like.
A HUGE variety of fish, lizards (leo geckos, cresties, gargoyles, beardies, rankings, CWD, frilled dragon, painted agamas and several more) and snakes ( corns- many morphs of- royals, common boa's, dumerils boas, kingsnakes, milk snakes and more), Also included APH's and a few frogs. I saw a couple of scorps but no T's at that time- whether they ever have them I don't know.
There was a large variety of equipment, substrates, decor etc on sale, I've not seen so much variety before and this shop is quite a bit smaller than some of the one's I've been in.
The shop makes GREAT use of the space they've been given.
All animals looked healthy and in good condition and they even labelled a snake as "aggressive" rather than just trying to flog it on as fast a possible.
All animal enclosures were clean (in fact, most were pretty much spotless), with food and water where approriate.
Livefood that was being fed to the animals while we were there, as well as the livefood that is sold were healthy and there is an offer on the livefood tubs (I *think* it was 5 for £10?)
I only have 4 quibbles with this shop (though to be completely fair to them, I did not address these with any of the staff.)


It's quite pricy in there- well, the animals are, which is fair enough. Some animals were very reasonably priced really, I've just gotten too used to paying breeders prices to be honest (bit of a difference, £25 for a royal from a breeder compared to £120 for a royal in the shop). Things like vivs were also a bit pricy and generally, decorations were slighly more expensive than I would pay in my _local_ shop but not so different in price to other shops. There were a few things that I would consider to be bargains though, and they have a far superior selection of decor and substrates than any of my local shops have.
Parking is difficult, that's beyond control of the shop though I think.
Finally, a common niggle- the starter set ups for corns etc do not include thermostats (fairly normal) but there is no notice about the pro's/cons of considering buying one. (Although, if you were purchasing a starter set up, or any set up, the staff might go into this with the customer for all I know- certainly all animal enclosures had thermostats as far as I could see)
I would have also have liked to of seen a little information on some of the species being sold, particularly the snakes and I saw no care sheets (though they may be around)
As I said, I didn't address these with the staff, but the staff all seemed friendly enough so that if I had thought about it at the time I wouldn't of had any worries about asking for more information etc and with a shop like theirs I would be surprised if they are unable to answer questions about animals/animal care/ thermostats etc. 

All in all, I think that Aquator is a fairly decent shop 
Just thought I'd do a wee review, hope no one minds.


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## geckomaster (Dec 16, 2008)

*yh*

i actully live like 5 mins away from there i think exacctly the same it is a bit expencive but overall good may i ask what reptiles you have :2thumb:


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## MissCat (Mar 9, 2009)

geckomaster said:


> i actully live like 5 mins away from there i think exacctly the same it is a bit expencive but overall good may i ask what reptiles you have :2thumb:


Tis a bit expensive, particularly when compared to breeders/ online shops BUT in comparison to other shops, not too different and quality/choice were better than other shops 

All my animals are in the drop down boxes in my siggy  (I think *runs off to check it's up to date*)


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## DeathByDrum (Mar 4, 2012)

To be honest, I can't say I've been that impressed with this place. First off I was unfortunate enough to buy some of their bogwood which was mite infested. Secondly, while some of their staff (spider guy comes to mind) are quite friendly, some of them are far from it. While admiring the Royal Pythons they had in there, one of the staff went out of her way to say they were "horrible things" and then stomped off when myself and my partner commented saying that we owned several of them.

I also commented on the price of their spiderlings, mentioning that £30 for a mexican red knee was a bit more than I'd pay when I could get one for about £4 from a breeder - to which I was told "no breeder would ever sell a spiderling for less than £15....

In addition, compared to some reptile shops I've been to, their vivs don't look like they get cleaned out as often as they should do either. But in all fairness, Aquator specialised in tropical fish and marine fish for years and it's only in the last few years they've brought in reptiles and inverts so I'm guessing some of the long standing staff there don't really know what they're talking about.


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