Took a visit to BAS today remembering it for what it used to be as a reliable seller of fish. In recent years its took a turn for the worst and slowly gone down hill. The last time i visited every fish i bought died in a few weeks of purchase and to top it off had spread white spot to all of my fish my visit today was on the grounds it has since been took over by new owners so i was hoping that it would be a bit better. Upon arrival i could tell the store was still in a bad state with the lighting on the signs being held up only by the wire of the bulb, Upon entry of the store a strong smell of urine hits you this sets all the alarm bells riging. Looking round the store wasnt particularly pleasant with old and new stock stewn every where also reasonably priced i would not buy any of it. Walking round the corner i noticed one large tank with marine fish in and unfortunately this tank didnt look at its best with alge all over the glass and ornaments this made me wonder what the fish dept was like. Walking round there were as mentioned in above reviews some dirty tanks that were filled with stagnent water probably the reason for such a bad smell as you walk in. It would also appear that they have completely disbanded the sale of live reptiles and small animals as they now only appear to sell the tanks and cages for them unless i missed a room in which they were kept in i hope not as if the store is in a sorry state the reptiles and small animals would have sure been but i never noticed any while walking round. After a good look round we decided to have a look at the fish quality and assess if we should purchase any and this is what supprised me the most. Walking into the fish area it still looks the same but while walking round i did not spot one dirty or infected tank and all the fish i saw looked healthly with no diseased or dead among the tank communities. Still seems a bit of a shame that no substrates are used but i did notice in the turtles and terrapin tanks they have logs rocks for them to climb on and also in the amphibians tanks they also have a few logs and pipes for the animals to hide in. They had two staff members in the fish room both of who seemed relatively experienced in fish keeping. While we were wondering round they were placing the new fish into quarantine. I decided id buy some angel fish as ive recently lost my two large marble ones due to old age and have missed them deeply and they were offering two baby angel fish for £10.95 a pair. Before i purchased them i studied the tank to assess the fish and their welfare and overall they all seemed fine with only one or two having a few nipped fins which is expectable in a tank full of angel fish. I also wished to purchase a pair of black marble angels (this was before buying the others as i would never put 4 in my tank as its too small) but he wouldnt sell them to me as they were still quarantined. So it would appear that dropping the sale of small animals and reptiles has made them focus there attention more on the welfare of the fish and made them drop the any sale goes attitude. The store is still much to be desired and requires a lot of work to bring it up to scratch id say my overall experience of the store is low but im happy that the animal wellfare is finally being accounted for or so i think. Ive only just placed the fish in my tank and will be keeping an eye on them over the next few days to see how they progress. I shall not be visiting BAS or daves aquarium for a long time now as there is still a long long way before i would call it a suitable place to buy fish or any animal for that matter from but its slowly improving. My review also falls on some death ears simply because there were a few areas of the fish department that were closed off for cleaning and you know what they say what goes on behind closed doors i simply dont know. Still i do so hope that the improvement work continues and it isnt just ive caught the store on a good day and that daves aquarium can build its reputation back up to what it once was. read more

Now taken over by Peter Hemingway who (allegedly) has been involved in lots of poor pet shops and (allegedly) been prosecuted and banned on more than one occasion. Living World i Leeds was one of his and that was terrible.Don't bother with a visit. Just read this article from the Yorkshire Evening Post: 29th August 2003 DISGRACED businessman Peter Hemingway the one-time boss of notorious Leeds pet superstore Living World has been hit with a six-year company management ban. The 44-year-old, who lives in Newsam Green Road, Woodlesford, was convicted of animal cruelty in the late 1990s while running Living World in Armley. Now, the Government's Insolvency Service has slapped a six-year ban on the controversial boss, relating to the collapse of the business in October 2000. Living World was placed into liquidation on October 25, 2000, with estimated debts of almost £400,000. An investigation revealed that Mr Hemingway continued to pay himself "excessive remuneration" despite the company's insolvency. In the year to August 31, 1999, payments of £136,778 were made to him, or on his behalf, from the business. Living World's accounts for the following 12 months failed to disclose how much he received in direct payments, but further payments of £58,259 were made on his behalf. Other matters of unfit conduct found against Mr Hemingway, and not disputed by him, included that he continued to trade from June 1999 until the liquidation while knowing the firm was insolvent. During that time the business ran up additional debts of "at least" £147,755 towards the eventual total of £371,541. He also failed to maintain adequate accounts and failed to file annual returns or VAT returns for the business. Penalties Mr Hemingway has now given a voluntary undertaking to not to hold directorships, or to take part in the management of any business, for six years. A spokeswoman for the Insolvency Service told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "The undertaking means he will not be brought before a court but penalties for any breach are dealt with as if a court order had been imposed." If a director breaches a disqualification order he or she can be prosecuted and may be punished by a fine, a prison sentence of up to two years or both and may be made personally liable for the company debts. Mr Hemingway's most recent business venture has been a wholesale pet food and accessories firm called Aqua Line. Speaking from the offices of Aqua Line today, Mr Hemingway's wife Elsa said he was currently in hospital and unable to comment immediately on the ban. Mr Hemingway was forced to give up selling pets when Leeds City Council withdrew his licence following a string of animal cruelty offences. In 1999, he was convicted by magistrates of causing suffering to exotic animals and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £20,000. The case was brought in the wake of an RSPCA raid on Living World. At one stage he flouted the council's ban resulting in a further court appearance for selling pets without a licence. He admitted eight offences and was ordered to pay a total of £1,600 in fines, plus £400 costs. His wife was also found guilty of 14 charges of causing unnecessary suffering to animals under the Protection of Animals Act and was banned from selling or keeping reptiles, birds or fish for 10 years. read more

i dont think reporting, maoning complaining is really going to do anything, if you really care.. why not offer to help out, spend some time cleaning free of charge, if you try to help the owner on daily tasks in your free time im sure youll probly end up with a good discount. i live in blackpool and went to my local shop wanting to buy marines, he refused to sell me them until i had spent time with him in the shop learning about the ins and outs of how to keep them. in that time i found that running one of these shops really is not easy. fish die for no reason, change of habbitat , temperature changes , daylight , salt content, nitrate and nitrite. ive owned koi for 12 years and marines for 6 years and never had a fish die, yes ive had some ill ones but it points to you all not knowing what your doing which is a disapointment with google and youtube at your finger tips - lets take you right now and plonk you in the centre of austraillia with no form of medication whats so ever YOU WILL DIE WITHIN ONE WEEK. all im saying is help them out and you will get better quallity fish, great deals, helpful tips, and most importantly a greater understanding of what your buying and how to look after it (if you dont place a fish tank right with the correct insulation and a perfect bed under it, it will leak, and you need to wait 28 days with saltwater for the tank to mature, dont buy more than 2 fish until your filter and tank has established coldwater warmwater saltwater indoor or outdoor ). i would say that the owner is hard pushed with less than minimal staff to complete the tasks needed to keep everyone happy. OFFER YOUR HELP! i will be visiting bas on he 13th april with my partner for a rare item to which i will aproach the owner and offer my help for a few hours even if they dont stock what i want. SHUT DOWN you should all be shot, you need to report yourself to the rspca for your own actions, you cant buy mulitple fish and expect your tank to take the abuse but yes you can expect coldwater animals to be kept in coldwater tanks. read more

I used to buy my tropical fish there. They either died alone or wiped out my tank so i stopped. I then moved into marine. Repeated outbreaks of velvet quickly put a stop to that also. So for the last 10 years i've just bought dry goods there. It's been up and down as a business since i first visited but its local. We recently decided to buy 2 rabbits so thought we'd give them a go. We apparently bought 2 female rabbits for the kids, that was certainly our intention and the lady checked them over carefully and assured us they were both female. It turns out one was male. My girlfriend went in today to see this Peter Hemingway guy as the lady she spoke too yesterday (the store manager) couldn't help! (Aside of offering us a tenner off a new hutch..) and the big boss was in today. He first told her he wasnt the manager and the other lady was..then claimed he was indeed the manager and what did she want or to quote What do you want!!! (In a rather harsh tone) She said I bought 2 rabbits from here. before she finished her sentence he had told her to Fuck off and slammed the office door shut. Needless to say I won't be shopping there again. We weren't even that bothered, just wanted a contribution to the cost of having the male spaded. So i suppose this is the point i give you all some advice? If you want somewhere local for Rodent\Reptile supplies go to Jollyes or pay the extra at Pets at home. If you want to buy fish make a day of it and head to the abyss in Stockport. If you don't want to travel..buy it online from a reputable store. In short DO NOT SPEND YOUR HARD EARN'T MONEY IN THIS DUMP! read more

Me and my family had a terrible experience dealing with this company. We bought a tank which was on offer for £40, and after a few weeks it started to leak so we returned it, swapped for a better one and paid an extra £15 to get one that they recommended. The new tank is about 2 months old and today we found that it had leaked about a third of the water all over our sons drawers and ruined them, soaking the clothes in every drawer. We went back today with the tank, explained what had happened and were accused of damaging it! I asked for the details of the owner and the woman on the desk lied saying that she was the owner, then ended up admitting she wasn't. She wouldn't give us a full refund, as the 2nd tank receipt after we swapped originally didn't have any item descriptions, and she said that they did a straight swap and we didn't have to pay any extra when we upgraded out tank, and the £15 on the receipt was for something else and I was lying! They don't have a clue about customer service, none of the staff seem to know anything about their products. Every time we have been the staff have been less than helpful, we didn't buy any fish from there after seeing around 7-8 dead fish which hadn't been removed from tanks, we have reported to rspca and council. read more

Have to say, I haven't been to B.a.s for a while and after reading some of these reviews on here I was unsure what to expect to say the least!! It has to be said though that the help I received was second to none, the guy couldn't do enough for myself and a couple of other customers that were requiring help at the same time. All in all he spent a good 10 mins with me and was extremely knowledgeable and friendly, and after purchasing my dry goods, I had a look around the live fish tanks, which last time I was there, ( a good 3 years or so ) were in a terrible state! The shock I got was very pleasurable!!..very very well stocked, not a dead or sick looking fish in sight, and extremely clean and pleasant to walk round. I thoroughly recommend going for a visit as it was a very enjoyable and interesting hour or so I spent there. Negative reviews are extremely helpful and help you to decide whether to visit these shops, but also if a shop turns itself around, positive reviews should be left as well.to demonstrate this. read more

The british aquatics superstore is appalling. Not only are the fish tanks dirty and have murky water but there is a new animal section which is crammed into one room. There are birds, reptiles, rabbits, guinea pigs, meerkats, hedgehogs, hamsters, squirrel, chinchillas and mice. The bird cages are extremely small and stuffed, with no freedom to fly. Some of the tortoises food was moldy, how long ago was it changed?? I own a horsefield tortoise and he gets fresh pellets and water everday, like they are supposed too!! The room smells really bad and is very noisy becasue of all the birds. Most of the animals didnt have water or their water was dirty. The store itself is not exactly clean and the stock is not rotated. I once saw maggets crawling all over pigs ears for dogs!! It is a very upsetting place to visit for animal lovers like myself. I would advise not to buy pets from there, even if you feel sorry for the animal. read more

Went into this shop today to go and get a fish pond and some tropical fish, on going into the entrance there was the most horrendous smell you could imagine, you can to some point understand that what with the animals food and such like all in one placebut my god there is no need for customers to see rat shit and opened packets that you can clearly see rats have been at them, this shop is disgusting to say the least, on approaching the parrot room, well the smell from that too was horrendous, how you expect beautiful and very expensive animals in that condition and to ask ridiculous prices is beyond me.needless to say nothing was bought from this shop nor will i be going back!!!! this shop has been here years and never have i seen it in such a state, and to think they actually have a cafe there too.environment health need to go in and shut the place down and rescue all them animals!!!!! read more

AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST!!!! I bought 2 tropical fish from here a week ago which I added to my tank of already 14 fishes which I have had for over a year. And guess what??!! All of my fishes including the 2 I bought from daves have died!!! I have had a full wipe out!! The 2 I bought from daves had some disease which killed all the fish in my tank!! Very disappointed!! Only get fish from daves if you want your tank cleaning out!! read more

I went to daves aquarium yesterday and omg the place was a state there was stuff everywhere the animals cages were full of crap they needed a major clean out even the bird cages were full of food etc not everyone has water that place should not sell animals and there so over priced I advice anyone not to go there as it heart breaking u wanna take them all home with u cx read more

Called in today, having not visited for a couple of years. The place was a complete state, opened boxes on display, stock strewn all over the place, didn't stay to look at the animals/fish looked like a bomb had hit the place. Numerous trip hazards, the HSE would have a field day and close them down straight away. Shame really as it used to be ok. read more

the most appalling after sales service I have every experienced. I have purchased a tank and cabinet. that came witout any assembly instructions, the holes drilled in the cabinet did not line up. NONE of the 6 light units worked and on calling the shop received abuse from the so called manager Elsa. DONT BUY FROM THIS BUSINESS read more