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    Ocean Aquarium

    4.6 (309 reviews)
    Closed 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
    Updated 2 months ago

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    Paola T.

    All I can say is the owner is legit knowledgeable on fresh water aquarium . Amazing fish, shrimp and snail options. You will also go home with the right tools to adapt your fish to your own aquarium! Superb!

    Chris P.

    I drove all the way from Sacramento to Ocean Aquarium in San Francisco specifically to purchase live freshwater fish. I arrived at 5:50 PM, fully ready to spend a few hundred dollars, only to be told they were closed -- even though their posted hours say they close at 6:00 PM. The staff made no effort to assist me or even acknowledge the fact that I had traveled a long distance and came prepared to make a serious purchase. Instead, I was turned away right at the door. This was my first time here, and unfortunately, it will be my last. I support small businesses when they value their customers -- but this was just flat-out poor service. If you're serious about buying quality fish and being treated with respect, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

    my newest fish, soooo cute

    After years I got my second fish, I love my fish. The owners are still super nice and knowledgeable as always. Come here for fishy :)

    Available fish food and supplies here !

    Great and beautiful selection of assorted aqua life ! The owners were very knowledgeable and helpful in every way! Very sweet owners . I'm new to the aquarium lifestyle so they were very patient with me as well. Will always be coming back for any equipment or fish in the future

    Connie N.

    This place is such a unique place to visit, whether you are interested in fish or not. It's a mom and pop shop run by these 2 wholesome and kind individuals who've ran this place for almost 40 years. This place has so much history and character behind it, from the art pieces on the walls, to photos of the family themselves. My brother has been here multiple times and praises the place every occasion he gets. It was my first time going so I wanted to see what this place was about. The entrance is located along an alleyway and a fairly small location, but once you enter the store, you are surrounded by multiple fish tanks every turn. They've even gotten creative with a few tanks used for some of their fishes (e.g. the iMac monitor). This is the owner's hobby and it's so wholesome to see how much you can accomplish when you love something so much. So happy for these people and wish them all the best

    This is a long-standing, reputable family business, so they know what they're doing (which they should; they've been doing this for a long time). They have many, many tanks, mostly small and filled with little brilliant gems of fishies, and a good amount of supplies. I have bought fish and supplies, and acquired useful aquarium advice, from Jason since before he was at this location. Ask them questions! Parking can be a bit of a challenge (I usually ride my bike), but stopping in is worth it if you love keeping fish--or even just looking at them!

    mario l.

    Been wanting to visit for over 2 years, a lot of good things heard and I was not disappointed at all! Both owners were amazing and were both super excited to show me their options. Although I am not new to the hobby they gave me some really useful tips on acclimating, feeding, and answered a question I had asked many places. You can tell they are proud of what they have going and that is amazing, prices for being in the city are not bad at all. Their selection is amazing but came here for their goldfish. Left with a broadtail Ryukin. I will def come back even though I do not live near by !

    Visiting Justin and Ady Hau at Ocean Aquarium, San Francisco. We had a great lesson in water treatment and natural aquarium set up
    Patrick H.

    A great learning opportunity, no hard sell! Justin Hau is all about a naturalistic tank set up before adding fish and plants.

    Toby N.

    Took the drive 2 hours away to Ocean Aquarium off Cedar St. San Francisco Glad I got a chance to visit this old school Aquarium owned by Justin/Ady ----friendly old couple It is true all their tanks are planted with lush green plants & dirted/gravel substrates. They specialize in smaller schooling fishes, no aggressive fishes. Although they are very friendly, they must charge Premium prices to keep this store running. I bought 2 really small puffers $45 each, 1pair of electric ram @ $35, water crest, java fern Total $180 Cash...Very Pricey to me compared to any other bigger Aquariums. Justin is or sounded very knowledgeable with water parameters & tips with fish/plants. The main parameter per Justin is the correct PH of 7.0 for healthy fishes not nitrate/nitrite. I will take his advice & monitor the health of the fishes I bought. Overall, a nice visit to experience his long standing business.

    Chili Rasboras
    Amber R.

    My first visit to this shop and I'm so glad I made the trip! The owners are very sweet and helpful. I can tell they really love their fish and want them all to thrive once they get to their new homes. When I bought my Chili Rasboras I was given a lot of tips on how to properly introduce them to my tank as well as a homemade drip cup for acclimating the fish to the ph. I regret not getting some shrimp from them as they had the cutest home-bred crystals that were referred to as "their babies". I also think its so awesome that all their tanks have an established eco-system with how many beautiful, healthy plants thrive in them. Seeing all those plants and the variety of hardscape they carry makes me want another tank to scape! After several days my Chilis are doing great and got their color back within an hour of getting them into their new home! So happy to have found you guys! Thank you!

    Beautiful!

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    Best selection of healthy fish in San Francisco! They will set up a beautiful tank for you per your specs!

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    Page 1 of 8

    Ask the Community - Ocean Aquarium

    Number posted and on there card does not work anyone have a legit number? 3206 no good

    I just called this number today (04/06/2024) and spoke with the owner's wife and the number worked fine!

    Should i use a mirror for my betta in order for it to exercise and flare?

    Yes! They love those.

    Does this place sell goldfish?

    They have gold fish and koi.

    View All 7 Questions

    Review Highlights - Ocean Aquarium

    ner. I'm so thankful to have an honest and kind neighborhood fish store, and so grateful for Justin and

    Mentioned in 116 reviews

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    Aqua Forest Aquarium

    Aqua Forest Aquarium

    (283 reviews)

    Lower Pacific Heights, Japantown

    The most beautiful aquascaped tanks in SF, hands down. I visit weekly just to check out their stock…read morebecause it's consistently high-quality. Unlike other shops where you might worry about bringing home pests or disease, everything here is top-tier. Also, special thanks to Max for the great service. While some might find the staff a bit intense or reserved, I find it's just because they're focused on the animals. Once you're a regular, you realize how much heart goes into this place.

    I had a really disappointing experience at Aqua Forest Aquatics…read more The tanks are undeniably beautiful and very clean--but that doesn't excuse the attitude of the manager (the guy with glasses). I tried to compliment the store when I came in and was completely brushed off. I figured maybe he was having a bad day, so I let it go. When I later asked a few questions about CO equipment, his attitude became dismissive, annoyed, and condescending. It genuinely felt like I was inconveniencing him by asking questions. What makes this worse is that I had already researched several items and was prepared to spend well over $1,000. Instead, I walked out immediately because of how I was spoken to. This may be a great place to look at tanks, but the customer experience was one of the worst I've had at any aquatics store. Knowledgeable staff is important--but basic respect matters more. I won't be returning, and I'd recommend others avoid this place unless they're okay with being talked down to.

    6th Ave Aquarium - Crab

    6th Ave Aquarium

    (578 reviews)

    Inner Richmond

    Going to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco you end up seeing the different flowers and plants at…read morethe Conservatory of Flowers and feel like you would like to take some home. The Rose Garden at Golden Gate Park is an inspiration to have some roses planted somewhere in or outside the house. Then going to the California Academy of Sciences Aquarium you wish you could have some fish as a pet and not for sushi. There are few places in San Francisco where inside of the store feels like you entered a garden and aquarium.In the crowded streets of Clement between Cafe Bunn Mi and the Bitter End bar there is a place which feels like you stepped inside nature in the great outdoors and also by the water. This place is the place to create your own flower conservatory and your aquarium at home and it's called the 6th Avenue Aquarium. On a Spring stroll on Clement street walking past the soon to be opened Rose Pizzeria and past the recently gluten free pasta restaurant Clementia I landed at 6th Avenue Aquarium between 6th and 7th Avenue. Inside it feels like a place you can create your garden, sanctuary and spa. You will see plants outside and inside. You will also see lots of flowers of all kinds. The aquarium has lots of tanks with fish inside. You will also see cherry shrimps and crabs. You also will see amphibians like the ones you see all over in SF. This a good place to start that garden and aquarium. Go on a Spring stroll on Clement street to the 6th Ave Aquarium inside is a pleasant "surprise "see fish of all types and "size" in the tank you will see the fish float their tails and see the fishes "eyes" and they sell the fishes as pets along with fish "supplies" Without nature I "can't " live without having more than one "plant" because it gives life a positive vibe which does "enchant" like a painting with tulips by "Rembrandt"

    1 Star This place is straight up trash. Bought fish here and…read moreevery single one died within 48 hours. They sold me garbage fish that were already on their way out. I got my money back at first, but these greedy fucks actually fought the chargeback and got my bank to take the money back. They literally stole my money after selling me dying fish. 6th Avenue Aquarium is a complete scam. They don't give a single fuck about the fish or their customers. Save your money and stay the hell away from this dumpster fire of a store.

    Ocean Treasures Servicing - Monster aquarium at 12.5' x 36" x 32". Custom Glass reeftank with everything you can think of including automatic water changes.

    Ocean Treasures Servicing

    (47 reviews)

    Bayview-Hunters Point

    Daniel and his team brought together my dream for the past 26 years. He recommended and set up the…read moretank, supplies and livestock for the initial appointment . A while later and I have my Seahorse tank I wanted since I was 2. I couldn't be happier. Daniel and his team are knowledgeable and passionate, I would trust them with any questions or concerns I have. Thank you Ocean Treasures!

    STOP, DON'T waste time looking for other aquarium services. You found the BEST one, I promise…read more Since this review will be long, thought I would emphasize on the point of my review from the beginning... instead of making you read through everything. Many businesses will help you buy a new tank... but have you ever tried to get rid of one? Not just any old fish tank but a giant one, where you could probably teach your kid to swim in it... We are talking about 400-gallon fish tank that was built way too DIY, extremely heavy, filled with livestock, ton of sand and rocks. If you are not into fish, this is easily 4,000 lbs... with many surprise attacks from the DIY "Offense Team". You really want someone who knows what they are doing... unless you want a mini flood of saltwater in your living room.. I contacted MANY businesses including junk removal but wasn't satisfied due to poor communications, lack of planning/professionalism. Thankfully, I read about Ocean Treasures Servicing on social media and did my research/stalking via FB, IG, and... reef forums and found only great things. The owner himself, Daniel, came down all the way from SF for a in person consultation then emailed me a meticulous thought-out plan on step by step of removing the giant tank. The Game Day - Daniel came with 3 team members + 1 cargo van + 1 U-Haul (this thing was huge..) Everyone from the team treated the house like their own, laid out floor protectant all over, swept every bit of sand before attempting to move any heavy items (a little sand that gets dragged can make quiet an impression on your floor), safely caught all the living creatures (all alive :D), and finished the job as if they literally CTRL+X the whole thing out of the house. Ocean Treasures Servicing is simply AMAZING. You would think after all the trouble of getting rid of a tank, I would be done... but NOPE! Since I found the best team I can trust, I am in the process of building a replacement one that is professional made by Daniel and his team...... No more DIY, unleveled, loud sounds, and random cuts from DIY stuff.... Don't Do it yourself, it's not worth it.. Trust Daniel and Ocean Treasures Servicing and just enjoy the hobby.

    Lau's H2O Habitats - Maintaining 125gls saltwater system

    Lau's H2O Habitats

    (14 reviews)

    Outer Richmond

    I contacted Cesar for a "custom" set up including base stand, basking condo, and filtration system…read morefor a 5-year-old red eared slider turtle. I could have saved a lot of money (and time after the results) if I had purchased everything myself with tips from turtle forum sites and YouTube DIY videos, but I was willing to pay for a "professional" to have peace of mind and support a local small business. While Cesar was nice and knowledgeable about general tanks and filtration systems, the outcome of what we received shows that he is not an expert on what turtles fully need- he's more a filtration and fish expert as shown mostly on his website and Yelp photos. The setup we received was not adequate and required extra money (over 2k) to fix cosmetically and functionally for us to have good access from the basking condo to the tank. Let's start with the pricing issue. I had called Cesar to get some ballpark figures which he had provided with a guess. But when the final quote came ... it was around 1k higher than the ballpark pricing (a big difference!). Knowing the new higher prices, I still contracted him to help me since I wanted an expertly set up and permanent home for our 5-year-old red eared slider. Cesar presented himself as a knowledgeable trustworthy professional. The base stand was the first to arrive (about a month after deposit was paid). Please note that we never told Cesar to do a rush job as we were more focused on moving into a new home at that time. The base stand was about 40% of the total cost. He provided photos of the stand prior to delivery, and I approved it by looks only. When the stand arrived, it did look like the picture, but it seemed very basically put together despite Cesar's claim that the manufacturer said it was polycoated to help with waterproofing. I knew it wasn't stained since I didn't want to change the color. At that time, we had a contractor on site at our new home for remodeling who looked at the stand and confirmed that this was an incomplete unfinished product, with the front portion being anything of quality and purely cosmetic. Upon arrival, the stand had doors that did not open properly. The magnetic closures for the doors were cheap and crooked. The top and back was just plywood. The back and inside had many splinters and open drill holes. The overall wood was not smooth to touch and did not seem it was coated enough to be considered waterproof. Please see provided photos and note that the photo Cesar posted himself on Yelp on Sep 24, 2021, is NOT an accurate depiction of the quality he provided us. The blue stand pictured in his photos was AFTER our contractor spent 3 whole days having to sand down the door and paint it blue. Had I known the door would have been that big of an issue, I should have let the manufacturer fix it prior. But overall quality of the stand would probably have remained the same. The door would have been just rotated to match the grain, which would have caused less work for our contractor, so that part was my fault. During our initial complaint (before we put our own contractor to work), Cesar said his manufacturer was willing to fix it but at that point we didn't trust them to do so since there were many issues we had complaints about. To add fuel to our fire, Cesar initially claimed that he did not use his regular guy for the job (why did we get a 2nd tiered manufacturer when we paid the same rates as others) and later said this guy also does stands for him all the time. Then why did ours come so incomplete compared to what he shows online? After our initial complaint, Cesar did help us discount us a few hundred dollars but ultimately it wasn't enough to justify the amount of money spent after our contractor worked for days to make it right. However, we tried to be a good sport and continued to entrust Cesar to complete the rest of the contracted turtle filtration system and basking condo set up. When the condo arrived and filtration was set up, we were so excited to be able to transfer our red eared slider into his new larger home. The condo itself is good quality in materials but was not a custom structure. At first, we did not notice any issue with the condo but contacted Cesar after a few days. The ramp length was a bit short, and our heavier, older red eared slider turtle had a lot of trouble pulling his weight up to get on top to bask. This will only get worse as time passes and he grows larger, and turtles should bask comfortable daily for their shell health. The other issue was that we could not get our arms into the tank to move anything around which presents a HUGE ISSUE FOR SAFETY. It is also not easily able to be lifted off during emergencies. If you research custom turtle basking condos in forums, you will find that the ones that sit on top of the tank are mostly 50% in length so that you can still place your arm inside the tank to clean/move things around or perhaps save your turtle if stuck. Or the ones that have a full 100%

    Cesar and Jarrod are amazing. We have three (3) different tanks that they set up and service for…read moreus. A community tank 30 gallons, a cichlid tank 160 gallons, and finally my Flower Horn who lives in a 75 gallon tank. What started as a hobby has become so much more. My husband and I have learned a lot and recently our cichlid tank just had some fry!!! How amazing and how they are all thriving. Cesar over communicates and has been fair and upfront from the start. Honest, direct, and kind as he has a lot of wisdom when it comes to the fish world. We are very thankful for his service and time and looking forward to the future. Thanks Cesar!

    Aqua Lab Aquaria - After cleaning

    Aqua Lab Aquaria

    (162 reviews)

    Willow Glen

    Update 3/12/2026: I…read morerecently bought a house in San Jose that came with a pond. Unfortunately the previous owner had passed away and left no instructions, so I had absolutely no idea where to start. I've never had a pond before and knew nothing about how to maintain one. I remember having a great experience with Aqua lab back in 2016 so I called them back up and Kent was incredibly helpful from the start. He took the time to walk me through everything and explain how the system works without ever making me feel dumb for asking very basic questions. We decided to do a one-time deep cleaning to restore the pond. Before the scheduled cleaning, Kent stopped by to check out the system and figure out what actually needed to be done. He ended up fixing a broken part, doing a full deep clean of the pond and the filter/skimmer, and adding beneficial water additives. Since I live about 3 hours away, he kept me updated throughout the process with photos and messages, which I really appreciated. He even left me some pond tools to use and offered to come back another time, at no extra charge, when I'm at the house so he can walk me through the system in person and show me how to do the regular monthly maintenance myself (or help with that if I decide I'd rather have him handle it). His pricing was very fair and actually came in lower than other local shops I contacted. Overall just a really great experience. I've attached before and after photos of the pond. Highly recommend Aqua Lab and working with Kent. What a great guy!

    Aqua Lab Aquaria is great store that sells brands like ada and other stuff you will not find at…read moreother stores. Prices are on higher end but the price is fair. Planted tanks start up cost can very costly. Rimless tank, aquasoil. Good duel stage co2 regulator, anf There are equipment that they have that isn't found in big chain store. You're paying quality stuff. I been in fish hobby for 10+ years with African Cichlids, Rare Turtles, and koi ponds, but never tried high tech planted aquarium. High tech Aquarium was quite of challenge for me and aqua lab aquaria guided me to finally built my ideal setup. I no longer have room in my aquarium for plants but this is my favorite store for planted stuff. Another bonus is that they are only store to sell co2.

    Ocean Aquarium - aquariumservices - Updated May 2026

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