Swallowaquatics Reviews 

My son took my granddaughter to swallow aquatics to buy two more goldfish to add to our tank. Consequently one had to be returned, when in the tank we noticed it was covered in white spots. We had replacement, since then they have all passed away apart from one, who sadly appears to be on her last legs. It would be appropriate if swallow took more care of their stock and took the time to check for any signs of illness and the welfare of all there animals. Absolutely disgusting that these poor creatures have had to suffer. Certainly will not be purchasing anything else!

Swindling Customers.We usually go here alot for inspiration and always end up purchasing stuff. However today at the east harling store was very dissappoiting and not sure now if we will be returning.We were in the garden section and came across their "sale" stand which had two clay pots and inside them 2 rosemary trees which were going yellow.The whole thing had a special price today of £9.99 each so we thought why not, lets get them as theyre out of season and with a bit of TLC we can make them green again. When we got to the till,the young girl charged us £40 for both! I queried it and said thats not what theyre advertised at.She said its just for the pots.Bit misleading.We took her to the sale stand to show her that the actual plants had no price tag on unlike the others in season on the other side,and therefore its included in the special offer on the label. She still refused and said "no you pay for the pots and the trees separately,probably some customers put them there???"we said well if u pay for the trees separate why arent they with the other trees and why are there no prices on them.She took us to her manager who said the same thing.He then went off with the trees to check the price of them(bit odd considering they charged us at the till £9.99 per tree)and spoke with someone else.He came back and said "well these trees are £19.99 each so we can refund you or take off 20%"..!!!How can that be?They charged us £40 originally and are now saying the trees are £20 each plus two pots at £9.99 each so by rights then,we shouldve been charged £60.Somewhere along the line theyve messed up and just made it worse by trying to kid customers to pay more when they get to the till and not notice.Dont think so somehow.we got a refund as we arent stupid.Anyone going,be careful before you buy stuff.Lots of stuff in there with no price tags on.Wonder why.

Swallow Aquatics Colchester. Wish I'd read Facebook reviews before going at weekend.

Steer clear. 3 out of 8 fish dead in 4 days and no helpful solution offered.

Awful service by people who should not be involved in livestock sales

I bought some 3 spotted gourami at the weekend and 8 swordtail for a community tank.

I asked staff about compatibility. They said they'd be fine. There was also a sign in the row of tanks confirming this.

However, I should have know the staff were not qualified to know this as the first person I spoke to could not answer questions I had about clown and tiger barbs as the tanks appeared mis-labellled.

She said she didn't know what species of fish was which, so went and got a colleague. Fair enough. Only he didn't know either.

Nor could either of them tell me which were females or males. Pretty obvious in most species but sometimes hard to distinguish females of different species but they could do neither.

I explained a number of tanks contained different species to what was labelled but they didn't seem bothered.

Supposedly the best aquatics shop staffed with experts. Not on Saturday it wasn't.

So I called this morning. Explaining the problem. Was told they won't replace the dead swordtails but will refund the gourami if I take it back. Pretty poor compared to other aquatic shops

As I'm at work all week and away at the weekend I said that wasn't possible. I was effectively told that's my problem. That the compatability is only a probability, which I accept as you can always get a rogue fish and that the experience of the staff and the bad advice was not relevant!

I asked the guy on the phone if he could get the managerto call me. He said he was the livestock manager and asst manager so, missing my point, said he was the person I should be talking to.

I will be taking this further.

I had SA recommended to me and I’m so thankful I chose to shop with them. Purchased the Lemax German shoppe and it arrived in perfect condition and fast-tracked in time for Christmas (despite me ordering late on the 23rd.) Will definitely be ordering from them in the future, they also offer the best prices around, very happy customer. Thanks!

Ordered a Lemax adapter it was cheaper than else where and turned up with 2 days.
I can’t fault their service.
Thanks

This store is awful. The pets are crammed in cages (rabbits/birds) and their ‘homes’ smell very bad.
One of the rabbits had been sectioned of from the others and it had absolutely no room to move.
I encourage you to boycott the shop and report the owners to the RSPCA.

I have purchased many fish from Swallow Aquatics Colchester however my recent experience was absolutely shocking. I purchased 4x saltwater fish and the salinity of the water was 1.014 which is shockingly low. The staff told me the salinity was kept at 1.020 (for parasite control) and so this is what I set my quarantine tank to. I measured the water in the bag and it was at 1.014, not 1.020. When my fish died due to shock, i was refused a replacement until I brought a water sample in. When I brought the sample in, I also brought my salinity meter and i demonstrated how low the salinity was in the tank my fish came from compared to all of the other tanks in the shop (all other tank readings were as they described). It is impossible to safely acclimate a fish at a salinity of 1.014. The Manager and staff refused to accept the salinity was wrong on that particular tank, even though I demonstrated it with my expensive Hanna digital meter recently calibrated and compared the tank my fish came out of to all the other tanks in the shop. Regardless of my demonstration, I was still told I was wrong and that the fish could it died from anything. I was also told that the salinity needs to be measured in the filtration system around the back in order to be accurate.....what!!?? My water was tested with no issues by the staff.....my fish died from salinity shock, no doubt about it. EXTREMELY defensive and rude manager ("IVE WORKED IN THIS SHOP FOR 25 YEARS" blah blah) and terrible treatment of a customer. AVOID and don't trust the shops salinity advice! They say they test reguarly and keep records....but they somehow allowed one system to drop to 1.014. I was extremely concerned for the animals welfare. The average marine fish keeper doesn't have a quarantine tank, how on earth are they meant to acclimate a fish from 1.014 salinity to 1.024. I will never shop there again

Unfortunately there comes a time when you need to leave a negative review about a company and Swallow Aquatics certainly deserves this review. It started when we went to buy a tank, stand and accessories for a new Axolotl, we were sold unneeded items like a HEATER and stone substrate which we assumed were needed at the time but we later found from reputable Axolotl breeders would have killed it. When we got home and built the stand we found this was mis-sold and an entirely different (and much thinner mdf based) stand was provided for the same cost as the one shown in store, when queried we were told it was the “new design”. Approx 28 days passed and we had everything set up nicely (albeit on the mis-sold mdf stand) when the NEW tank we bought started leaking, again we called and were told by a young guy who worked there to purchase another tank and bring the existing one back for a refund or similar. We put another tank on credit card and took the first one back, since then we have had nothing but trouble with Swallow Aquatics saying there is no leak and refusing to refund or assist us in rectifying the issue, if the tank was NOT leaking then we wouldn’t have gone to the expense of another tank, risked our Axolotl and the tank cycle etc and bought a fully working tank back to the store, why would anyone do that! The manager, Bob, persisted in trying to shift the blame to “condensation” or us “spilling” water, I can guarantee this was not the case and there was a clear leak, I only wish now that I had taken pictures. His final word on the matter was “I just work here mate”, well yes, you do but you are also the MANAGER and therefore the customer should always come first… I am disgusted by the lack of knowledge of livestock sold, lack of service and the attitude of staff in this store. I have shopped with Swallow Aquatics for many years, first at their Rayleigh store and then at this store in Mill Race Garden Centre however after this series of events and continued denial of any help I will NEVER be returning, I would STRONGLY advise everyone reading this to avoid and try another aquatics store.

Awful place to visit, staff very very unhelpful that’s if you can interact or find one, customer service horrendous won’t be returning the I couldn’t care less attitude of staff is not for me, which is a shame as we were prepared to spend quite a bit luckily we found an alternative and they couldn’t have been more helpful.

I had an issue with beard algae in my guppy tank in which I was breeding a new and very pretty type and now thanks to the "advice" from a staff member at the Rayleigh branch of Swallow aquatics telling me to dose it up with liquid co2 I have only 4 female fish left (and only1 of my new breed) as they have suffocated. I've always had issues with their "bad" advice but this has cost me years of breeding. Not happy.

The Swallows Aquatics at East Harling really needs to improve its animal husbandry. This review wasn’t a result of one bad visit to the shop but many visit to the shop before and during lockdown. If the shops wants to continue selling marine life including fish, corals and invertebrates I would strongly advise that during lockdown they take this opportunity to completely quarantine all their aquatic livestock. I am saying this as many of the fish I have observed in the shop over the last couple of years are covered in parasites. Please consider purchasing corals elsewhere, they may seem very good value for money but typically do not survive very long and are often covered in tank destroying parasites which are impossible to eradicate once they have entered your tank. DO NOT BUY THE SALTWATER FROM THIS SHOP. The ready mixed saltwater they sell is really terrible. The quality of marine salt they use is questionable but the salinity is never correct, the RO water is terrible and completely unacceptable for the amount of total dissolved solids contained with in it, the RO water they use to make their salt water is harmful to most marine life with the amount of total dissolved minerals in it.
If they are using this water in store to do their own water changes then I am not surprised most of the fish purchased from here don’t survive after purchase.

Some of the Staff members attitude are very appalling, not only are some of the staff members extremely rude to customers but the same two staff members are very abusive and extremely argumentative with other members of staff in the absence of any older or more senior staff members. It should be mention that I have witnessed on multiple occasions the same staff members with very poor attitudes actively miss inform customers on purchases, if this continues you are going to start losing business.

The small mammals you sell in store are riddled with issues. Mainly the rabbits and guinea pigs you sell. I have given you benefit of the doubt not once but three times now. I have also bought both rabbits and guinea pigs for my nieces from this pet shop twice now and both times they are covered in fleas and have respiratory issues. The second time round purchasing pets for my nieces I was horrified at the staff member attitude towards the rabbits and guinea pigs was purchasing was void of any empathy and extremely rude unlike the very knowledgeable young women with frizzy hair help me previously.

The outside petting zoo is a disgrace the animals have not only got very poor shelter and are up to their knees in mud. This is not a case of circumstances that have left these animals in these conditions and their is a lot that could be done to improve their conditions and welfare that wouldn’t cost a lot other than the staff making more effort.

This Store has a very bad habit and on multiple occasions selling products like canister filters but then fails to keep the media sets for those filters stocked. I also have stopped purchasing fish tanks as on multiple occasions they have been delivered smashed, scratched or not even water tight.

I have been to the East Harling store a few times and although I enjoy visiting the shop and find their selection of marine fish very good, the prices seem a little high compared to others' in the area, this isn't just for livestock but also equipment. It seems that most thing they sell with have a 5-10% markup over others in the Norfolk area though you can still snag some great bargains if your lucky (got a large bucket of reef salt for £20 RRP £60).
The animals seem well kept and the kids enjoy seeing all the parrots and other live stock they keep.

In the fish area, just standing there and looking around all you see is a cobbled together, Heath Robinson outfit. Dirty overgrown tanks particularly for the rays, wires and pipes everywhere. Half the display lights not on or broken. Tanks not labelled correctly with fish stock.

Just looks like there isn't any effort to have a tidy presentable fish stock area. Low cost effort required to turn this around but never seems to happen.

Wash the plastic ceiling now and again for gods sake, it's grim!

Worst of all I checked the water parameters of the water in the fish bag and they are miles out of whack because 2 days later the whole tank stock showed signs of white spot. Brilliant job!

No problem with the aquatics.....but the animal feeding area was a disgrace. A sea of ankle deep mud...poor shelters. Terrible to see such animals in these conditions. this must be stopped

Visited the East Harling store over the weekend. It has a great array of dry goods for aquatics and other pets. But my visit was to hopefully purchase some coral. It was very disappointing that the corals on display were in varying stages of health but there was also and abundance of nasties in the tanks. I always dip my corals but dipping does not remove the eggs of unwanted pests and buying from here would’ve been a huge risk. I hadn’t been her for several years but it has gone downhill and I won’t be rushing back

Bought our first marine tank a year ago from Swallows in Rayleigh and we are now in the process of ordering a custom built one from them. These guys have made a new and exciting, albeit scary on times (!), hobby into something special. Nothing is too much trouble for any of these guys, even if just to answer questions. Their prices are very competitive and its an ease to park there. Neil the store manager, Roz, Alan and Martin in the marine section, Chris, Darryl you all make a visit to Swallows an absolute pleasure. Thank you.

I ordered a Fluval Edge fish tank via express delivery (only £2) - at 7pm the other evening - I e-mailed their customer services to find out exactly when I would receive it, I was a bit panicked as it was purchased to replace a cracked tank (I told them why I'd ordered it) - Upon receiving my e-mail, they send out a driver from our most local store (still pretty far!) to ensure that I could replace my cracked tank, the following day - they even gave me a 1hr time slot! No company has ever been this thoughtful in their service towards me, and I truly appreciated it. It shows that they really care about not only their customers, but also about the fishies =) I will recommend this company highly to everyone!!!