House of Tropicals

This store came highly recommended, but… Visited on a late Saturday afternoon. Don’t wear a heavy coat, very hot and humid! The place was extremely busy. Seems like the place to go if you can’t afford the Baltimore Aquarium. Selection of saltwater fish, plants and chiclids was outstanding, knowledgeable staff. Many tanks and accessories available. I was stocking my 55 gal tank, had cycled the tank for 3 months and already had a few fish from petsmart thriving. I spent over $ 150 on various small freshwater fish here. Could have found most of the same at a local chain. Over priced for most, even those on sale. I wasn’t happy about the 48 hour warranty for fresh (24 hour for saltwater), I wasn’t driving for an hour for a couple of fish for a replacement or refund. Staff was very helpful, probably because I had my adorable 18 year old daughter with me… I got 2 or 4 of each type. The two dalmatian mollies I discovered when I got them home where I had bright light, their fins were clamped and already had ick. Bummer, down the toilet… Next morning, lost three more. Checked tank levels, everything was perfect, not my water! One set of 4 that the young man said would develop better colors when in their own tank (he showed us the display tank), all dead, and actually I only received three, the fourth was another fish altogether… That other fish just died yesterday. Out of 36 fish, 11 have died. I expect two others ($ 7 each) will most likely perish by this weekend (1 week). I think I would be very angry if my investment in my fish, say a $ 40 fish, had been greater and it died. Buyer be aware! All my fish from petsmart and petco are still thriving, I also have two other 10 gal tanks. I wont be recommending or going back to this establishment, ever.

My first visit, and I came here fully prepared to be treated like poop based on other reviews. Maybe it was the time of day (a Thursday afternoon around 4), but I didn’t encounter not ONE rude employee. In fact, every single employee who walked past asked if I needed assistance. Everyone was knowledgeable and extremely helpful.
That being said, this place would get 5 stars based on their selection alone. It is UNBELIEVABLE how much is in this store. I had just as much (if not more) fun browsing the different tanks here than I have at the Baltimore Aquarium.
My new go-​to store for my aquarium needs.

The staff are very helpful. They certainly earned their pay when they helped me find the right Reptisun product. Great selection, cute fish, and reasonable prices on feeders.
The only negative thing I have to say about my experience with House of Tropicals is that it was hard to find via Google Maps.

The employees are extremely rude and degrading. Even if you know more about the fish then they do. The customer is always wrong in their eyes.

Been here about a dozen time. I’ve probably dropped about $ 500 on fish here in the past year or so. Prices are a little high. I get most frustrated by the limited «warranty» (I hate to use that word) on fish. I have had several $ 20 fish die two or three days after buying them with no recourse for me.
The variety cannot be matched. I haven’t seen a place with better selection that this place.
Some of the staff there are excellent, but there are others there that are just there for a paycheck and who have lied to me. I research all my fish before purchasing them, but one day my phone had died and I told the employee that I was looking for small plecos, something that doesn’t get much bigger than 6″. He then sells me a Rhino and then I find out after I get home that it gets to be twice that.

Fabulous store!!! I didn’t have time to fully explore it, but I loved everything about it. There is a huge selection of words, rocks, traditional decorations, aquarium plants, tank supplies, fish — both marine and freshwater, and lots of marine life and supplies. The staff was extremely helpful, knowledgeable, and the prices are excellent — especially, on the rocks.
Visited on 7 February 2015
I noticed as I was leaving the parking lot (plenty of parking in the shopping center), that the shopping center was across the street from light rail-​not sure the station. Just FYI. :)

This store is ok, it’s where I will be going for fish, tanks, etc. from now on. They have a wide selection of products and fish. I feel like the tanks there are a bit underpriced actually, probably due to the fact that I shop at petco most of the time. My issue, customer service. I looked around for a long while, and then decided on buying two fire eels, the staff was horrible. I said excuse me, he said what. Finally a man came to help. He actually gave us information on what we wanted. Even know the staff isn’t too great, the prices are great. I wouldn’t mind coming back.

I take back everything I said. A week later, all my fish have ich. Pretty sure I know where it came from! If you want your fish to not get sick and die, buy them from somewhere else.

The store has the largest variety of fish that I’ve ever seen in a store, but I’ll be honest, this was my wife’s and I’s first time searching to get a new fish tank. We found their staff to be courteous and knowledgable. Some of their prices on tanks were higher than we expected, but their prices on fish were very reasonable. If you’ve never owned fish before I highly recommend them because they were really able to educate me since I and my wife are novices.

From my visits, I haven’t experienced rude service. I saw them helping people and also conducting maintenance and feeding for all the animals. When I needed help it was painless and they had answers ready for some questions. It’s certainly the best venue for your aquatic needs compared to the other local options.

Although their selection is amazing, their staff ruins it completely, they are rude and act like they know everything.

I visited House of Tropicals today and received excellent customer service from a gentleman who was very friendly and knowledgeable! I didn’t even have to ask anyone for help, I was approached and given lots of tips about my two sick bettas at home.
If you’re a betta lover like me, they have crowntail, super delta, veil tail, and female assorted bettas. You can easily spend a ton of time here because they have a lot of stock and a huge selection of gravel and ornaments. They also have Pure Water Pebbles substrate in different colors which is awesome as well as a lot of hideaway ornaments. I wish I came here before buying a lot of my stuff online. This store is huge with lots of variety. A great stop for aquarists!

Love this place. Wish I’d found it sooner. Knowledge and friendly staff. Have patience they are busy.

As most people had said, and I very much agree the selection of fish is worth the ride down. Don’t expect help, or at least pleasant help. I did my research before I went and called to make sure they had the fish I wanted in stock. Still had to wait over 15min for someone to help get the fish for me, but they were healthy and seem to acclimate to my tank quickly. So if you know what to expect going there, its not too bad.

I’d love to give this place 4 stars but I can’t simply because of the consistent bad customer service, which seems to be a result of the management.
The breaking point was from a specific experience. I have purchased feeder fish numerous times but one time I purchased some and they all died. When I contacted House of Tropics the workers seemed terrified to help for fear of getting into trouble and said I had to speak to the manager, Mike. When I was finally able to get a hold of Mike I can see why they didn’t want to deal with him. He was extremely rude, condescending, unprofessional and accusatory with dealing with me. After arguing with me (I guess the customer isn’t always right here) I told him just to forget it and I was about to hang up and be done with the place then he said he’d replace the feeders after all of the hassle. I was told to come in the next day and see him. I got there and after about 15 – 20 minutes of the staff paging him and «going to look for him» it was discovered he wasn’t there. I told the staff my story and everyone was scared to assist without «talking to Mike» with something as simple as feeder fish. After about another 10 minutes he was reached on the phone and my story was verified. The person, that I assume was the manger on duty, brought me the replacement fish (which was less than the hundred I initially purchased) and questioned me more about the authenticity of my story and spoke to me as though I were lying. At this point it wasn’t worth the effort and I took the fish and left.
I rarely come back to this place any more. It is worth paying more and going elsewhere. I receive much better customer service at places like Petco and PetSmart.

Rude staff. Small animals are kept in a horribly ventilated room in over crowded cages with staff that cares little of proper care ‚“because they don’t live that long anyways.” Glad to see the store hasn’t been cleaned since the last time I went in there and walked out disgusted; about 6 years ago.
And because I would like to see the proper care of the rats in the future, please refer to this website if you would like your own potential pets to have a long and healthy life:

This store had a great selection of fish — especially a great selection of African Cichlids — I was there on a Thursday morning at 10:40am, the store was full staffed but no one asked «How can I help you» I figured they did not want my business

I will admit, this is a very big and useful store. They have a huge selection of fish, though the health of them is questionable. You frequently see tons of dead baby oscars not removed from tanks. The staff is rather unpleasant.
I was ignored for 20 minutes and then a manager yelled at me when I needed help looking for a certain kind of reptile substrate. The bags were mislabeled and the pine wood was in both pine and non-​pine labelled bags. He refused to believe me and got angry even though the pine and non-​pine aren’t even the same color.
I go here regularly for feeder rodents because the price is cheaper than even online. The people who work the reptile/​rodent room are very nice. Everyone else talks down to you if you’re not getting fish.

I would agree with the assessment of several reviewers that obtaining prompt service can at times be challenging. I do believe that the ying to that yang is the fact that the livestock selection is the best in the NoVa /​Md area — so they are fairly busy most of the time. I would think waiting in queue would be a standard trade off under such a circumstance.
Price wise, I have found them to be cheaper or right in line with most other mom and pop shops. The chains might have a small advantage on some items but again, the selection at HOT is second to none.
Product wise, a very large selection of all the usual suspects. As a fan of the seachem line, this is the place to go.
I can’t say that I ever had a bad interaction with an employee here. I have noted on an occasion or two a bit of a sigh when a customer presents a total lack of understanding of the hobby. It is about the same sound I make when someone complains to me about how slow their computer is and then shows me a desktop with 50 applications opened. Yea, patience is a virtue but stupidity should not be given a free pass either.
Overall, my go to place for 2 years and quite happy about that even though it is an hour drive to get there.

The staff take little to no care of their fish. Last time we were there they had a Synod Omits catfish in a brackish tank and he was definitely listing to port. The staff were only interested in whether or not my friend wanted to by the fish, not that the fish was suffering.
That same friend came away with another catfish, whose fins were chewed down to nubs. This kind of thing doesn’t normally happen in stores that watch over their stock, and that take care of the animals and tanks.
I’ve volunteered for the National Zoo’s Invertebrate House for over 5 years, so to see animals in such horrible conditions breaks my heart. Be forewarned.