For a theme park aquarium that is NOT a theme park based on aquariums it's a pretty sharp one…read more The displays are well done, they are staggered at different heights and levels. There are interactive stations and so much to do and look at. This was probably my 3rd favorite portion of the park, the new coaster and the actual summer house being my favorites.

Alton Towers is a behemoth of a place... I remember when I had my first visit (Circa 1995, maybe?)…read morewhere all you would find is rides and queues (and lots of ways to spend your pocket money). Fast forward to 2015 and there has been many changes, additions and new ways to spend your (now earned with a job) money. I have been attending Pirate weekend over the last few years at Alton Towers Splash Landings Hotel. This entails a waterpark day entry, overnight stay in the hotel, breakfast, pirate entertainment and entry into the small (bur perfectly formed) Sharkbait Reef within the park. All this for a princely sum of around £25? Bargain. These weekends are held when the main park isn't open and we sauntered up from Birmingham at 1pm on a Friday afternoon to get our Pirate on and have a good time. Now, we don't always get to Sharkbait Reef as part of our visit. Firstly, the opening times are normally geared towards Saturday stayers (rather than Friday adventurers) and secondly, it can be affected by the weather. It seems as though we chose the right weekend to go this time as the Reef opened at 10am, giving us plenty of time to get down there before the minigolf tournament was due to kick off at 10:30am. The reef is situated in the park in the pirate section. This can mean quite a walk from the hotel or a two minute drive. There is a dedicated parking section for this, but this section (Express parking) is rammed during actual park opening days. This little Sea Life centre isn't the biggest of the bunch, but it is well put together. From entering in via the "photo opportunity" (a giant statue of octopus tentacles), there are sharks, lots of varieties of beautiful shimmering tropical fish, jelly fish and rock pools (where you can stroke a starfish or meet some cute little shrimp). The walls are jam packed with information about the ocean and it's inhabitants and the staff are friendly and ready to answer your questions. The real stand out for us was the fact it was feeding time in the big tank. Have you ever seen a Ray eat broccoli before? I did for the first time ever on Saturday. It was fascinating (see photos). The walkthrough area is great for seeing the lovely creatures of the sea swimming about and interacting with each other. You end your visit (it takes maybe... about 20/30 minutes to walk around and you (predictably) end up in the gift shop. There are numerous "budget" gifts (starting from £1) in this shop, so if your little ones are desperate for a souvenir - you could do worse than checking out the cool stuff in this shop over the other more expensive options in the park. Whether you're a seasoned ocean expert or a small fry looking to get up close and personal with some of the inhabitants of the sea, a quick trip around Sharkbait reef is definitely worth your while during your trip to Alton Towers.

Jame is all way help full he help me setup my 249lt tank with all hard scape ,plants &fish,co2 I…read morewould not have any hesitation to recommend him to Friends and family

What a find- the guy who runs this spent at least 15 minutes going over the problems I had with my…read morepond, showing me stuff and giving me the solution - all this and I did not buy anything at all from him! Service like this is very rare.

This chap knows his stuff been going here for years he has never let me down and great customer…read moreservice

This Aquatics is the best for miles around, the staff have always got time to answer any questions…read moreyou have or talk through anything you dont understand. The fish and plants all seem very healthy and the water in the tanks are always clean. In fact I have never seen a dead or floating fish in any tank. They have a wide variety of chemicals, potions and equiptment, if tey have not got what you want they will get it for you. There prices are superb. I am looking forward to buying more Tropical fish and equiptment from them very soon. Colin Tracey from Coleorton, Leicestershire.

Its hard to find a decent aquatic shop these days when the large multiples seem to be taking over…read morewhich seem to have no interest or care for their stock. Here at WWAC we know we can get well cared for fish from staff who KNOW what they are talking about and genuinely care for the stock. We have always had great service and hints and tips from them here and as fairly new fish keepers this has been so valuable to us. I cannot recommend this centre enough! In fact we are even thinking of installling a pond now!

We called in here on the off chance as my other half has an obsession with fish and reptiles. I do…read morenot live far from here but only recently have they turned this farm into a proper visitor place. I was a bit unsure at first because of all the stories escalating around about farms. But as soon as we parked up, we walked over to the pig sty and I instantly fell in love with the little pigs wandering around with their parents in their little den. Then we went into the massive store area and there are unreal amounts of fish in here. If you are a massive fan of tropical fish then this is the place you should go. It is clean, presentable and well organised. They also have reptiles such as snakes and mini-dragons and if you have never had a pet like this before, there are loads of staff around to help you out. Also they have a large range of books to help you raise certain species. Originally this was a farm that sold food produce. Now it has expanded beyond recognition. They still have food stock such as meat, eggs and juices etc. Also they have a cafe inside so if you want a cup of tea or a scone, then you can here. What I really enjoyed though about this place is that if you pay a pound each you can through into the stables and feed the pets in there. They have goats, llamas, sheep and bulls. I was a bit unsure at first but as soon as I started feeding them, I just fell in love with them all instantly. They were so cute trying to jump over the fences and lick your hands. This farm is really clean and extremely well run. I enjoyed the time we spent here, it was fun and exciting. I would recommend this twice over. Go and have fun!

Went to Cockfields Farm 3rd December 2011 to top up my tank with some new additions, as we were…read morelooking at the tanks , we noticed a DEAD fish floating on the top, so I informed a member of staff who joked that it was asleep and they always went pale and lifeless and floated when they were resting !!!! I thought this comment was inappropriate and not called for... we continued our now short visit by seeing another two tanks containing DEAD fish, I find this unacceptable and will not be going back there again. as there are many better fish shops with more pleasant staff within the Oldham area.

I can thoroughly recommend Shirley Aquatics and I would like to say a huge thank you to Paul and…read moreCelia who went above and beyond to help me when my aquarium filter failed. Paul took time to measure the filter I wanted so I know it would fit into the housing and he spoke to Celia who so kindly offered to drop the filter off to me as I didn't have transport to collect and I needed the filter the same day. You can't beat that for service. The new filter is now fitted and working perfectly.

!!!DO NOT BUY FROZEN FOOD FROM THIS... !!!DO NOT BUY FROZEN…read moreFOOD FROM THIS COMPANY!!! Received my order yesterday (07-02-23)which was sent on (06-02-23) which consisted of 1kg of frozen river shrimp 2 x 500g whitebait and 3 bags of large bloodworm and when i opened the package the frozen river shrimp had defrosted, the whitebait had defrosted and the live bloodworm were dead , i emailed yesterday explaining what has happened and then was asked the send proof which i did , then got a phone call today from a lovely lady who was trying to resolve this issue and her manager basically said the food is gamma radiated and therefore can be refrozen . But im not risking re freezing food that i would be feeding to very expensive and long lived fish which im sure a lot of other people would feel the same about and although they agreed to refund the dead bloodworm , they refused to refund or replace the so called "frozen" food which wasnt very frozen at all , its safe to say i will never be ordering from them again!!!

Really great store, loads of good quality plants and fish. There were fish I've never even seen or…read moreheard of in here. Highly recommended!

The best aquarium for freshwater fish I've been in a long time, I used to go to the hillfoot shop…read morethen the disappeared but they've just moved onto a industrial estate which is great for me as I work just round the corner and it's so much easier to park. Well we're to begin, as I said I always used this family ran aquatics until they moved I then had the joy of dealing with dobbies and pets at home, which is ok if you like paying through the nose for dull fish and pretty rubbish advise I was thrilled when I saw the sign at the side of the road for a new aquarium and was pleasantly surprised when it was the guys from my old shop...ace so stocked up my tank with beautiful fish and yea I know everyone slates guppies but there my favourite and they have like 15 different types, loads of tetras and random stuff I don't even know of, their expanding the shop soon they say and I can't wait about another 50 odd tanks so the place will have tons of different varieties to choose from, don't be put off by my comments if you like unusual fish and hate guppies lol there loads of weird and wonderful stuff and really colourful cichlids, discus, arrowana, rasbora, Angels and their cold water fish are stunning big fat bubble head goldfish...amazing so I'm going to set up another big tank from them and have fancy goldfish, there so reasonable you have to visit and get something for your tank. Going to take my dad in for some koi carp as he says everywhere else for pond fish In liverpool is over prised and they never last, he's made up the guys from hillfoot aquaria are still going strong and looking forward to getting some big koi. Well done guys all the best and can't wait to see the bigger store......lots more guppies please. :) sorry everyone!!!!

Best shop ever with a great marine section and outside pond and big selection of topical fishread more

Absolute brilliant shop! Has everything you need to start/maintain marine, tropical, cold water…read morefish. They stock frozen food, dry food and all products needed to ensure your system is healthy and looking good! The live stock is absolutely brilliant! What's better is the staff! They give friendly advice and make it their duty to ensure they help you as much as they possible can! Brilliant!

This is worth a visit, but very pricey (£21 for an adult that had no discounts; that's about $30)…read more For a family, you're now about $80 for the experience) It's beautiful and nicely laid out so that you can focus on one thing for a bit of time and not worry that you're holding back the ones behind you. As you wind your way up the ramps to the upper levels, you get to see the same exhibit from several angles. Very unnerving to see a shark from above and then realize that his eyes are on the top of his head and they're looking at you as well. The penguins are adorable. Photography is fine as long as you don't flash. The 4D experience was a 15 minutes condensation of the movie Happy Feet. The 4D comes from the fact that the seats shake when they're dancing and you get a spray of water when the shark crashes down. I noticed a lot of education on saving species from being used in medicines or being over hunted. The gift shop was a bit dusty and I noticed that many of the stuffed animals were a bit grimy. PS: yes, the photo I uploaded is of the actual penguins. They seemed to pose for my camera.

I've been twice to the sealife centre now - first time: loved it. There is lots to see, for me the…read morehighlight by far is the fantastic walk through tunnel where there are reef sharks and incredible rescue turtles to admire. The new addition of the penguin section is wonderful too. The second time I went was in the Easter holidays and it was a huge mistake. The centre had MAJORLY overbooked- we were on timed entry but could barely move. I had 3 kids in tow this time and they could hardly see most things because of the volumes of people crowding round each tank. I was gutted because we'd had such a lovely time previously. The staff did their best to manage it but tensions were obviously high and the queue system for the 3D cinema was a bit of a disaster - not enough space for the volumes of people wanting to see the show to wait out of the way of others. We didn't get a look in at any of the talks either- the kids couldn't get close enough to most of them to see what was going on. So that's why I've only given it a 3 star review, and I nearly gave it a 2. No matter what the capacity of a building, if you overbook to that extent you spoil it for everyone. If you go out of holidays- you'll have a wonderful time and i'd give the attraction itself a much better rating at those times (!!!!) but just don't waste your money during school holidays- watch blue planet at home instead!