It's all well and good to say "find a decent shop, and stick with it", but if you don't really know good advice from bad, how do you know if a shop is any good?

Sadly, not all shops give good advice, or have highly experienced or trained staff members, so finding a good one can seem like finding a needle in a haystack.

Look for a clean, well-maintained shop with plenty of dry goods as well as a good selection of fish. On the front door or in their advertising, you might see the OATA logo, which is generally a sign that the shop is good repute. Some shops have trained staff, and may display the certificates of staff graduates of aquatics courses, such as those run by Sparsholt and Brooksby colleges or OATA.

The fish should look healthy and there shouldn't really be dead fish in any of the tanks. Admittedly at weekends, when aquatics shops get very busy, the staff might not have time to check all the tanks and remove any corpses, so don't be too put off - and when you consider that most shops hold several thousand fish in stock at a time, a few dead fish is really a tiny percentage of the total stock.

If you're happy with the advice, stock and after-sales service then it pays to stick with the same shop rather than patronising a string of different outlets as some retailers offer a loyalty scheme, and once they get to know you they'll usually do you little favours, like ordering in special fish, or reserving others for you.