There is too much stuff to read so sorry if this is the same thing as others put...
- Display tanks that show people how big certain fish really get. Things like oscars, pacus, bala sharks, common plecos... you get the point. Common fish you find at petco and they say it would work in a 30 gallon when in actuality the fish is enormous. You wouldn't have to do this with "rarer" fish because people who would spend that much money on something like a p-bass know how big they get.
- Display tanks in general. Nice ones that range in size and type. You don't need only HUGE display tanks, but normal sized display tanks too like 10 gallons, 20's, 30's, and 50's. The tanks normal people actually buy. Show them what is possible with the small tanks. And wow them with the huge ones.
- Good organized store. Went to a nice store otu of town, but everything was everywhere... I was kind of in a hurry and coudln't find the fish I wanted because that "type" of fish was spead out into 5 different tanks. Have tropicals in one section, cichlids in another, africans in another, bichirs in another, ect.
- For each fish in the store, you should have a one page profile of sorts. This one page would have a picture of the fish, max size, temperament, good tankmats, ect. Just a simple one page of printer paper. Would be dirt cheap, just find the information on the internet. three hole punch it and put it at the end of the aisle.
- Have a computer with internet access available to the customer. That way if they want to know more about the fish... they can look it up. Or if they are trying to find otu the different between male and female, they can look it up. This would make it so you wouldnt' need employees with degrees to answer some questions.
- Keep the labels up to date on the tanks. If a fish is no longer there... remove the label. Its annoying.
- If at all possible, have somewhat healthy feeder fish.