About Us

Welcome

Welcome to the website of Kings Aquatic and Reptile World. Here you can get a flavour of our store and our staff, read monthly-updated articles on everything you ever wanted to know from “How to set up a new aquarium” to “How to breed Snakes”. These will be compiled into an ever-growing archive for instant reference. If there’s something you always wanted to find out, let us know and we’ll try to include it.
We stock the following brands (Reptiles): Hagen (inc. Exo-Terra), Zoo-Med, T-Rex, Living Earth, Ferplast, Arcadia, Lees, AVS, TFH, Barrons.
(Aquatics): Hagen, Juwel, Lac, Eheim, Reef One (Bi-Orb), Clear-Seal, Tetra, King British, Arcadia, Hitaki, Interpet, Gro-Lux.

History

Originally the company started in 1997 as Kings Reptile World, based at Palmers Pet Stores in Parkway, Camden in London’s Regents Park. In 2005 an opportunity arose to relocate the business nearby in Camden’s prestigious High Street with nearly four times the space and incorporating an Aquatics department. We continue to forge close ties with experienced, specialist veterinary surgeons, zoological institutions, the Royal Veterinary College and various university research centres.

Breeding Programme

Kings has always prided itself on providing home-bred quality-assured reptiles. What started as a snake-breeding programme has now diversified into lizards of various species. Current species being worked with on-site include: Corn snakes (including various colour varieties), California Kingsnakes, Pueblan Milksnakes, Pine snakes, Brazilian Rainbow Boas, Royal Pythons and Womas. Lizards include Bearded Dragons, Yemen Chameleons, Grandis Day Geckos, Spiny Tail (Ackie) and Green Tree Monitors, Chuckwallas and Leopard Geckos. Kings’ staff also have other species being worked with off-site. Our set-up ensures that customers can see the parents of their prospective purchase and even observe the whole process of egg-laying, hatching (or live birth) and feeding progress from the very beginning.

Aquatics

We have a unique staff-designed filter system in half of our display banks which we intend to retro-fit throughout the entire fish-room. Each week something new is added either in stock or to our display. Although we don’t stock marine species, we aim to provide a wide range of freshwater fish and invertebrates; from commonly-kept types (e.g. guppies/platties/tetras) through to more rarely seen species (e.g. Dennisoni Barbs, Polypterus, Freshwater Moray Eels etc.). Coldwater fish and (in season) pond fish are catered for with a wide range on display. We also stock a wide range of tropical and coldwater plants. We do not trade in “Dyed Fish”.

For business clients we offer a high-quality aquarium installation and maintenance contract. We are also able to offer a competitive maintenance-only contract for businesses with existing non-marine display aquaria. Please contact us with your requirements for a quote.

Service

All our staff hold decades of specialist experience and knowledge in their fields and are fully qualified to give our customers the best advice around. Whether you want an aquarium water test, or a snake sexed, an animal identified, or help with a feeding problem, we are here to help you. We supply custom-built vivaria and aquaria to your specifications in addition to our regular size range. Contact us for a quote. We also board reptiles (not fish). Again, prices vary with species and numbers so please contact us for details.

We operate within the codes of OATA (aquatics) and FBH (reptiles). We are also a founder member of REPTA (Reptile Trade Association) and are on the stakeholder team for DEFRA, consulting on legislation regarding endangered species and animal welfare.

Film/Photographic Hire

We have, for many years, supplied animals, handlers and equipment for photographic purposes. Whether location shoots or on-site; stills, video or motion picture, we can cater for your needs. Please contact us for details and rates.

Previous clients include: BBC (New Tricks, Blue Peter, Newsnight, CBeebies, various drama, news and current affairs); ITV, Channel 4 (Big Breakfast and others), Channel 5 (The Wright Stuff, Spiderman documentary); MTV; “This Year’s Love” (motion picture); pop videos (The Sugarcubes, Suede, Del Amitri, Idlewild amongst others); Daily Telegraph, The Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard, National Geographic; Euston Films; Photographers (Chris Turner, Guy Hills amongst many…), Art Exhibitions (Whitechapel Art Gallery and others); Artists and performers (including Russell Brand) and many independent television productions.