Posts Tagged ‘Tropical Fish’

Sunday visit to the local Garden Centre

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

I’m in need of some garden peat to acidify some of the aquariums in the fish house, but it seems that all gardeners, are bio-plant friendly, and most composts are peat-free and I cannot find a small bag of peat anywhere, so I visited our local Wyevale Garden centre today at York, which also has a recent addition of Maidenhead Aquatics. I could not find a small bag of peat, they only have 60l bags but did have a look around the tropical fish.

I’ve noticed that Maidenhead Aquatics, have switched all the substrate from gravel to sand in all the tanks. I was very surprised at the cost of fish, 15 GBP for three Poecilia Endlers, 5 GBP for one very small Ancistrus Sp. They had 15 small white, possibly platinum Angelfish with red eyes at 5 GBP each, or 2 for 10 GBP. I was very tempted to purchase the tank of 15, but I’ve currently got no where to put them as all quarantine tanks are full.

Blushing Angelfish

Thursday, September 8th, 2005

One of my Purple Spotted Gudgeon Mogurnda Adspersa, next to the legendary Screwcumber. These are made of high grade stainless steel and are idea for holding down cucumber, courgette or lettuce. I use them to feed all my vegetarian fish. Contact Gary Evans for details.

I’ll have to regularly check the gudgeon, as four seem to be fighting, in the quarantine tank.

This picture represents the fish house mission to bred good quality Angelfish. If you look carefully at the photograph, you will notice that some of the angelfish have red markings on the gill plates, these reddish markings are called a “blush”, and shows the red gills, because there is no pigment in the gill plate. These angelfish are sometimes referred to as “red angels” in the trade and local tropical fish shops, not to be confused with the real red angelfish!
These are fish that have been kept because of their unique qualities and traits.

Visiting friends in Otley, West Yorkshire (via tropical fish shop of course!)

Sunday, September 4th, 2005

I had hoped to attend the Otley Aquatic Society OPEN SHOW & AUCTION today, because I was visting Otley, West Yorkshire, but then I noticed the show is held at Wortley High School Swallow Crescent Leeds, so I didn’t have the time to route via Leeds, as the Auction was starting at 1.30pm. This will have to be an event I pencil on the calendar for next year.

Whilst in Otley I did get my “fish fix” by visting Waterscapes located in the Stephen H Smiths Garden Centre. An excellent range of tropical fish and Tropica plants on display, I especially liked the Leiarius pictus catfish, they had three small 4″ fish for 18 GBP each, but resisted the strong desire to own a large catfish again. These grow very large, a good example here at www.thetropicaltank.co.uk but are excellent catfish, and one of my favourites. But I certainly don’t have eight foot tank space in the fish house at present!

Bank Holiday Monday

Monday, August 29th, 2005

The new arrivals are settling in well and feeding on bloodworm and Tetra Prima, still not installed the Lifegard Fluidized bed filter because I cannot get the flow rate correct and the media (sand) keeps flowing out into the test bucket.

I’ve also been to the local garden centre this afternoon to purchase two replacement Tropical Marine Centre 8 watt UV tubes for my UV filter to keep the algae down in the display tanks, my old Gibbiceps has become very lazy and doesn’t each my algae these days, just prawns and a little bit of cucumber. These tanks are located in a conservatory, and due to the excess heat and sunlight in the summer months causes too much algae growth, a garden pond UV filter connected in line with an Eheim 2015 external canister filter helps out. A stupid place to put tropical fish tanks, they get too warm in the summer, and a little cold in the winter, but there’s no room anywhere else!

An era comes to and end! Goodbye Animal-House!

Saturday, August 27th, 2005


In search of Hikari Algae Wafers I travelled to one of my favourite Tropical Fish Outlets in Bately near Leeds in West Yorkshire. I often visit Animal House every few months to purchase some dry goods and have a look at the Tropical Fish section. I’ve been purchasing dry goods from Animal House for 25 years and they always used to advertise in Practical Fish Keeping. Something was odd, I noticed that their website had a statement stating the following

The Animal House website is currently suspended as at 20th August 2005. Customers with outstanding orders will receive letters within the next few days.

I thought this was very strange and may they had technical difficulties with the website or had a securirty breach. I telephone on Friday 26 August 2005, the answering machine message stated they were stocking taking but the store was still open.

On arriving at the store today, it was clearly obvious by the lack of cars the store was closed. Animal House has CLOSED DOWN. The store always seemed very busy at weekends, especially Bank Holiday Weekends, I never understood why they stopped advertising in Practical Fishkeeping.

Many rumours are circulating as to why they have closed, we will probably never know. What’s happening my local Garden Centre has closed their Tropical Fish Section trading; Maybe eBay Traders are to blame with their low overheads operating from bedrooms and garages across the country. Why not visit a local tropical fish shop this Bank Holiday Weekend and put some of your hard earned coppers in their pockets, If we lose all the high street tropical fish outlets, will we have to result to purchasing Online! I hope not!

Goodbye Animal House and thanks for all the dry goods I’ve purchased from you in the last 25 years.

P.S. Where do I cash in my Privilege Gold card points?