Mainstream fish

As some of ya know, I bought my first tank after a 30 year hiatus Feb 5. I now have a 50, 35 and 29 up and running on the cheap. In order to gear up for my ultimate destination of keeping Discus I've started with a community tank of tets and a few Angels i've swapped for. I can't seem to find a local source for the standard bearers for things like tetras, loaches, cory's etc. Everyone seems to be focused on SA's, Africans, Angels and Discus. And a whole bunch of things I'm still unaware of. In my case.. I've one Black Skirted Tetra and I'd like to add 5 or 6. I've three cardinal tets and would like to add at least 6 more.. Neon's? got two need 5 or 6 more.. If I'm not in the market for an exotic, the ONLY outlet for me are the two big-box stores and I just aint going there! What is a person to do?

Call Rama (skoolzoffish) he can get them.

Fin and feather in lakeside also carries some of these. You could talk to Mark about what he can order maybe as well.

F & F sounds good... I guess I was just lamenting the good ole days... Geez.. I sound like my 85 y/o father! Back in the day, I could visit a half dozen mom and pop fish stores all within a 10 minute drive and this was in a smaller community of about 80,000 people versus the 1 million or so in the Richmond Va metro! Ya never knew what you'd find in those stores and what prices would be! I know Mark of Cichlid Solutions (plug) and Rama of Skoolzoffish (plug 2) would order anything I'd ask for but it does take away the "Window Shopping" aspect of the whole thing.. I guess I'll just have to do my store browsing on the net.

Wow! Did a lookup on F & F and realize that when I was lost on Sunday.. in a panic about being late for the Chapter Meeting, I ended up from being just around the corner of F & F!

LOL. If you do go by fin and feather one day take a look and see if they have any corydoras sterbai and let me know lol. They are supposed to be getting more in soon.

Avoid neon tetras for now. The importers are cutting way too many corners with them and they are coming in in a very fragile state. my LFS has stopped bringing them in unless on special request. When 100 fish die in 2 days.......

Why buy a neon when Cards are avail?... LOL I gotta say.. the community tank with the 3 big angels from Vix.. 14 black neons and 1/2 dozen cards is pretty striking with the lighting..

williemcd wrote:

F & F sounds good... I guess I was just lamenting the good ole days... Geez.. I sound like my 85 y/o father! Back in the day, I could visit a half dozen mom and pop fish stores all within a 10 minute drive and this was in a smaller community of about 80,000 people versus the 1 million or so in the Richmond Va metro! Ya never knew what you'd find in those stores and what prices would be! I know Mark of Cichlid Solutions (plug) and Rama of Skoolzoffish (plug 2) would order anything I'd ask for but it does take away the "Window Shopping" aspect of the whole thing.. I guess I'll just have to do my store browsing on the net.

I know how ya feel Bill, I didn't come to Richmond until 87, in the late 80's and early 90's or later LFS were every where and then it seemed like poof they were gone. I've always wondered why, it's not like the economy bottomed out back then. Any ideas?

T/C JB

Internet store started back then and could out price most shops and larger variety.

A couple of reasons come to mind... my perceptions or reality who knows? A. the big box stores can undercut the mom & pops... B. the growth or rather the direction of the hobby has gotten more specialized what with SA's, Africans, etc... Pretty big investment in inventory for the M & P's. C. Internet sales? Not saying that's bad.. it does open up exploration for the hobbiest but.. the allure of seeing a fish your not familiar with in a M & P shop.. the ambiance ... sure do miss that...

When I started I could get fish at Ben Franklin 5 and dime. Now they are an art store,

williemcd wrote:

A couple of reasons come to mind... my perceptions or reality who knows? A. the big box stores can undercut the mom & pops... B. the growth or rather the direction of the hobby has gotten more specialized what with SA's, Africans, etc... Pretty big investment in inventory for the M & P's. C. Internet sales? Not saying that's bad.. it does open up exploration for the hobbiest but.. the allure of seeing a fish your not familiar with in a M & P shop.. the ambiance ... sure do miss that...

Very good point you 2. I miss em to Bill. There are some in Norfolk and VA Beach that I visited last week had a blast. We should see if some people up here want to make a road trip down there one day check out all the LFS and have lunch or dinner I think it would be a hoot. There might be some who have wanted to go down but didn't want to spend the money on gas (ouch)

Va Chapter Field trip! Yes I'm in! We can carpool to save gas.

FishVixen wrote:

Va Chapter Field trip! Yes I'm in! We can carpool to save gas.

Well lets put our feelers out and see who all is interested!!!

Id be interested as long as it works with my schedule. Gonna be hard to get down there and pretend im at work if its my weekend lol.

Well I don't know if a day/evening during the week would work or not but Animal Jungle has 25% off aquatic livestock Wed 5-8. Deb and I went down early to miss rush hour traffic and hit all the other LFS and saved Animal Jungle for last, just an idea. Let me know y'all!!!