LFS pics

[esoxlucius]

I went to my LFS today. Usually I go on my own but my wife came with me today so I used her phone to take a few pics. I was surprised that they had arowana and datnoids in as they don't usually stock them. Are those prices pretty good for these fish, i haven't a clue what they go for?

I was a bit gutted too as they finally got a load of firemouths in, a fish which i've fancied for a while but i'd have to set up another tank which I don't really want to do yet. Are those prices pretty much what you'd expect for firemouths?

Also there was the usual huge selection of little fish, some were quite nice, I took a couple of pics of some of the nicer ones.

And does anyone know what that funny little marine fish is? Tank wasn't labelled. It shuffled about on the bottom like a blenny or goby, it's colour was beautiful.

And Jexnell , what are those birds, my wife was taken with them but I know nothing about birds?

 

[Jexnell]

esoxlucius
The first one is some variety of Green Cheek Conure, the second is a Indian Ring necked Parakeet.

 

[Justepic]

esoxlucius the marine fish in pretty sure is a mandarinfish mate. Is that a Maidenhead Aquatics? If it is, those prices are fantastic. My local one is selling me an aro for £150?

 

[esoxlucius]

esoxlucius the marine fish in pretty sure is a mandarinfish mate. Is that a Maidenhead Aquatics? If it is, those prices are fantastic. My local one is selling me an aro for £150?

No, it's a place in Bolton. If you drove up and got one you'd still be quids in even with fuel costs factored in. £150! Wow.

 

[Hendre]

Weird to see stuff priced in the GBP again. Not a bad selection at all. With the current exchange I got my little Thoricthys for 2 pounds and 50 pence

 

[Ogertron3000]

By aussie standards the aro and dats are ridiculously cheap but the firemouths are very expensive, we usually pay around $10-15AUD for them.
When i was in the UK I found there werent many fish shops around, not that I could find anyway. Someone told me a lot of them are in garden centres and not stand alone shops. There was one in manchesterI discovered and I was surprised at the selection of fishand other animals like spiders and frogs available, lots more than we can get our hands on, this was before I was really aware of how strict our import laws are.
I was also shocked when the fair came to town and everyone was winning a goldfish in bag as prizes, at the end of the night there were lots of goldfish in bags dumped in the car park. I was a bit drunk so me and a mate collected them all and let them go in a pond at the local golfcourse, probably not a very responsible thing to do but it felt like a drunken act of liberation for the poor fish. Thinking about it now the guys running the fair probably would have just picked them up and given them out again the next night.

 

[Justepic]

To be honest, it was a Jardini aro.

By aussie standards the aro and dats are ridiculously cheap but the firemouths are very expensive, we usually pay around $10-15AUD for them.
When i was in the UK I found there werent many fish shops around, not that I could find anyway. Someone told me a lot of them are in garden centres and not stand alone shops. There was one in manchesterI discovered and I was surprised at the selection of fishand other animals like spiders and frogs available, lots more than we can get our hands on, this was before I was really aware of how strict our import laws are.
I was also shocked when the fair came to town and everyone was winning a goldfish in bag as prizes, at the end of the night there were lots of goldfish in bags dumped in the car park. I was a bit drunk so me and a mate collected them all and let them go in a pond at the local golfcourse, probably not a very responsible thing to do but it felt like a drunken act of liberation for the poor fish. Thinking about it now the guys running the fair probably would have just picked them up and given them out again the next night.

Like, 80% of the shops are either in or near garden centres. There is one on a highway near me that I went to 3 or 4 years ago, and I went again a few weeks and, damn, it was like a ghost-town. Shame. It also depends where you are, like many top-tier shops are need the manchester and Liverpool area, and there seems to be many catfish aquarists around Scotland. There are also some great shops near Middlesex area.

 

[esoxlucius]

By aussie standards the aro and dats are ridiculously cheap but the firemouths

By aussie standards the aro and dats are ridiculously cheap but the firemouths are very expensive, we usually pay around $10-15AUD for them.
When i was in the UK I found there werent many fish shops around, not that I could find anyway. Someone told me a lot of them are in garden centres and not stand alone shops. There was one in manchesterI discovered and I was surprised at the selection of fishand other animals like spiders and frogs available, lots more than we can get our hands on, this was before I was really aware of how strict our import laws are.
I was also shocked when the fair came to town and everyone was winning a goldfish in bag as prizes, at the end of the night there were lots of goldfish in bags dumped in the car park. I was a bit drunk so me and a mate collected them all and let them go in a pond at the local golfcourse, probably not a very responsible thing to do but it felt like a drunken act of liberation for the poor fish. Thinking about it now the guys running the fair probably would have just picked them up and given them out again the next night.

Opening up a very large fish store which caters just for our hobby, for what is let's face it, a niche hobby, is perhaps not a good business idea. Though having one incorporated into something else, such as a garden centre, is a much better way to do it. And that is what we are seeing more and more. The place in Bolton I go to is huge. It's not part of a garden centre, though another LFS I go to is. The Bolton one caters for all other pet stuff, the usual and extremely exotic. And it's also a fishing tackle centre and angling is very popular. So they have income streams from various things.

And fairs, thankfully less and less popular now. And even on the rare occasions they're in town you don't seem to see the obligatory goldfish given away as prizes any more, in fact I think animal rights got involved in that one some years ago.

And for the record, although releasing those goldfish into that golf course pond probably wasn't the most sensible thing you've ever done, I do hope that they lived a happy life in there, who knows they could be proper monsters now. After all, literally how many millions of fairground goldfish down the years have been flushed down the toilet once the clueless winner of them got them home?

 

[Ogertron3000]

Here in Melbourne we have always had stand alone shops or general pet and aquarium shops together so its a bit different.
About 5 years ago a lot of the old shops that had been around forever closed down. There have been some really good new ones pop up lately to replace them. The difference is they arent on main shopping streets like the old closed down ones but are now all in industrial estates where I would guess the rent would be cheaper. In the internet age you maybe dont need a big prominent high street shop front to attract customers.
As for the goldfish release that would be somewhere in leicster back in 2001 when I was in my early 20s.Probably better we put them in a golf course pond not a river. Im suprised the RSPCA or the UK equivalent actually let them be given away as prizes. From all the dumped ones we grabbed from the carpark they obviously arent wanted.

One final point, most LFS stores here have a strict no photo policy for some reason so cant contribute any images to this thread. The offer still stands if you come over here for a holiday I will take you on a pub/fish shop tour for a day and you can check it out yourself!

 

[fishhead0103666]

One final point, most LFS stores here have a strict no photo policy for some reason

My petco has the same and I haven’t the foggiest idea as to why, could you by any chance enlighten me as to why this is a thing?