Last week I was in L.A. on business. I had some downtime on Friday while waiting for my flight and decided to check out a few local fish stores. I found these two little beauties in a small cubicle slowly starving to death. Simply labeled as pike cichlids @ $14 ea. I knew I had to rescue them. At a mere 2.5" each they are two of the smallest lugubris group pikes I have ever seen for sale. They don't even have their full row of rosettes along their backs yet.
As you can see, 24 hours of chowing down guppies has filled out their bellies. They were highly emaciated when I found them.
I also found some C. orinocensis for $20 ea. which came home with me as well. You can see one of them poking it's head into the first pike picture.
A few comments about L.A.'s fish stores. Most were very clean with a couple of horrid exceptions.
West Coast Tropicals in Reseda was an absolute dive. I was fearful that I would get a case of fin rot while in the store. By far the worst of the worst.
Aquarium City in Canoga Park was a bit dank and dingy but had some pretty cool fish. A baby arapaima ($90), some monster Rose-Line Barbs (display only), some very cool Pom-Pom Orandas ($28), baby dats ($20 ea. for a fish the size of a quarter) & a mislabeled pike ($89). It was labeled as a marmorata but most definitely was not. It had the most brilliant red markings just above the eyes that I have ever seen on a fish.
Exotic Life in Topanga Canyon. Not a bad store but somewhat overpriced and lacking in education. They had a misc. pike listed for $40. It was definitely a lugubris group pike but at such a small size it was impossible to tell whether $40 was good deal or a very over-priced sp. Venezuela. They also had a monster display tank that housed some large pikes. What appeared to be a very large female sp. "Cobra" and a somewhat smaller female Cr. johanna. Out of curiosity I asked about them and was told that it was mated pair and that they bred all the time. To avoid a fight I let the poor information slide. Based on the fact that they were selling Geophagus altifrons as "Red Finned Jurupari" I didn't think it would make any difference.
Tropical Illusion (TAT) in Thousand Oaks. A clean store with a great display reef tank amongst several other displays. They had the biggest, most impressive pleco I have ever seen in person. A monster L25 scarlet. At $350 it stayed right where I found it. They also had a tank full of 3" C. temensis for only $12 ea. They had a good selection of both African and Central American Cichlids including some very nice S. leucosticta at about 5" ea.
Pet Club in Simi Valley. Not much to write home about with the exception of the two lenticulata pikes that I purchased. The person helping me made me laugh. He kept telling me how mean the pikes were and that they would eat everything in my tank. I really think someone had purchased them and then traded them in after having all their fish eaten and the store did not want them back from me. No worries! They are in my tank to stay... at least for a while.
Bluewater in Reseda. This was a new store and as such was very clean. It was actually quite small but they had a decent selection of fish. This is where my orinocensis were purchased. Alex was very helpful when I explained that the fish were going on a flight with me and wouldn't be in a tank for several hours. He double bagged each fish with O2 and an oversized bag. In addition to the Cichla he had several different species of Apistogramma, Hydrolycus sp., Semiprochilodus ($20 ea. for quarter sized fish) and a $450 dollar Flowerhorn. I passed on that one
.
There were several other that I visited but most were not memorable. I'm sure that what I did visit was just a drop in the bucket but it took me all day. Damn L.A. is spread out!!
Just for the heck of it, here's a runt Retroculus xinguensis that hasn't been growing. It was moved to avoid being murdered by his much larger brethren. It's funny watching him march the pikes around as they are already larger than him.
Oh yeah, is $14 for a lenticulata pike a good deal??
As you can see, 24 hours of chowing down guppies has filled out their bellies. They were highly emaciated when I found them.
I also found some C. orinocensis for $20 ea. which came home with me as well. You can see one of them poking it's head into the first pike picture.
A few comments about L.A.'s fish stores. Most were very clean with a couple of horrid exceptions.
West Coast Tropicals in Reseda was an absolute dive. I was fearful that I would get a case of fin rot while in the store. By far the worst of the worst.
Aquarium City in Canoga Park was a bit dank and dingy but had some pretty cool fish. A baby arapaima ($90), some monster Rose-Line Barbs (display only), some very cool Pom-Pom Orandas ($28), baby dats ($20 ea. for a fish the size of a quarter) & a mislabeled pike ($89). It was labeled as a marmorata but most definitely was not. It had the most brilliant red markings just above the eyes that I have ever seen on a fish.
Exotic Life in Topanga Canyon. Not a bad store but somewhat overpriced and lacking in education. They had a misc. pike listed for $40. It was definitely a lugubris group pike but at such a small size it was impossible to tell whether $40 was good deal or a very over-priced sp. Venezuela. They also had a monster display tank that housed some large pikes. What appeared to be a very large female sp. "Cobra" and a somewhat smaller female Cr. johanna. Out of curiosity I asked about them and was told that it was mated pair and that they bred all the time. To avoid a fight I let the poor information slide. Based on the fact that they were selling Geophagus altifrons as "Red Finned Jurupari" I didn't think it would make any difference.
Tropical Illusion (TAT) in Thousand Oaks. A clean store with a great display reef tank amongst several other displays. They had the biggest, most impressive pleco I have ever seen in person. A monster L25 scarlet. At $350 it stayed right where I found it. They also had a tank full of 3" C. temensis for only $12 ea. They had a good selection of both African and Central American Cichlids including some very nice S. leucosticta at about 5" ea.
Pet Club in Simi Valley. Not much to write home about with the exception of the two lenticulata pikes that I purchased. The person helping me made me laugh. He kept telling me how mean the pikes were and that they would eat everything in my tank. I really think someone had purchased them and then traded them in after having all their fish eaten and the store did not want them back from me. No worries! They are in my tank to stay... at least for a while.
Bluewater in Reseda. This was a new store and as such was very clean. It was actually quite small but they had a decent selection of fish. This is where my orinocensis were purchased. Alex was very helpful when I explained that the fish were going on a flight with me and wouldn't be in a tank for several hours. He double bagged each fish with O2 and an oversized bag. In addition to the Cichla he had several different species of Apistogramma, Hydrolycus sp., Semiprochilodus ($20 ea. for quarter sized fish) and a $450 dollar Flowerhorn. I passed on that one
. There were several other that I visited but most were not memorable. I'm sure that what I did visit was just a drop in the bucket but it took me all day. Damn L.A. is spread out!!
Just for the heck of it, here's a runt Retroculus xinguensis that hasn't been growing. It was moved to avoid being murdered by his much larger brethren. It's funny watching him march the pikes around as they are already larger than him.
Oh yeah, is $14 for a lenticulata pike a good deal??
