Lookout! Thats a HUGE RABBIT!

Well, it was a beautiful day today here in Dallas. Sunny skies, warm outside, only the slightest breeze to let you know that Spring was certainly in the air. Hit 4 shops today a couple of which are some of the nicest in the Dallas area.

First I hit a place called Granite Aquatics. This is a new shop in Allen, TX, that has been around for about 8 months now. They have a very cool little shop, that has a ton of potential. They have a little bit of freshwater, but carry mostly saltwater livestock, and a small amount of dry goods. They have 2 nice coral tables set up with an array of SPS, LPS and softies.

My second stop was at Plano Pets, a family owned shop in Plano, TX. Plano Pets have the most amazing reptile room that you can believe. I wish that I could have taken pic of it! They had an incident awhile back where a customer actually stole a really expensive snake from them, however, the thief was caught on camera, and the snake was eventually recovered from the police. The owner of the shop submitted the video to the Worlds Dumbest Criminals series and they actually aired the clip and interviewed the staff of the shop! These guys are in the process of re-diong their fishroom, which should be pretty impressive when it is all done. They are a full line pet shop which also includes puppies and kittens, and rabbits as large as golden retrievers! Seriously, check this pic out!

This is a Flemish Giant Rabbit and was retailing for $109.99! For size comparisons, those are regular sized bunnies in the cage behind him, and his food dish is about 12" long! What a beast!

Next I hit Aquatic Design Aquariums in Plano, TX. Ryan and crew here have an awesome little shop, who do a lot of aquarium maintenances in the north Texas area. They have a great selection of tanks, dry goods, and fresh and saltwater livestock. They also have a very cool "consultation room" where people who are interested in setting up a tank can sit down and feel relaxed and hear about all of the options that are available for aquarium possibilities. Here are some pics:

A look at some of the tanks for sale upon entering the shop.

A look to the right after coming into the shop at the register, more tanks, and one of their displays.

A look down the dry goods aisle to the consultation room.

A closer look at the consultation room.

A shot of the fish room. These guys have some of the healthiest saltwater livestock that I have seen in the Plano area.

Last stop today was at the famous Dallas North Aquarium. This is one of the premier shops in the DFW area. Huge shop, giant display tanks, TONS of dry goods, and an enormous livestock selection of both fresh and saltwater. I didnt snap any pics today but will tomorrow when I have to stop back by to pick up a chalice coral that I had the guys hold for me.

Tomorrow I head back to CO for the weekend and then I am back in Dallas for the Central Pet open house next week. See you manana!

Techno Difficulties?

Well, had some issues with my laptop this morning before I set out to visit some shop. While I was on the phone with tech support, I did get to finish planning a couple of upcoming trips to Oklahoma City, Austin, Houston, etc.

When I finally did hit the road I started in Denton, TX, about an hour north of town. Hit an interesting shop called Fish N Chirps. What a name huh! A nice little full line pet shop. My main purpose in heading to Denton was to visit a new store called Reef Remedies. This shop has been open about 9 months and is small but has lots of potential. They occupy an old drinking water store, and as such they have a huge water filter set up that was really impressive, and sell tons of RO and premixed saltwater.

The last stop on my journey today was a shop called Rift 2 Reef. These guys had a jammin shop in Flower Mound, TX, but moved to an even better spot and if the pics are any indication, this is going to be one helluva shop! Check it out!

View of the Register counter looking left after walking in front door.

View of the 800 gallon show tank looking right after coming in the front door.

Dry goods selection to the left and behind the cash register.

Dry goods selection to the right of the Register, behind the 800g show tank.

View of the saltwater section looking right after passing through the arch to the fishroom.

View of the freshwater section looking left after passing through the arch to the fishroom. The white slats are the covers that still need to be attached to the tank stands.

Closer look at the coral holding tanks. What an interesting idea for displays! Lighting is provided using JBJ K-2 Viper clamp on HQI halides that include a fan. I am not sure what wattage they are using.

View from the back of the fish room looking to the front door through the fish room arch.

Back room, including water holding tanks. A little cluttered, but they are still a couple weeks away from opening.

Shot of the Freshwater holding tanks.

And thats about it! A very cool shop that looks absolutely phenomenal!

Ill leave you with a quote from a comedian that I heard on the drive back to the hotel. Courtesy of Nick Thune from the Raw Dog XM Radio Station:

"What is the most awkward place to run into a homeless person?"

"On the way to the CoinStar."

"Sir can you spare some change?"

Lazy Sunday

Well today was the first time that I have had a day off while on the road. Even so, I still worked a little bit today. I stopped in at a place called Reef Pets near the DFW airport. These guys are only open on Saturday and Sunday. They dont stock any dry goods, which was a bummer, but had an amazing selection of livestock. Gary, the owner of the shop, was a very nice guy, who had mentioned that times were slow, but he has been doing well with his online and ebay sales of coral frags. He had a bunch of stuff that I wanted to bring home with me, but seeing as how I would have to keep it at the hotel for 4 days, I decided to pass, and will instead try and put an order together to have shipped to me at some other time.

After leaving Reef Pets, I decided to check out the Dallas World Aquarium. What a really cool surprise! A beautiful aquarium that was amazingly put together and extremely interactive with some very interesting livestock including toucans, monkeys, reptiles, manatees, and jaguars!

Exterior of the Dallas World Aquarium

DWA's very cool logo, including a mandarin and a tang!

An amazingly colorful Paradise Tanager

Gorgeous waterfall towering 3 stories in the main atrium!

Can you say..."My Goodness....My Guinness!"?

A huge crocodile, that was in a giant pool with Red Bellied Pirahana! I hope none of the free flying birds ever manage to fall in there!

Its a bad pic, but these two Hawk-headed Parrots were hillarious. A boy and a girl nestled in their box, eating dinner, talking about the most recent episode of Vampire Diaries!

What a face! These 3 Arrau turtles were all hanging out basking under their heat lamp!

Another cool shot of the waterfall, and some of the amazing foliage in the tropical atrium!

A HUGE freshwater turtle, the size of your coffee table!

A MANATEE! Yay! Here you go Lindsey!

A school of giant Red-Tailed Catfish hovering in synch, watching all of the weirdos pass by.

A blurry pic of 2 passing Arapaima, easily the size of a Prius! I hope they dont have acceleration issues!

Manatee close up!

And finally to the saltwater tanks! The salt tanks were all set up by locale which I thought was very interesting.

Lord Howe Island biotope, surprisingly without any Acanthatstrea LORD-HOWEnsis! However with 8 Conspiculatus angelfish, which were stunning! Corals included mostly chalices.

Close up of one of the 8 amazing Conspiculatus Angels. Crazy to think that these fish command a retail price of $1300-$2000 each!

In the same Lord Howe biotope tank, they had a trio of McCullochi Clowns that were hosting in a Blue Carpet Anemone, and upon further inspection, appeared to be either guarding a clutch of eggs, or prepping for the deposition of a new clutch! Sorry for the poor picture quality.

Solomon Islands biotope tank with 3 HUGE Gigas clams!

Fiji biotope tank with lots of anemones, and LPS corals

Southern Australia biotope tank, with a bunch of Weedy Seadragons!

New Guinea biotope tank with AMAZING fields of Duncanopsammia coral!

Sri Lanka biotope tank with Powder Blue Tangs, Moorish Idols, and Yellow Rhinopias!

My favorite aquascape of all was in the Indonesia biotope tank. Rose anemones, favias, chalices, Blue Hippo Tangs, and Mystery Wrasses were abound here!

A fungia in the Indonesia tank that is in the process of forming Anthoucali (baby making coral farms) after having been stung repeatedly by the torch coral in the upper right edge of the pic.

British Columbia biotope tank featuring a Giant Pacific Octopus, and lots of Anemones and Stars

The Japan biotope tank had tons of Acros and SPS corals as well as Bellus Angelfish, Lineatus Fairy Wrasses, and Cuttlefish!

A pair of Helmeted Basilisks getting cozy under their heat lamp.

A whole group of Pink Flamingos, whose area is located on a ledge above the shark pen. Hopefully these guys never get the urge to explore their surroundings!

Black-footed Penguins in their outdoor enclosure. The one standing up would honk at people as they passed by!

And that wraps up the pics from my visit! Tomorrow I am back in the shops, so I will see you then!

Cheers~!

Anniversary Sale

Well, today was another new experience for me. Today was the 6 year anniversary of Exotic Aquatics here in Plano, Texas. Part of the reason I am in the DFW area again was to be a part of their 6th anniversary sale. I got to the shop at 8 this morning, priced my items that were left over from yesterday, and buckled in for what I figured was going to be a busy day.

The shop opened at 9, and we had about 3 customers waiting outside for the employees to unlock the door. The shop was well staffed, in fact probably overstaffed to fend off the oncoming horde. Unfortunately, the turn out was pretty weak. I am absolutely sure that the economy had an effect on the turn out, but I was secretly hoping for a giant rush at some point in the day.

I spoke with several customers, helped them with their tank issues, but mostly, wandered aimlessly around the shop, fixating on the livestock every now and then. It was an interesting group of people that were in the shop, from the look-y-loos, to the hardcore hobbyists. The shop was well stocked with a nice array of livestock that the guys had hand picked from LA. I was there along with the Marineland Rep, and the shop's Central Pet rep. The 3 of us had a good laugh and a bit of enlightening industry banter, which helped to pass the time.

When the inevitable customer blitzes' did pepper the day, I got to suit up and help the staff catch and bag fish and coral. It was a nice trip down memory lane, and felt good to get elbow (and sometime armpit) deep in the brine once again. I even sealed the deal on a $300+ light fixture that a customer purchased just so he could buy a couple of anemones!

What did amaze me was the price of the livestock. I don't know if it is because of the Dallas market, or if the guys at the shop can just get a higher mark up because of the clientele, but Jee-Bus! The anniversary event included across the board discounts on Livestock and Dry Goods (35% and 25% respectively) so I don't know if the price was inflated to account for this, but I couldn't believe the price that some people were paying for coral colonies, etc. More power to them! Maybe this is why they have been in business for 6 years, and Don's barely made it to 2!

I finally left the shop at about 5 during a bit of a lull, but I hope that everything went well for the crew. I know that they all had been busting their ass for the last week. They are running the sale again tomorrow, but the deals aren't quite as good. I have tomorrow off, so I am going to relax and take in the marvel that is Dallas, TX! Ill let you know what I find tomorrow!

Cheers~!

What a day!

So today was a long day! I haven't posted in awhile, since I headed back from Houston as a matter of fact. Saw my 2 favorite Houston shops on Friday before coming home. T & T Tropical Fish and City Pets. Awesome shops all around. Quy, David, and Donnie are awesome dudes. I almost didn't make it to the airport in time for my flight home, but did see a crazy purple lowrider driving on the highway with 6" spikes like from a James Bond movie coming out of the center of his wheels on all of his wheels! I don't know if this dude was just VERY into defensive driving, or if it was just part of his gangsta' persona, but either way, I wanted to get a pic of his outfit, but didn't feel like risking vehicular suicide to do so.

Came back home to good ole CO to Reefstock which was a pretty nutty event. Hundreds of people turned out and there were tons of vendors at the Denver Downtown Aquarium.

The following week I was in CO visiting shops for a nice and easy home trip. And I got to spend the nights at home with my lovely wife, and retarded dog. Last weekend the wife and I got to go home to Pueblo to visit the family and hang out with our amazing friends for a combined March birthday party. It was a blast.

This last week was my home office week, so I got to hang out with my wife even more!

Now I am in Dallas! I got up at 330AM, caught a flight out of denver at 7, got in to Dallas, visited an awesome shop called Aquatic Trading, and finally made it over to Exotic Aquatics in Plano, TX, which is the whole purpose of my trip. Exotic is having their Anniversary sale this weekend, and Taylor, the shop manager asked me if I would come out and support their event. I flew in today to re-merchandise their Seachem stock in preparation for the sale tomorrow. It was neat, I got to hang out, help the guys at the shop put a dry goods order away and help some customers. From the sound of things tomorrow should be a pretty hopping event. Ill try and take pics and post some up tomorrow night.

Cheers~!

Edit: Here are pics of the Remerchandising that I did for my product line at the shop:

Almost There!

Well I am almost done in Houston! My flight leaves tomorrow night, get in to Denver kinda late, then my lovely wife and I are staying at the Curtis Hotel, and will be up bright and early on Saturday morning for Reefstock! Should be a pretty cool event. I actually get to be there as a manufacturer rep this time rather than being there to sell livestock like I typically do. My lovely wife will be there with me, not of her own accord, of course, but hopefully she will have some fun.

Next week I get to stay home in CO and visit shops in the state, which is awesome, because that means I will be home in the evening!

I tried uploading some pics from my phone to the blog, but it seems like I dont have that talent down just yet. Ill see what I can do. It should be easier than it seems, so we will see.

Favorite night of TV was tonight on NBC. Community, Parks and Rec, The Office, 30 Rock, and The Marriage Ref. Community absolutely rocks my face off. So that was fun while it lasted.

Not a whole lot to report on the hobby scene today. Tomorrow should rock as I get to stop by T & T here in Houston and City Pets! Hopefully I can resist the urge to bring something home with me, but we shall see! Corals > Self Control!

Well, I will try and post a blog after reefstock this weekend, so good night and good luck!

Continued my visits here in Houston today. Made the trip to Galveston to see if a shop was still open, only to find it closed...permanently. I was stoked to see the gulf, which ended up being very much a let down because the weather was nasty. Fog, clouds, and rain ruined what could have been a very cool visit. Oh well.

On my journeys today I stopped at a shop called All About Fish in SE Houston. What an awesome shop! Kevin, the owner, was a super cool guy who was very friendly and runs a tight ship. I took some pics of his display/frag tanks, but forgot my cable so pics will have to come later. Kevin had some AWESOME live stock, and had some of the nicest acro frags I have seen in awhile. He had some A. horrida frags, true A. echniata, and his mother colonies were out of this world. His coral selection was huge! If you are ever in the area you should certainly check his store out.

The stock tanks along the entry to All About Fish in Houston, TX

The amazing SPS frag tank at AAF in Houston

Close up of some of the SPS frags in the above tank

An awesome anemone & LPS display tank @ AAF, Houston

A stunning LPS/softie display tank @ AAF, Houston, TX

So back to my story. I moved to northern Colorado to pursue an academic career in Biology and Secondary education at the University of Northern Colorado. I started working at a shop in Greeley called Animal Attraction, and eventually left that shop to open another called Don's Hobbies and Tropical Fish. At Don's I started a hardcore fragging operation that resulted in successfully selling coral on ebay, via our store website, and even wholesaling coral frags to other shops in CO, as well as one of the largest livestock distributors in California. Things were jamming, and then all of a sudden I found out that rent wasnt being paid and walked in to work one day to find a 3 day notice of eviction waiting for me. We broke the store down in 3 days, and I ended up buying a bunch of the rare livestock that we were focused on culturing, and eventually set up my own frag system at my home where I continue to collect and propagate corals in my spare time.

After working in LFS's for the last 7 years, I was pretty through with the whole retail aspect of the hobby, and kind of gave up working in the industry alltogether. I tried to find a science job that would allow me to capitalize on my degree, but jobs were non-existant (and still are from what I hear)