Austin...Continued!

So as I sit here waiting for my delayed flight home to Denver, I thought, what a perfect time to add my last set of pic updates for my trip to Austin! At the same time, I hope that the coral, leopard wrasse, snails, and donut holes (thats right, donut holes. I am a fat kid after all!) are all situated someplace out of the sweltering heat and humidity that is holding the city in its grasp. It rained all day yesterday and is like 80+ degrees today, which makes it a nice sticky sauna outside. Hope all the critters are ok!

So yesterday, which was my last day visiting stores here in Austin, I dropped by my other fave LFS, Aquatek Tropical Fish. Bruce, one of the co-owners of the shop, is one of the coolest guys I know. Aquatek has been open for 10 years and is jamming on a day to day basis. They specialize in rare and unusual FW fish, are a dealer for Tunze product (I have never seen so many waveboxes in action!) and have a great selection of saltwater livestock, corals, etc. After this visit, Aquatek is also a Gold Dealer in Seachem's SD program! A great shop with some very knowledgeable people and a killer selection makes them one of the premier shops in town.

I spent a bit of time with Bruce, chatting about the industry as a whole and where we see things going in the next few years. Here are some pics of Aquatek:

After entering the store and looking to the right, a shot across the front display tanks.

A look to the left after entering the shop at the freshwater holding tanks.

The Current USA Cardiff display tank right next to the store entrance.

Their impressive 120g SPS dominated display tank

A look at their FW planted display tank down the row of saltwater holding tanks.

A shot of one of their african cichlid display tanks, along with the dry goods sales floor to the right.

A look across the back of the shop.

Aquatek does a lot of maintenances around the Austin area, and have a lot of customers who specialize in live plants. They have an extensive live plant collection, along with dry goods to care for any range of hobbyist.

I will leave you with this. My plane has finally arrived and we are almost ready to board. This is a favia/montastrea coral colony that I found at a shop called Gallery of Pets, that was in the midst of releasing gametes into the water column! One of our local reef club members recently had this happen with a type of small clove polyp, however this is the first time that I have ever seen anything like this firsthand from a LPS coral in captivity! Kinda cool!

Next week I am at home, the week after that I am at home visiting shops in CO. I will try to snap some pics of my new stock and get them uploaded shortly!

Cheers~!