re: Fairy Lake Discus Store in San Francisco

[paragon <para111 at yahoo_com>]

Peter, 

Glad to hear you had a good time in San Francisco! I
used to live about 3 blocks from Herman & Fairy Lake -
would walk over and pick up live baby brine for
various cichlids I was spawning at the time. 

One of the few remaining great hole-in-the-wall,
old-school stores. Justin @ Ocean Aquarium, off
VanNess towards downtown, is also worth visiting if
you ever get back this way. :)

Cheers,


Erik Leung
sf aquaplant study group
www.sfaquarium.org/plantstudy.html




Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2003 23:20:31 -0500
From: "Peter W O'Dwyer jnr" <odwyerpw at nycap_rr.com>
Subject: Fairy Lake Discus Store in San Francisco

Folks,
My wife and I just returned from a trip to New
Zealand.  I absolutely
loved it.  Upon My return I spent 3 days in the San
Francisco area (1.
Visit my best friend and his wife. 2. Overcome my jet
lag in bits and
pieces before returning to Upstate New York.) 

I had read about the Fair Lake Discus Store in San
Francisco's China
Town about 12 years ago.  I always hoped some day I
would see it.  Last
day we were in San Francisco the wives went Second
Hand Store shopping
and the husbands went to fish stores.  I turned my
buddy onto the Fairy
Lake Discus Store about a year ago when he first
settled on the West
Coast.  He has been making purchases from him for a
year now and has
told him the story of how his best friend back in NY
read about the
store a decade ago and told him to go there.  

So we walked in and immediately Justin (my buddy)
announces to the kind
oriental gentlemen who owns it (I've already forgotten
his name) that
I'm the friend from NY.  The owner smiled, and after
allowing me to walk
around with my jaw dropped for more than 20 minutes or
so, invited me to
see his breeding areas.  (After a year of visiting, my
buddy Justin had
never been invited to do so.)  I was honored...didn't
expect that. 

He raises the Discus fry with the parents.  I saw two
Heckels that were
some 7" with fry feeding on them.  He also raises
beautiful German Blue
Rams.  They are huge...3 1/2" and colorful.  No gold
forms.  He's also
breeding and raising the Bolivian too.  He doesn't
take any Discus or
Rams from the Far East.  In fact, all of his rams and
discus that he
offers for sale are bred from his own stock.  He uses
no hormone induced
foods or vitamins.  He feeds everything Tubifex worms
that he raises
himself.  He has live plants in every single tank,
except the tanks that
have pairs breeding and raising fry.  No fake plants
or decorations
anywhere.  He uses slate and round stones to encourage
the discus/rams
to breed.  He told me he has an impossible time
breeding Cardinal
Tetras, so he doesn't try anymore.  The only thing I
didn't like was the
presence of Blood Parrot Cichlids.  

We bought a mess of cardinals and went on our way. 
The wives
accompanied us to this store.  My wife was blown away
and really enjoyed
seeing the parents raise the fry.  (There has even
been talk of allowing
me to start spending money on my aquarium again!!
Joy!)

Very nice LFS!  On the next visit, I will go home with
fish.  He doesn’t
ship ("I'm too old, I only do it for fun now!" were
his words), so I'd
have to pack and take as carry on!  

Peter W O'Dwyer jnr
Upstate New York
This mornings snowfall was a poor April Fool's prank!


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