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Albany Aquarium
What I did this summer, or My Field Trip to Albany Aquarium
Yesterday George Booth suggested, when I asked if he had any ideas
where I might find Farowellas, that I try Albany Aquarium. It just
so happened that my partner was due for a trip to the East Bay that
very day, so I asked if she would like a chauffeur. While she
attended her meeting, I went to Albany Aquarium.
It turns out to be the same place I bought most of my fish when I
first got into killies and cichlids. At that time I lived in the
UC Berkeley married student housing in Albany. And nearby was my
local fish store. And son-of-a-gun, it's still open and now called
Albany Aquarium. But the inside is greatly changed.
As you go in, you enter a room of about 20x20 feet. On the left are
the counter and the dry goods, on the right there are new tanks, and
behind them, on a raised platform, a bank of tanks, mostly goldfish
and live bearers. At the back of the room there is a flight of about
8 stairs up to the room behind, which is elevated. Below it is a
private storeroom/workroom.
At the front of the upper room are about 8 plant tanks. These tanks
have almost no fish, but a large selection of plants. I bought some
chain swords to take home, a bunch of maybe 25 plants for $4. They
apologized that since it was Monday, last Friday's shipment was
seriously picked over. There were some vals and some bunch plants.
The fish tanks contained very nice fish. Their condition was
excellent. Many of them were unusual, there was quite a variety of
loaches. But the downside of such nice fish was the prices, even
lowly cardinals were $5.99 EACH! It is not a place for cheap fish.
But the specimens are worth the look. They had some large wild-caught
Kribs with very dark coloration for $15 or so. And an Apistogramma,
maybe borelli.
There was a good selection of melon swords at $15-20. There were Ap.
madagasgarensis (sp?) at $18 that were only fair to poor. They seemed
very cooperative and like they would try to find what you needed.
When I mentioned Farowella, they showed me an unidentified cat that
had a lyre tail like Far. but the body shape of a Rhinoloricaria.
They had a pair and had spawned them in the store! There were 30 or
so fry in the tank. NFS. Shucks.
I bought a SAE to control my hair algae and the aforementioned plants.
I would recommend a visit, but if you are serious bring lots of
money.
The worker bees are very impressed with the contacts they have found
thru the net, but apparently the boss does not want to bother with
getting more cybernetic. I offered to intermediate if they wished.
If you want to know what is in their next plant order, I will ask
Friday and post to the list Friday night. Dave
Dave Gomberg, Experimenta San Francisco CA USA gomberg at wcf_com
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Dave Gomberg, Experimenta San Francisco CA USA gomberg at wcf_com
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Dave Gomberg, Experimenta San Francisco CA USA gomberg at wcf_com