The Planted Tank Forum - Visited some OC stores *C'mon people....POST!!!!*

I decided to visit some of the stores listed in the other thread...

Quote:

Originally Posted by wonder woman

Dennx-
IMO,
#1- Tong's (Magnolia & 405)- best for selection (variety), location.
#2- Strictly Fish (Cerritos? & 605)- for selection, condition, knowledge & helpfulness of staff
#3- Pettown (Irvine?), both P.R.s, Discount Tropical Fish (LaHabra), West Coast Tropical Fish (Buena Park)

Orange Cost Tropical fish was clean, but nothing special as far as stock goes...Threadfin Rainbows were the only kinda interesting thing they had.

Strictly fish was better. Notables were a couple large 3" Lamp. Compressicieps ($75 ea), 3 different kinds of Rainbows that weren't common. I can't remember all of their names...but one was 'Ornate Rainbows'. They also had 'Red Striped Gobies'.

Tong's had quite a few dead fish...and lots of stock with Ich. But, the did have a couple really big Discus, some different looking Killies (not labelled), a blind cave looking catfish (not labelled), some Leaf Fish, decent group of med-sized Haps and a weird Knife or two. Buyer beware though.

Pet Town had some goof stuff too. Lots of the popular little shrim, Xenotilapia, Cythotilapia (I think...it was the 'ventralis' one I think...the cichlid with the really long ventral fins), a big (3") Lamp. Calvus...but the coolest fish I saw the whole day was what they called a Rhino Glass Fish. Imagine a 3" glass fish...but more opaque with a nickel-sized flat thin protrusion coming out of it's head.

Like this:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~tiltop/zz%20va...asuary%20d.jpg
I'm a little out of date, but I don't think I've ever even seen pics of a fish like that. I was giving them serious consideration, but each one's mouth was messed up. They were labelled as "wild caught", and I think they may have used hooks...not a net. That...and the fact that they had the looks of a predacious fish kept me away.

Now for the lecture...for Christ's sake...post stuff like this so people like me don't have to drive for hours just for a look-see. I live in the high desert and it would be a lot nicer if you people just post up a note here if you see something of note.