Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

If you use the community creator on this site and just input fish of the right length rather than necessarily all the right species you will get a view on whether you are overstocked. Let us know the percentage stocked you get given on the internal filter option and we can advise from there.

I personally have kept gourami singly in the past they are not naturally schoaling or schooling (yes there is a difference!) so they are not believed to be required to be kept in groups.

Snails having a nap after stuffing themselves on extra snacks they managed to guilt trip out of you @fcmf
 

We have just been to the garden centre which used to house Maidenhead Aquatics' Stokesley branch, the one that was destroyed by fire 6 or 7 months ago. MA's store locator on their website still says "closed until further notice".
But things are happening at the garden centre. The site of the old building is now completely levelled, with earth moving equipment still on site. The outdoor section, which survived unscathed, is still where it always was. The area to the side of the garden centre, which used to be a sub-let area selling sheds and other outbuildings, is now covered with a temporary looking building housing almost everything that used to be in the destroyed building, including autumn lawn feed which was always cheaper here than anywhere else.

The garden centre website says "We will operate out of our temporary facility whilst work begins on rebuilding the garden centre following the devastating fire in April".
The question is, does MA intend reopening there? They still have Stokesley on their website. And what of the staff - surely they can't be sitting at home unemployed for all this time? It is usually the staff that make the difference between awful, average and good fish shops, so will this MA be as good if/when it reopens?

The Thinkfish member who helped me over my shrimp problem a few years ago lived quite a bit further north than me. Her local MA had the same manager as the one just a couple of miles from us, and she refused to use any branch managed by this chap. She preferred to drive all the way to Stokesley as the manager who was there was so much better. But he will doubtless have moved elsewhere by now 

I also have problems with the MA a couple of miles away. It is a lot smaller, which means fewer tanks so a smaller selection of fish. And it used to be owned by the garden centre which was taken over by Wyevale, who turned the fish section over to MA. The old fish section did not have a good reputation, and even though it is now run by MA with all new staff I still can't bring myself to trust it 

For me, the staff do influence me quite a bit. I used to like one shop in a garden centre near Darlington. Mark was the knowledgable chap there, and nothing was too much trouble for him. Then all the staff suddenly changed, and the fish section went downhill. My then hairdresser who has a pond (and this shop sold pond fish) told me that the owner and his wife divorced and the garden centre sold as part of the settlement. the new owner sacked all the staff and brought in new.
A short while later I went into a shop in Billingham, and there was Mark. He remembered me and we had quite a chat. This shop is not in an area we usually visit, and they specialised in marine fish, so I never went back.
Fast forward a couple of years and we called in a shop just south of Northallerton, which is almost on the way home from York. The shop looked a lot different, then I saw why. Mark is now a partner at this shop! This is now my go-to fish shop. To give you an idea about Mark, he keeps his own fish tanks, and regularly visits fish shows all over the country. He also asked me for details about fishless cycling  Even before he went there, the woman who used to be sole owner gave very good advice. I was in there once listening while she served another customer. No, I'm afraid you can have that fish, your other fish will eat them. No you can't have this other fish, they are also too small to go with your other fish. Which fish will go? Well, how about this, and this, and this....

The 190 has had some interesting inhabitants, that are used for (pest)snail control. Before you all comment; not another clown loach! they arn't, they are another, smaller and I dare say prettier member of the botia family. 2 Zebra, or as I like to call them, Candy Stripe Loaches! Inspired from the latest issue of PFK (With the flowerhrorn on the front!).
Another new species was also added to the 190L was a trio of Blue Rams! They are stunning little fish and we have a male and two females that were in the shop for around 2 weeks as a trio and ate as soon as I released them into the aquarium after 'drip' acclimation using a syringe. I have also applied to do work expirience at the LFS and fingers crossed, a part time job, but who knows!

The first spotlight goes to the oldest inhabitants and my personal favourite when I was young, the Bronze Corydoras AKA Corydoras Aeneus. I have 4 of them. 3 males and a female, Big Bertha. I remember going to the LFS and asking my dad for some bronze catfish, and that sparked my interest for Corydoras, and catfish on the whole. They have successfully laid eggs in the past but none were fertile  but they wouldn't have lasted in the community tank, as the fry would be lunch!
They often appear out of nowhere when food is dropped in and they will eat just about everything. A real beginner friendly fish and a catfish that doesn't hide until you poke it!

Not much has been going on with the shrimp at the moment but they always come out for feeding time. No shrimplets yet, but fingers crossed! The embers are getting along nicely, and one has only one eye! It manages to compete for food surprisingly well.

Thats it for this weeks update, and the first time writing in this style, so constructive feedback is much appreciated!

Thanks for reading,
  Apache

If you plan on doing an update every week, why don't you set up thread for them - perhaps on the gallery board. That way we can read your updates together instead on them getting lost in the 'Daily News.

Your style is a bit different, but I don't dislike it. And it'll be nice to be able to easily find your updates if I miss one.

Shall do! Only problem is I tend to loose my thread after a while! Ill port the post over now.

Thanks Sue! I have created the new thread, and it has some more information as a bonus, that I totally didnt forget to add to the original post! Happy Reading!

Sounds good, with one exception. Either the rams plus one pair of apistos, or two pairs of apistos and no rams. Don't forget to take everything an LFS says with a pinch of salt till you've researched it for yourself.

Don't forget that some species of apisto are harem breeders so if you chose one of those you could do 1 male and 3 females plus the rams in that size tank.

Or a male and a harem of 3 females with a harem type apisto