David R

+1, although its not so applicable in my current job, but you can tell the new Newmarket station wasn't designed by a driver....

Nope, the one in the pic was from Hamilton about 7 years ago, the other one (pic here) came from hollywood a couple of years ago.

clowns might grow faster too, they can be pretty big and active compared to the banded knife.

Heat pads?!? You'll need a polybox to stop the bags from over-heating in this weather!!!!!

Well perhaps my perspective is a bit different given that I know most of the staff on a first name basis and have been shopping there for 10+ years, but I can't help but feel you guys are taking the whole customer service thing a bit too far, its not like real estate where you can expect the salesperson to kiss your backside to try to make a sale. In my experience, compared to most animates (the exceptions being ones where I can deal with members of this forum) hollywoods service seems pretty good to me. Nearly every time I want fish from Animates (the frequency of which has decreased greatly over the years, but this was a problem even back in the Jansens days) I have to go roaming the store, usually to the cute fluffy rodents department, to find someone to catch the fish for me. This person is almost never knows anything about fish and often says "which ones are those?" when I say what I want, before making an absolute mess of trying to catch them, which I usually end up doing myself. If I need to ask something I have to wait for them to go off and find their token fish person (often takes a long time, if they're even working), and even then the "expert" often isn't that expert. At hollywood I'm usually left alone to browse (much prefer that to the high-pressure selling approach so common in retail), and when I want something I'll find someone, which doesn't take long in a small store, and that someone will be someone who deals with fish only and should at the very least have had a lot of practice catching things. If I want to ask a question, Levon, Dave, Rena (before she left) and just about everyone seems happy to take time to discus it or look it up in one of the many books they keep under the counter for reference, even if there's a good chance I won't be buying it. The other aspect is that I'd rather support a specialist store who carry the widest range of fish, food and spare parts. These latest shipments from Germany are the exact reason why I support hollywood, even if the majority of the fish aren't in my specific area of interest. Animates wouldn't go out of business if they never sold another single fish. They are more concerned with taking the easy sales and growing their bottom line to take a punt on a new species like Biotodoma qupido, or the countless variety of Corydoras hollywood currently have in stock. IMO anyone who considers themselves an enthusiast rather than just someone who has a fish tank should put that kind of support for the hobby well above the quality of the smile the staff give you when you walk in the door.

there's always room..... :lol:

Thats a pretty old fighter adodge!! Is that it? Noone else got any ancient fish?

Alright, I figure I should do this since I've gone a bit pleco mad lately! I'm going to skip the successfully bred part because I'm not trying to breed any of them. Common name: Scientific Name: Peckoltia brevis L number LDA78 sex 1 male Common name: Clown pleco Scientific Name: Panaque maccus L number sex 1 female Common name: Flash pleco Scientific Name: Panaque Sp. L number L204 sex ? Common name: Royal pleco Scientific Name: Panaque nogrolineatus L number L190 sex male? (starting to get bristly pectoral fins) Common name: King Tiger Scientific Name: Hypancistrus Sp L number L066 sex ? x3 Common name: Chocolate Zebra Scientific Name: Hypancistrus Sp L number L270 sex ? Common name: Starlight ancistrus Scientific Name: Ancistrus Sp (??) L number ? sex ? And todays latest addition (excuse the terrible photo!)... Common name: Blue Phantom Scientific Name: Hemiancistrus Sp L number L128 sex male? (getting bristly pectoral fins)

Henwards is taking sinking carnivore pellets readily. Cool fish, wish I had space for one, nearly bought one 6 years ago when I lived in Hamilton, haven't seen them since.

Via Manukau?!? What part of Pakuranga do you live in? :-? Clounge, so you're saying a friendly greeting from a clueless girl with a fluffy dog is all it takes to make you shop at a more expensive store with a smaller range?

Brennos; go over the south-eastern highway, thru onehunga, up the south-western motorway to hillsborough, right at the lights, left at the next lights, straight at the round about and you're there in about 15 minutes from Pakuranga (on a good day anyway!).

Just wondering if anyone has got any ancient fish they've had for years. I sold everything when I went overseas for six weeks at the end of 2002, but Duncan7 still has some of the clown loaches I sold him. The fish I've had in my posession the longest currently would be a little clown pleco (not sure on the ID, here's a pic) that I've had since mid 2003, and a couple of clown loaches I bought later that year, already around 8cm. My 13" dat was bought early 2005 along with my palmas that now belongs to Henward. So around 7 years, not really that old, when I asked on MFK's Polypterus forum someone had kept an ornate for over 20 years! Anyone else got any really old fish??

Could do if its a Jardini in a 4x2x2'? Trav; the answer you get is only as good as the question you ask. There are 6 different species of arowana (without splitting the asian ones) and a 4' tank could be anything from 30g to 180g. And you might want to be a little more specific with your thread titles, many people [myself included] often overlook threads with titles like "help my fish" or "would this work" or "I need some advice".

Cheers, it wasn't meant as a personal attack, that would be against the guidelines... :lol:

Keep ya panties on P44, Morcs explained it himself but somehow still managed to take it as an insult... :roll: It was more to do with Animates target audience than the quality of the staff there, although I suspect you two (plus Atown and any others that happen to be on here) are the exception and not the norm. I'm not sure if you're old enough to remember what Jansens Mt Eden was like 8+ years ago, but back then their fish room was serious competition to Hollywood, loads of marine stuff, corals etc, huge reef display, plenty of rare and oddball fish, and prices that weren't consistently higher than everywhere else. I appreciate you guys are doing what you can while following the company policy, but if you look at new stores like Lunn Ave which have about half a dozen tanks filled with the basic beginner community fish you can see the market the company is interested in, and its not the serious enthusiast. So as I said, Latin names don't matter too much if you work at animates, but anyone who considers them to be an enthusiast should go to the trouble of learning them. Sorry about the sidetrack Trav, back to the pics/discussion of dats...

Adodge I think that was a case of a mis-named one from the supplier. I know of someone with one, seems to have grown fast, perhaps from the 3000L+ tank or perhaps from the regular feedings of meaty food the tank gets, but I'm yet to see one with the bright "scarlet" fins like the internet pics. His has an orangeish tail and dorsal fin.

I highly doubt NGT's will be coming in, I can't imagine many importers/exporters willing to risk expensive fish (and their livelihoods) a couple of oddball fish. lol perhaps if you work at animates....

Thats why they're worth $20+ a piece instead of $2 on trademe, if they were easy to breed like most cichlids then they wouldn't be in as much demand. I guess it depends if the OP wants a challenge that will be worth his while if he's successful, or a sure thing that he can make some loose change from...

The smaller locally bred ones are just over $20 each, but the high quality German bred ones (much larger and more colourful) are about $97 for a m/f pair. I know which ones I'd be going for if I was planning on breeding them. I'd say blue rams would be one of the most in demand cichlids, and would get you a pretty good return on the initial investment when you get them breeding. Look at trademe if you want an idea of what not to breed. Convicts, jewels, kribs, yellows, lumpheads, livebearers etc, people are pretty much giving them away... *edit* HFF also have Biotodoma cupido, which is a rare and new import and has probably never been bred here. Would be nice to see them bred here but I don't think they'll be anywhere near as good a seller as blue rams.

Bugger, some slightly bigger ones would have been nice!

Mt Roskill had 4, all gone now. 8) Were you talking about Albany?

Order a pair of the double red cockatoo's or german bred blue rams from Hollywood. Fry of both would be well in demand (they'd probably buy it back off you!) and the breeding stock is good quality!

Not mine, from MFK (don't think anyone here has a tiled tank), doing it right; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... hp?t=89002 *can't post the images because they're too big, click the link... :roll:

I had a big redspot pleco that would chase my black aro around the top of the tank at night!!

Nothing wrong with bumping a thread, provided you wait more than three minutes and give people a chance to answer...