David R Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 I've recently returned from a 4 week jaunt around the UK and Europe with a quick stop in Singapore on the way home so I thought I'd share some of the various fish-related pics I took. If anyone is interested in seeing the non-fish pics they can look for me on the FNZAS Facebook page and there you should be able to see the selection of pics I have uploaded there. First stop was Richard AKA T1KARMANN from MonsterFishKeepers, I've been following the build of his 1000g tank since it started and as soon as I knew we were going to the UK I made it a priority to visit him. He also used to have the largest group of Uaru fernandezyepezi in the UK (14 adults!) so I was interested to pick his brains about one of my favourite species I'll never get to keep. For anyone interested, here is a link to his 1000g build thread, its been running for about a year now with the current stock. Tank is 8'x6'x3' to give you an idea of the size of the fish. 30" super red aro Massive Siamese Tiger (not to be confused with the more common indo's we get here), close to 2' long, super tall and fat. Biggest P14 ray, disc close to 2' diameter, just gave birth to 5 pups yesterday. Same ray, going top to bottom on a 3' tall tank. I've also got a couple of videos of me feeding them which I might upload later. After London we went to Berlin for a few days, and on the third day we went to the Berlin Aquarium. Well worth the visit and highly recommended to anyone over that way, had a big range of aquariums on the ground floor, a huge selection of reptiles and amphibians on the second floor, and a heap of freaky insects on the third floor. Can put up more pics if people are interested. Entrance. Hannah with a big planted tank full of the biggest congo tetras I've ever seen. South American tank with rays, geophagus, a school of Hydrolycus scomberoides, catfish and others. Another South American tank, with [true] Altum Angels, dwarf knife fish, massive (by Apisto standards) A. hongsloi, various whiptails and plecs. Another South American, this one with wild discus, P. leopoldi, huge school of cardinals and penguins, whiptails, hundreds of cories, other plecs etc. Madagascan cichlids, still pretty rare in the hobby. At the end of the corridor in the first pic there is a big salt water tank in the middle and 5 of the large opened topped tanks around the outside, one with reef fish, one brackish, one SA with smaller fish like silver aros, armartus, peacock bass, piranha, silver dollars, another SA with an arapaima, pacus, rtc etc, and an asian one with monster pangasius catfish, giant gouramis, barbs, fly river turtles, green aros, and snakeheads. (no Hannah isn't looking fir Kyle, I told her to hold her arm out to give an idea of the size of the aro) Arapaima was about 6-7' Massive Niger catfish, huge spines down the side Albino shark thing in the salt tank Can't remember the name of it :oops: We spent a few more days in Munich and Bavaria, then met my parents for a 7 night cruise around Turkey and the Greek Islands (was supposed to be going to Jerusalem and Egypt but Ghaddafi put a stop to that) and spent 3 days on Crete and a day in Athens, and then had a two day stop over in Singapore on the way home. The first day we went to the Botanic Gardens where I spent more time looking at the fish in the ponds than the plants, then the following day we went to the zoo and some fish shops. Mayan cichlid in the pond in the gardens. Midas/red devil pair guarding fry in a cave. There were big schools of midas/devils in the main pond, it was interesting to see the varying shapes and colours, they ranged from almost white to deep red, but most were yellowish, and there were a couple of really short bodied ones that nearly looked like they could have a bit of parrot fish in them. The dark ones are either mayans or flowerhorn type things. The nicest silver aro I have ever seen, no drop eye, no PLJ, about a metre long and solid, PERFECT! Snakeheads with fry. Catfish, you couldn't even see them until one of the locals chucked in some bread for them, then they would swarm to the surface in a feeding frenzy. Casual school of over 12 asian aros in the pond around the orang-utans at the zoo. I spotted reds, rtg, yellow tail and green. Nice RTG, can't beat the natural sunlight for colouring fish up. I visited one Maidenhead Aquatics in Wembley, a random shop in Munich, and a couple of different shops in Singapore. I was quite impressed with Maidenhead, they had a good range of fish and gear, 4 big display tanks (including one with a SR aro and rays, and another with 5 fly river turtles) and a huge indoor koi pond. They also had several notices up about only selling large fish to appropriate homes. The shop in Germany was small but well stocked, lots of planted tanks and gear for them. All the display tanks had plants, and had a big selection of plecs (with L numbers) and apistos. The shops in Singapore were chaotic but awesome. Those who were freaking out about the tanks in the "fish tank cruelty" thread would be advised to stay away, as would anyone with claustrophobia! The first one was Clementi Florist and Aquarium (no idea where the florist bit was!), the dry stock was stacked out onto the footpath under an awning, the aisles weren't wide enough for two people to pass in, the tanks were tiny and really heavily stocked but all the fish were healthy and good looking and I didn't see a single dead fish. They had at least 20 asian aros in stock, RTG's for about $350SD, reds, xb's violet fusion etc. Even the VF's were kept four to a small tank. Had a couple of tanks of rays and a large number of plecs of all different sizes. I was blown away by the range and prices, if only houses weren't so expensive there! The second shop, AquaHobby, was a bit smaller and less hectic, and owned and run by a guy from MFK. They had a good selection bichirs including several larger wild caught ones, a big couple of big laps, ansorgii and a ~12" P. bichir bichir (super rare and only recently becoming more available). Here's some pics of his stock, the L134's were gorgeous! Both shops are only a short distance from the MRT, if anyone is travelling and finds themselves with a spare afternoon in Singapore I'd recommend checking them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Arapaima, Scobi, Doradidae, Ray's! !drool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fruju Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Excellent. Good time then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flatfish Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Awesome aquaria and ponds with some stunning fish. Arapaima are fantastic looking fish. They had some big ones at the Singapore Bird Park in a large outdoor aquarium that you could feed sprats on a fishing pole if you paid your money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshlikesfish Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 :happy1: :happy1: :happy1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Awesome pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrudd Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Awsome pics, wow you must have had a super time. I would never want to leave :thup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hovmoller Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 WOW WOW and another big WOW!! Great pics David.. I'm amazed how much "fish" you managed to include in your holiday :slfg: Those germans ey... when they do something they do it well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 The Berlin Aquarium has just gone onto my "must see" list :thup: Would love to see more pics of the 2nd and 3rd floors! :happy2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 WOW WOW and another big WOW!! +1 +1 +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige.xo Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 coool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally07 Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 David - awesome pics! :thup: Looks like you had a really good time. Re: the fish shop in Singapore. That was my favourite LFS when I lived there; I used to live a short bus ride away. Most commonly known as C328 (Clementi Block 328) by the locals, but any fish keeper in Singapore will know it. Anybody who finds HFF Mt Roskill cramped will NOT survive at C328 haha! But there is sooo much dry stuff in there for great prices if you can be bothered to look. (Sigh, I miss that place sometimes lol) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Awesome pics David, thanks for sharing.. Have to agree the aquarium looks great all the rare and wild caught stuff in amazing tanks to be enjoyed, seems we miss out big time here. Amazing seeing all the aros cruising around in the ponds at the zoo and the midas in big ponds, it is just a whole other world for fish keeping over there, looks like you had a good time though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Thanks, it sure was an eye opener. Ally I agree, Clementi makes HFF look like a spacious boutique store! I'd miss it too, but with the house prices over there it would make it difficult to get a place big enough to house a tank big enough to keep all the great species available. Great pics David.. I'm amazed how much "fish" you managed to include in your holiday :slfg: It helps that Hannah is kinda interested too. It wasn't actually that much time out of the trip, despite the huge quantity of pics I took! A couple of morning trips in the UK, about 4 hours in Berlin (hotel was 5 minutes walk down the road), and about half a day in Singapore. Had about half a dozen more shops on the list to visit in Singapore but they were too far away and we were running out of time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterlogged Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 The Berlin Aquarium has just gone onto my "must see" list :thup: :happy2: +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted June 19, 2011 Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 Stunning - but the pictures could have been a bit bigger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 I tried uploading the 8mp originals but it wouldn't let me for some reason! I'll have a look thru the pics of the reptiles and insects at the Berlin Aquarium and put some up tonight. They had a big display of weaver ants confined only by a small pond around the tree they were on, was pretty cool to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firenzenz Posted June 20, 2011 Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 Very nice David- Sounds like an Awesome trip! looks like an expensive trip to the picture framers is on the cards with all those great shots Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted June 20, 2011 Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 thanks for sharing! those rays are awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony law Posted June 20, 2011 Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 you lucky bugger...thats is awsome :nfs: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally07 Posted June 20, 2011 Report Share Posted June 20, 2011 Ally I agree, Clementi makes HFF look like a spacious boutique store! I'd miss it too, but with the house prices over there it would make it difficult to get a place big enough to house a tank big enough to keep all the great species available. I don't think I would be able to sleep at night knowing that my 1000kg tank and stand could potentially land in the downstairs' neighbours living room if the flooring wasn't structurally sound enough! Much prefer having a tank on concrete flooring in a HOUSE here in NZ lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 looks like an expensive trip to the picture framers is on the cards with all those great shots Thanks, managed to snap a few nice scenic ones in Berchtesgaden and on the cruise, hopefully some of them will be worth printing in a larger size. Here's a few more pics from the aquarium, yes they did have some african cichlids! Reptiles on the second floor (often hard to photograph thru wet or scratched or grubby glass) Amphibions and Insects on the third floor Weaver Ants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterlogged Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 I want one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted June 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 They were pretty cool, amazingly coloured, but because of the hugh humidity and mist in their enclosures I couldn't get good photos of the others. Does anyone want to see some of the other non fish/reptile pics? Here's a few from the BMW Museum in Munich for the car enthusiasts among us. Well worth a visit for anyone interested in cars or motorsport, and even just for someone interested in architecture, the design of the building and the way the cars and bikes are displayed is very cool. BMW Welt [World] where you can go to order and collect your new BMW. My favourite part, the touring cars. E30 M3, probably my favourite shape/model 3.0 CSL One of the many engines on display, some even had headphones so you could listen to them being raced. The BMW Art Cars are all on display in a round part of the building that spirals upwards before coming to the top level with a big high dome roof and 360* screen playing a film about the project. Could have spent hours here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony law Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 thats cool.. !drool: !drool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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