Fish & Friends

“I’m tired of this Grandpa!”

Our temporary quarantine room is continuing to grow! I can’t wait to actually be able to build this room out the way I envision it instead of this thrown together mess. Currently running seven 10s, a 30, and five 40 breeders consisting of the following fish:

Albino Eureka Red Peacocks
Benga Sunshine Peacocks
Red Spotted Severums
Koi Angelfish
Green Moscow Guppy pairs
Platinum Galaxy Guppy pairs
Snow White Plecos
Super Red Plecos (short and Longfin)
Kribensis
Gardneri Killifish pairs
Electric Blue Acara
L333 Plecos
Endlers
Red Fin Borleyi (female)
OB Peacocks
Gunther’s Mouthbrooder pair (might keep as this actually used to be my pair that got passed around to different hobbyists until they came back in)

Went to the mailbox this morning and a package containing these heaters was in there 🥹 Thank you so much Jacquelynn Hoffman Williams! I don’t know what we did to deserve having so many great people in our lives that want to help us out, but I’m beyond grateful! Now if only the bank wanted to help us to open as much as you guys do...

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the fish we have in quarantine right now! A few of you probably see some of your fish and equipment in these pictures and I can’t thank you guys enough for helping us out!

This is absolutely insane! Thank you all so much for spreading the word! We were only at 840 yesterday and it’s crazy to think that a chain reaction off of one post would do this! Once we are able to open, we’ll have to do a giveaway to celebrate reaching 1,000 followers!

Wow! We gained 90 followers since yesterday afternoon just from someone asking about us in a local group and it seems like every time I check my phone that we have at least one more! At this rate, we’ll be at 1,000 followers before we even open! Thank you to everyone who has been following our progress over these past five months and I hope we can soon be open to share our hard work with you!

For those not aware, reptile legend, Brian Barczyk, has entered hospice care and has put out his final video which unfortunately is a goodbye video. This video is not for the weak hearted and has a grown man bawling at 6am. Brian has done so much for the reptile community and it breaks my heart to know that he won’t get to be there to see his LegaSea aquarium when it is completed. If you don’t follow his YouTube channel, follow it now. His wife and crew will continue to utilize the channel and put out more content to keep Brian’s legacy alive.

This Is Goodbye... Goodbye is not the end, but the start of a new beginning. We love you, Brian. Subscribe To My Linktree: https://linktr.ee/brianbarczykBecome A Y...

Another rack of tanks drilled and wrapped! Six racks (other rack is on the other side of the room blocked by pallets of tanks) totaling 84 tanks so far! Sounds like a lot until you realize you still have 258 to go…

Robert Bidniuk dropped off some fish and surprised me with a custom hat he made! I love it! Make sure to hit him up for any custom laser engraving. The quality is clearly there!

Our first fish have hit the quarantine tanks! Thank you so much to Jereme Mohler for bringing them in!

Hey guys! We are ready to take in some fish! Unfortunately, it’s only a few tanks at the moment, but we can at least start getting them quarantined for when our plumbing is ready on the main floor. So many people have reached out over the past few months wanting to donate/exchange fish for store credit and I honestly can’t remember who everyone was, so please reach out again if you’re still interested in doing so!

And just like that, half of our floor space is gone!

27 pallets of tanks coming in!

A few more pieces falling into place! We picked up a carbon filter and a low pH filter last night. Thank you so much to Bev & Dale Newcomer for the great deal on them! Also, thank you to Trenton Stevens for helping me get them off the truck and into the store! I remember hearing about this low pH filter ever since I first got into the organized hobby and always dreamed of having one. The fact that it’s sitting in our store right now is just mind blowing! If I remember correctly, this filter can get the pH down to 5.0 which will be huge once we start breeding various species of plecos, apistos, tetras, etc. A carbon filter is an absolute necessity when you’re running as many tanks as we are, especially when they’re going to be on an automatic water change system. We also were able to set up seven tanks for quarantine! It’s not a pretty set up, but it’s functional and temporary. I’ll be bringing in some media tomorrow to get the sponges cycled. To top it all off, we got a call from Jehmco today to let us know that the rest of our bulkheads are in and will either be at our store tomorrow or Monday depending on UPS.

Got the confirmation that the rest of the store tanks will be here Monday! We are planning to have our water and drain lines ran in the middle of next week and then the air ran by the end of next week. Hopefully lighting won’t be far behind! Still waiting around to hear about the status of our loan. We’ve reached out twice with no responses. On the brighter side, our business credit card application was FINALLY fixed and approved!

Wrapping the tanks in vinyl! Getting closer every day!

Jennifer Williams killed it as usual with our new window cling! Hopefully we won’t see so many confused faces as they walk by our store front now!

The six 20 longs for our ”Betta Barracks” and the 30 20 longs for our “Catfish Cove” are all drilled! We have a roll of vinyl coming in on Saturday to start getting some of these tanks wrapped. A soft opening is seeming more realistic every day!

Gift certificates are hot off the press! Let us know if you want one, especially with Christmas right around the corner!

Two days ago, I couldn’t drill a tank to save my life. Today, I consecutively drilled all 18 ten gallons we need for our “Crustacean Station” without a single mistake. When things get tough, don’t give up! Just reevaluate your steps, tweak a few things, and eventually you’ll get the results you are looking for!

Our blower and some of our bulkhead kits have arrived! Unfortunately, we bought the company out of all they had so we’ll have to wait for them to restock, but we’re getting there!

Some of our hole saws started rolling in! Sending up some prayers that I don’t break too many tanks getting them drilled.

Air valves are installed! Our blower and bulkheads are being ordered Monday so hopefully we can have our whole air system installed in the next week or so!

510 air valves ready to be installed into some pvc!

Room sale hopping!

Haakon Haagensen debuted his new oddball catfish talk today for the first time ever and it just happened to be our favorite talk of the event! It’s also the only time I’ve ever witnessed Tara go out of her way to tell a speaker how much she enjoyed their talk.

Finally got to see this fish in person! Thor is a giant Amphilophus labiatus that has been crushing the show trail for years. I’ve been seeing pictures of him for as long as I can remember, but I can assure you that they don’t do him justice.

Stopped by Something Fishy in Cleveland and we were very impressed! It’s definitely a hobbyist shop through and through. All of the fish looked fantastic and the prices were really good! They also have an offsite hatchery with about 300 tanks that we unfortunately didn’t get to see today, but a lot of their fish are bred there. I highly recommend stopping by if you’re ever in the area!

Definitely our favorite part about the Midwest 🤤