Felix

that's exactly the fish I was talking about!! Had never heard of them before but I'm not a SW person. Just thought others would like to see them. Thanks for helping me out!!

Aren't they just the coolest.

New Orleans Aquarium have a display of these guys and get the school kids to find the dragons as part of their worksheets.

the Aquarium is one of the best things to see in NewOrleans, unfortunately Bourbon Street has is becoming like certain areas of Amsterdam and Hamburg.

but if you go, go to the Aquarium and the bug palace fantastic

Felix

IMO (In my opinion) and IMHO (In my honest opinion) are ones I see commonly on forums too.

slight derivation on IMHO In my humble opinion,

LFS - Local fish shop?

LOL laughed out loud ie laughing with you

lmao Laughing my @$$ off ie laughing at you!

TLA -Three Letter Acronym

As an Accountant I have to ask you to ask yourself some simple questions.

What is my my turnover likely to be? Past performance is no guarantee its a recession out there.

What are my costs. Fixed (ie what do you have to pay each month whether you open or not)

Variable (ie what does it cost you to open )

What is my profit margin, most people on here have talked about trades / cheap deals because they are your mates ( you'll be bankrupt inside a month !) your margin pays your costs.

How much do I want to pay myself / how much do I have to pay my self (you need to eat, somewhere to live,( mortgage) need a car/van/truck, vacation )

Most new business fail in the first year most because of cash flow issues even profitable businesses.

I have been involved in winding up a business where at the end we gave the owner a cheque with five 0's on it. it was a profitable business but his creditors got nervous and wanted their cash and it destroyed his business.

Lots of small businessman are divorced " you spend more time at that #@$%^& shop than you do with me and the kids!!"

I don't know you or your wife or even if you are married but you both need to be going in to this with your eyes open that it will be very stressful and may cost your marriage.

If I have upset you with this comment I apologies but you must think through the pitfalls. it competitive and don't be surprised if your competitors welcome you with discounts and bargain sales the week you open. they will want you closed as quickly as possible. the pie is the same size regardless of how many mouths it has to feed. for you to have a piece they have to have a smaller piece they won't like this.

Best of luck with your decision

and remember there's a reason why its previous owners didn't succeed.

Felix

Guppies are deifnitely a good starter fish, although I recommend going for a tank with all males if planning to do this, since I don't think you want them breeding out of control in your work place tank.

Absolutely agree, should have said male only.

I started with a 24x18x12 tank and that is perfect for guppies

at work it was 48x 18x12, we had plastic plants (not my choice, I had to be inclusive!!) and had a mix of all sorts of fish.

most popular were the neons, and angels and the red tail shark. I had a pleco as they do keep the glass clean and kids find them fascinating.

the fish that survived the first month turned out to be remarkably hardy but I did have a sign by the electric socket saying do not unplug or switch off life support!!

sounds obvious but you'd be surpised and not just the cleaners either!!

Felix

I had a wooden airstone in the UK which produced very fine bubbles

I did bin it after a while as it had the prepensity to float to the surface!!

Also the fish were not keen on it and helped it free its self from where i had it.

Not sure i think the fish looked that keen on the set up and for me thats whats really important.

just my thougts

Felix

Duck Pah!!

We had Pelicans flyover the house at the weekend in Sherwood Park!!

PELICANS!!! I thought they lived in Miami

they seem to to happy at the lake in Festival place but its another thing to worry about if and when I get a my Koi pond!!

Felix

PELICANS!!!!

In an Office enviroment where you can get additional"help" whether you want it or not.

I would go for cheap and cheerful and be prepared to replace fish regularly.

We had a tank in a waiting room kindly donated by the League of Friends of the hospital I was working at in East London (uk)

I had to lock the top down to stop kids from trying to feed the fish ( mostly Chips!!)

I have always had a soft spot for Guppies its how I started as a teenager a guppy tank is colourful and there is always something happening

Felix

Changing the subject very slightly, I kept Koi in England before coming to Canada. They are still swimming around my Father's pond but if I wanted to bring them here it sounds like I just (big just) need to fly them in as i would have no intention of selling them.

Anyone any idea of the cost of doing this?

Cost maybe prohibitive, granted and I have to build a suitable pond so they could survive an Edmonton winter but it would be permissable?

Felix

After a long fight with David at aquagiant he finally gave my money back. He was so pissed at me he banned me from coming back.

I waited 6 months, I was more then fair, right?

My dad is picking up a sheet 80''x 24 3/4'' at 3/4'' thick from fish4fun here on aa. I am getting this sheet for $290.00. For a 3/4'' sheet that large thats a great price. I would recommended buying from him because the price is right :thumbs:

I will keep you guys updated.

Just for the avoidance of doubt you paid upfront, waited 6 months asked for your money back and then they banned you.

Hmmm, apparently there's NO recession at Aquagiant !!

Thay can afford all the bad publicity and then ban a loyal customer (waiting 6 months seems pretty loyal to me).

UP side is you are getting the glass soon and were all really excited about you finishing the project :thumbs: (Obviously you are too)

can't wait for the photos when its finished it's going to be FANTASTIC!!!!

Felix

I will have to look that up Felix sounds like a pretty good name for him though.

Just to claify, Felix can mean happiness or Lucky in Latin, I think both work in this case as he is obviously happy to have been rescued on his great adventure.

Felix can be used as a name for both sexes but I think Felicia which is the female form is much nicer if she turn out to be a girl frog.

Felix -ham-

hahahaha...that frog is indeed very lucky!

or you could try something more original like Felix which is latin for Luck (I believe)

Afteral Felix the Frog sounds like he's a famous adventurous frog!! :thumbs:

Just received my Epcor Bill and inside they have this deal on rain barrel 200 litre for $40. limited to 2 per Edmonton residents. Comes with lid and tap too. If the plastic barrel is not rated food quality, would you use these barrel for aging your water?

You can order your barrel at 780 412 6868 from Apr 1 - May 8

If you live in Strathcona ours cost $45(inc GST) and can pre purchase from MP GRAC or the wilderness centre from May 2nd

I am guessing they are similar to EPCOR's you must how ever have proof of Strathcona Residency!!

Felix

This year I kept:

Goldfish (but had to pull the fantails out at 68 - too cold)

Rosy Red minnows

Mountain cloud minnows

guppies (removed at 60)

platies (many babies from them) (removed at 60)

Botia lohachata - Pakistani loach (removed at 60 - but an elusive one is still in there and temps have dropped below 50 at times!)

Kuhlii loach (removed at 65 - do not let them get any colder)

All lived well together. The guppies and platies are so voracious - no mosquito larvae in my pond. the mountain clouds cleaned up many small insects. The loaches surprised me, doing very well, but forewarned the Kuhlii loach prefers temps closer to 70 and above - I had to pull them when temps dropped.

I actually saw a Rosy red jump 3 inches out of the water to get a fly on the wall! Honestly, I did feed them!

I am shocked and surprised by what people keep in their ponds!!

I only ever kept Koi carp in a 14 ft sq pond which was 6ft deep and that was in England

Apart from stoping the koi from eating the to my mind samll fish how do you see them??

or are we talking small shallow ponds that get wrapped up in the fall and started in June?

I saw out door tropical ponds at Seaworld Florida and they were fantastic

Welcome! Where in the UK are you from?

Hi Greg

I'm from a place called Shrivenham which is an Oxfordshire village, its claim to fame is that it has the UK Defence Academy on the doorstep, otherwise its a small sleepy kind of place

Worked mostly in central London so i have swapped a 2 hours each way commute for a 12minute each way commute.

kept alsorts of cichlids and community tanks including a small 24inch guppy tank (still have a soft spot for the guppies)

also kept Koi for about 15 years.

cheers

Felix aka Mark

Hi All

Just a quick post to say Hi.

Just arrived from the UK so tankless and pondless at the moment.

Kept Koi for years (my father still has them in his garden/pond)

also kept a variety of tropical and coldwater fish.

Still have a soft spot for guppys after twenty years and kept a small 24 inch tank just for them I think they are fun!!

I have decided to go for Saltwater fish for the first time so am open to any advice.

Thanks

Felix