Monday, December 16, 2013

A Road Trip to Batfish Aquatics

      Yesterday I drove down to Batfish Aquatics in Silver Spring, MD.  Lee Harper joined me at my house, and we picked up Gary Haas in Havre De Grace.  It was an easy trip with little traffic, for I95 that is, and we were there within two hours.  Josh Wiegert is the owner and operator of Batfish, an aquarium fish importing and distributing business run from a basement store area under a strip mall.  Josh warned us to bring flash lights as there is only overhead lighting.  The extra light came in handy.  He has a website:

http://batfishaquatics.com/freshwater.php

I was quite impressed that the website was very much up to date with the actual inventory at his shop.

Amano shrimp
      My first purchase was a half dozen Amano shrimp for $15 total.  It was only after I got them home and read about them, that I was disappointed to find out that they needed brackish water for any try for success in breeding them.  I did have a tank already set up that was brackish, from a previous attempt to keep the native sheepshead minnow.  The tank is overrun with hair algae, the perfect food for the shrimp.  I had wanted them to graze and clean some of my freshwater tanks, but for now I will try the brackish set up.


      Lots and lots of food available.  I also bought three Venezualan Cory Cats for a total of $12.  They went into a tank that has had four Kitty tetras for quite some time.  My last purchase was six sub adult Flame tetras for a total of $8.  Made for a fun day, plus I missed watching the Vikings slaughter the Eagles.