Club trip out visiting the local fish shops in the Edinburgh area.

We had agreed to all meet up at OutsideInside aquatics in Haddington at 10.30am. I was first to arrive, with Christine plus Colin and Susan Beavis. We had agreed at the club to try and car share as much as possible. Mike and Jill followed moments behind. Eric arrived shortly afterwards with John, Linda, Jean and Wilma.

 

Rear: Eric Jones, Mike Dewar, Linda Reid, Jill Dewar, Susan Beavis, Colin Beavis.

Front: John Reid, Wilma Alma, Jean Symington, Christine Graham

Hugh, the Manager, had offered to open up a little earlier than usual to give us the shop to ourselves. He was even kind enough to provide tea, coffee and also biscuits!!! Thanks Hugh.

We spent an hour looking through the tanks, selecting fish, plants etc. I won't go into what was bought at each shop, but I will list all the species bought at the end of the article. Hugh's shop is very well organised, tanks are clean and the fish are of excellent quality.

After leaving Outsideinside aquatics, we headed to Tranent and East Lothian aquatics, formerly aquatic rooms, before deciding to head further into Edinburgh city centre. Christine and I, always try to pop into the local fish shops over the water whenever we are in the area, I was elected as the car to lead the way.

We headed off, and stopped at Aquarama, Down Leith walk. This is a shop also dealing with snakes, lizards and spiders. It looked like they were due a fish order in, as there wasn't a lot of choice, however, there were still some interesting fish to choose from.

From there we agreed to go for some lunch. Chinese was agreed on and so we managed to park the cars a little way down Leith walk and had a nice stroll up to the Chinese buffet restaurant, just up past the Playhouse theatre. We had a lovely meal, which was very reasonably priced. There were quite a few laughs and everyone enjoyed themselves.

 

 Wilma - "I am still a bit peckish I think I will have some more"

Mike & Colin compare sizes!!

After we got back to the cars we headed for Oceanlife, which is down Leith walk, unfortunately the shop is due for closure and this will probably be our first and last visit!! This is a shame because it is a really nice, clean shop with very good fish for sale. Wilma couldn't resist buying another tank for sale and it was quite funny seeing her heading back to the cars with the tank in her walking frame!!

Poor Wilma left to struggle with her new tank!

I then lead the way again, this time heading for Waterwonders, at Gorgie road. We managed to get the cars parked and headed in, the tropical fish are kept downstairs. They had a very nice selection of Dwarf cichlids in and quite a few discus species. We selected our fish and decided it was time to head home.

All in all it was a very enjoyable day, it gave the members a chance to visit shops that some of them hadn't been at before.

Species bought are as follows:

BadisAssamensis, Honey gouramis, swordtails, puntiusgelius, puntiuscominqii red, rasboralacrimula, rasborahetramorpha, cyprincla or notropischrosomus, Brachydaniohakariyellow form, rummy nose tetras, shubukin(coldwater), ColisaLalia, and mickey mouse swordtails. 

Or next trip will be the club bus trip to Bolton, Wigan pier and Penrith which is planned for Sunday 18^th of September 2011.

We plan on fitting in another day out visiting the shops in the Dundee/Cupar area toward the end of the year.

I would just like to say thank you to everyone that came along and helped make it a very enjoyable day out.

Regards

Joe Graham

KAS president