# Hamilton Big Al's fish shopping



## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

I was in the store today (140 Centennial PKWY 905-560-1000) and saw a few interesting fish.

The fish room manager is James and he has been a hobbyist all his life and took that college tropical fish course they used to have in Lindsey. He also has travelled to Africa and fished in Lake Malawi with my ACA buddy Ad Konings.

They had:


a group of Otopharynx lithobates (Malri island) These are not the normal sulpher crested variety. 

Theirs were full size and in awesome colour. Some females were holding.

A few very nice Synodontus angelica priced at only $49.99. I bought one as I have 2 really old ones that will soon be doing the backstroke. One I bought in 1987 and the other in 1988. So they are long lived fish.

Puntius padanya one of 3 fish sold as the Odessa barb in pet stores. Similar to P. tico but has a deeper red/burgandy than tico.
They were only described in 2008. and come from northern Myanmar. Collected from a large pond near the village of Toe Gyi. They had about 2 dozen and at a good size. I have also seen this species in Jerry Drapers The Tropical Fish Room in Brantford. Something a little different.

About 2 dozen Nandopsis haitiensis called the Black Nasty. One of my favourite cichlids and normally only kept occasionally by more serious Central American cichlid hobbyists because they are so scarce. Although they have the potential to get large only one of mine has every exceeded 6 inches. So if you don't have too big a tank and are looking for something seldom available but is very tough you might like these. The males are a light colour with spots. The females turn dark black when breeding. I've bred them at 4 1/2" males and 3 1/2" females. They were priced at $9.99. A lot less than I got mine for as I had to drive to Cleveland to get them and paid a lot more for fish that were half the size.

They had both the Elliots firemouth cichlid and the gold firemouths (in the $9 to $15 range. Again nice cichlids a lot less aggressive than the regular firemouth. I keep 5 Gold firemouths with a few gold barbs a several synodontus and they do really well together in a four foot tank.

They had several unusual polypterus including 2 species I have never owned P. mokelembembe (only $31.99 and stays small at 8 to 10" max) and P. weeksi at $26.99

A few other neat cichlids include the dwarf nannacara amomala ($5.99) gold cheeck sinspila (also synspilus or syspilum) at $7.99 and rainbow cichlids at $11.99

They also had some monster Pomacea bridgesii the Gold Mystery/apple snails.

A good outing and worth the trip to Hamilton


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## Pamelajo (Aug 9, 2009)

arapaimag said:


> They also had some monster Pomacea bridgesii the Gold Mystery/apple snails.


Thanks, I was hoping they would get some in soon. The monster ones are usually pomacea canaliculata. 
The bridgesii now named diffusa are the golf ball sized coloured ones. 
For anyone thinking of getting the big guys a warning they are plant eaters and will make short work of a planted tank.


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## arapaimag (Dec 6, 2007)

Pamelajo said:


> Thanks, I was hoping they would get some in soon. The monster ones are usually pomacea canaliculata.
> The bridgesii now named diffusa are the golf ball sized coloured ones.
> For anyone thinking of getting the big guys a warning they are plant eaters and will make short work of a planted tank.


These were the large gold bridgesii not the different species canaliculata. They are not as big as the canaliculta. But they are a lot bigger than bridgesii normally seen in stores. The big ones were possibly full grown and about 2 inches.

The bridgesii have never eaten any of my plants. As you know I also have the blue bridgesii I bought from Big Al's Kitchener which we spoke about in a phone call a couple of months ago. The Blue ones were only quarter sized when I bought them.

The blue ones I got are a low grade blue has anyone seen high quality blues or purples in any local stores?


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## Pamelajo (Aug 9, 2009)

Michael? 
Ohhh they must be full grown then and a good size. I have not seen any lately. Still on the hunt. I do have a source of purples(not sure about other colours) out west through a guy who ordered my food, but not getting any from him til spring.


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