That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

That’s right! The NCPARS/That Fish Place Winter Frag Event will be back again in just a few short weeks! On Saturday January 30th from 11 pm-5 pm, we’ll be hosting NCPARS (North Central PA Aquarium Reef Society) members and  coral fraggers and collectors from near and far for the biggest fragging event of the season. Industry experts and vendors will be here to help you with reefing and fragging needs, there will be fragging demos, and LOTS of frags, fish, inverts and other goods. Save the date for this fun and frag-filled event!

Last year’s event was a big success and hundreds of beautiful coral frags found new homes. For more details and to register visit fragswapper.com. and watch for more updates at ThatFishPlace.com closer to the big day!  Admission will be 5.00 for members and 10.oo for non-members, and there will be bargins galore. 

See you then!

Just wanted to say thanks to all the That Fish Place/That Pet Place fans for making our 2009 Anniversary Sale a success. Thanks for everyone that showed up, and hope you enjoyed the deals, the seminars, and the fun. Check out some pics here, as well as on our Facebook page in the next few days.

Hey  Everyone!  Patty here.  Thought I’d take a minute to highlight some of the new and interesting things we’ve gotten in this week in the fish room.  With the Anniversary Sale coming this week, I’m sure there will be more to see and buzz about for the weekend, but here is a look at just a couple of the newest arrivals that are looking particularly pretty.  All of the regular favorites will be here for the sale along with some special goodies that will make the visit even more worthwhile!  We hope you can make it in this weekend!
Freshwater

Lake Tebera Rainbow
Like other Rainbowfish, this species is great for larger community aquariums. They are larger, but active and peaceful. Rainbowfish are also great additions for their shimmering colors.

Small blood parrot
This batch came to us with more natural looking coloration instead of the traditional brightly colored Bloody Parrots.

Lelupi
Lelupi are a staple in the world of African Cichlids, sought after for their interesting habits as well as their bright yellow-orange coloration. These are lovely!

Gold faced datnoid
Datnoids have a mystique about them that is quite a draw. This species has attractive bars and a golden sheen in the head and face. Enthusiasts should check these out!

Saltwater

Yasha haze
The Yasha Haze Goby has been around in the market for a few years now, but every time one arrives it’s beauty still astounds me. This is a great candidate for a reef or nano-reef system.

Orange-spotted Sea Slug
This pretty slug is a real spectacle! A Pacific native, its bright orange dots make it easy to spot.

Swissguard
Despite is rather cryptic, cave-dwelling personality, Swiss Guards and other related basslets like the Swales Swiss Guard (also here) have amazing color and will not disappoint in the right environment. They are most at home in a rocky reef home.

Feel free to contact our livestock department or a fishroom associate if you are looking for anything in particular before you come in or if you are interested in having something live shipped to your door.

The big event this weekend was a blast for everyone involved, the crowd was energized, the officials had their work cut out for them, security was on their toes, the half time show was on the big screen, the stars showed up and did their thing when the pressure was on, and I think there was some kind of football game on the next day as well.

Of course I am talking about the first TFP/NCPARS winter coral frag extravaganza (or whatever it was called) this past weekend here at TFP.  Turnout for the event was great, I think we ended up with about 350 guests, as well as quite a few vendors, and some great guest speakers.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved, for making this a successful event.  Even through the crowds, the lines, and the noise, everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves and take something out of the experience.  Through the generosity of our attending manufacturers, some guests got the chance to win and take home some great raffle prizes.  Frag traders had smiles on their faces, as hundreds of frags changed hands.  Many people took advantage of our guest speakers, and got some great information on a wide range of topics.  Special Thanks to Anthony Calfo, Steven Pro, Dave Troop, Ike Eigenbrode, and Randy Reed for speaking to the group.

This was the first event of this kind that we have hosted here at TFP, and we really were not sure what to expect heading into things on Saturday Morning.  For those of you who frequent our store, you know how busy things can get in the fishroom on a “normal” Saturday, throwing a few hundred more people into things was a bit of an intimidating proposition. The great turnout was a little much for our miniscule sound system, but we’ll definitely have that remedied next time. Everyone involved showed a great deal of patience, and our staff put in the extra effort that was required to really pull things off, Great Job to all, I think we can look forward to more events of this kind in the future.

In addition to the photos I’ve posted here, you can check out the whole lot of them at our Facebook page: That Fish Place/That Pet Place on Facebook. Please let us know how you felt about the event, or anything you think could be done better too.

Happy Reefing, Dave

Hi, Dave here, It has been a while since I have posted a blog entry, I have busy working on some renovations and remodeling of our fish room here in our store.  The bulk of the work is now complete, and wow what a change we have made, the fish room seems HUGE now.  Anyone who has not visited the store in the last couple months is in for a surprise when they visit the fish room.   Walls are missing, systems have moved, systems have expanded, and we are not done yet!

One of the objectives of the remodel was to create a bigger, better open space in what was our “pond room” for hosting events and having a flexible area for whatever we want to use it for.  The first event to take advantage of this new space will be the TFP/NCPARS winter frag swap extravaganza on January 31st, 2009.

I wanted to add some more details about the event, which we had announced a while back, and had a previous blog entry for.

The Frag Swap is being run by NCPARS (the North Central Pennsylvania Reef aquarium Society) and all proceeds from the event will go to benefit the club.  Information about the club can be found on their website http://www.ncpars.org/.  Entrance to the event is $5 for members and $10 for non members.  Attendees and sellers can pre-register on http://www.fragswapper.com/

The event has morphed into much more  than just a frag swap, and will be of interest to any marine aquarium hobbyist, from beginner to expert.  Through TFP’s assosiation with industry leading manufacturer’s and experts, we have put together a show that will include some great seminars, as well as on-hand manufacturers representatives to answer questions about their products.

Seminars for the event include:

Anthony Calfo: Anthony is a well known reef aquarium expert, Authored  “The Book of Coral Propagation” and is the publisher of “C the Journal“.  Anthony has spent years traveling the world and working in many phases of the industry, his seminar for this event is “Interesting facilities of the world” a showcase of places he has visited through the years in all areas of the hobby.

Steven Pro: Steven has worked in the industry for many years in many capacaties, including retail, wholesale, maintenance, and now manufacturing.  Steven’s presentation “You Touched it, Now What? Poisonous, Venomous, and Contagious things in your aquarium” puts together many things that he has seen and learned about dangerous things in your reef aquarium, and how to deal with them.

Randy Reed: Founder of Reed Mariculture, a manufacturer of specialty reef foods, that includes Phytoplankton and Zooplankton diets.  Randy will do a presentation about the “Fundamentals of Feeding Your Reef”

Dave Troop and Mike Elliot:  Dave and Mike are the founders of a new company in the hobby, Aquatic Life.  Dave and Mike have been integral members of a number of industry leading companies through the years, and have now joined forces to start a new company, that strives to bring truly innovative lighting and products to the hobby.  As a former TFP employee, Dave is returning home, to provide a presentation about ” Understanding light Output”

Ike Eigenbrode: Ike is a long time hobbyist, and is now the vice president of sales and marketing of Current USA, an industry leader in aquarium lighting and chiller manufacturing. Ike is going to do a presentation on “Aquariums and Energy Efficiency”

Along with these Seminars, manufacturer Representatives from Brightwell Aquatics, Kent Marine, Seachem, EcoTech Marine, Ice Cap, Coralife, Red Sea, and others will be present throughout the show to answer questions and showcase some of their products.

Last but not least THE DEALS!  TFP will give every paid attendee a 20% off one item coupon, good for use after the sale (restrictions apply).  In cooperation with our manufacturers, both attending and non attending, we will have a selection of over 300 additional products on sale the day of the event ranging from 10% – 25% off our already low prices.  These sale items will only be available to frag swap attendees.

Also benefiting NCPARS, the show will end with a raffle of some really great items that have been donated by our manufacturers.  A sample of some of the items in the raffle include:

Complete Solana and Cardiff aquarium setups from Current USA, these are beautiful high end nano aquarium, valued at over $700 dollars each!  These aquariums will be set up as displays during the show, so you can see them in all their beauty!

EcoTech Marine Vortec WMP 20 wave pump

Sunlight Supply  400watt Blue Wave Metal Halide ballast

Red Sea C-Skim 1200 Protein Skimmer

Aquatic Life pH Controller

Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor

And Many more items………

Come Join us January 31st from 11-5 for our first frag swap, there is alot of buzz about the show, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there.

Schedule of Events:

Hope to see you there,

Dave