Where Do You Get Your Oddballs From (uk)

[CAC]

Hi im wondrering where people from the UK get their oddballs from...
do you get em offline?
how much do you pay etc.
thanks, mikey

 

[cane76]

my lfs MA(wyevale heathrow) have a good selection of oddballs eels,aros,rays etc.but you cant beat wild wood(enfield)

 

[CAC]

How much are things, like bichirs etc???

 

[k.o.d]

Wholesale Tropicals in Bethnall Green are excellent and very reasonably priced

I tend to buy from the specialist importers ( i.e. for Asian Arowanas you cannot beat the prices at www.arowanas.co.uk and his fish are top quality, you will save £400 easily on a good RTG )

Pier Aquatics in Lancashire are really good for stingrays

To be honest, what oddballs are you looking for???

 

[CAC]

Well in a couple of months im looking to get a 40G+ for maybe a bichir or a peacock eel or something..
juts wondering, cos if i cant get a bichir easily or for a reasonable price then, ill get something else...
thanks, mikey

 

[willtang3000]

www.trimar.co.uk might have some iam not sure you can always try www.tropicalimports.co.uk of course they can get you basically anything

 

[CFC]

The majority of my fish either come from Wildwoods in Enfield or from WWW.Tropical Imports.co.uk via mail order, its rare these days that i see anything that takes my fancy in the local shops.

 

[CAC]

Ive been on tropical imports and found both armoured and tiger bichirs...
i know a little about armoured, but not tigers...
what are they like, what tank sizes etc.

EDIT: Just seen a place that sells Toxotes microlepis, a form of archers that are freshwater....how big of tanks do people keep them in?

 

[nmonks]

Archerfish get to around 15 to 20 cm in home aquaria, though a couple of species at least get substantially bigger in the wild. While they don't swim around much when mature, you still don't want to crowd this fish. Decide whether you want one or a group. Twos and threes don't tend to work because they are somewhat aggressive towards each other. A single specimen may be shy but is otherwise fine with scats, monos, etc. (that's how I kept my specimen years ago). They're _very_ predatory, so don't underestimate the safe size of tankmates!

Cheers,

Neale

Just seen a place that sells Toxotes microlepis, a form of archers that are freshwater....how big of tanks do people keep them in?

Apropos the original question, I happen to like Wholesale Tropicals a lot, but I have periodically purchased some nice fish at Wildwoods (see picture below of my latest addition). I tend to go for the smaller oddballs though, so a lot of their stock doesn't appeal. Wholesale Tropicals at least does carry a lot of cool small stuff, like dwarf puffers, unusual anabantids, gobies, etc. On the other hand, I'm usually disappointed by most branches of Maidenhead Aquatics, but the St. Albans one is sometimes very interesting.

Cheers,

Neale

Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus

 

[CAC]

So, if i kept one itd be allright...?
How big tanks do they need?
if i kept one, how many other fish could i keep in the same tank and what species???

 

[nmonks]

One archer is fine. Just don't keep it with anything aggressive. If it's a freshwater species, consider things like docile to slightly aggressive cichlids (angels, firemouths, etc.); small predatory catfish (e.g., Pim pictus); large barbs and tetras (e.g., silver dollars); that sort of thing.

Archers are happiest when they have the top to themselves, so best choose midwater fish and benthic fish. But I've kept brackish water species with everything from dog-faced puffers to gars. They're quite tolerant fish.

Cheers,

Neale

So, if i kept one itd be allright...?
How big tanks do they need?
if i kept one, how many other fish could i keep in the same tank and what species???

 

[CAC]

So if i say kept 1 archer (Toxotes microlepis), the freshwater one, and i kept, say 4 silver dollars, what size tank would i need?
what do archers eat???
you dont have to put live flys or insects in and let them fly arround do you?

Mikey

 

[nmonks]

Archers will happily spend the rest of their lives eating floating food, just like other fish. That said, you're missing out on a treat by not watching them spit. I trained mine to spit when changing the water. I'd lower the water level by a few inches, and then after the fish had settled down, stuck some prawn chunks onto the glass. The archer would then spit off the prawn, I'd have some fun watching, and then I'd add the new water. There's a trick to training them, which I describe here.

Silver dollars are about the same size as archers and should make fine companions. I've not tested that combination, given mine was a brackish water species, but since silver dollars are not very different to monos, I'd guess they would be just as good. Silver dollars are hyperactive and pretty big, even the smallest is about 10 cm long. So I think you need to be looking at a tank certainly more than 120 cm (4 feet) long once the fish are mature. Perhaps a bit smaler for juveniles. A 90 cm (3 feet) aquarium would be, I feel, just too small.

A big tank would also let you have space to add some catfish. Adult Corydoras would be fine with an archer, as would smaller pims and dorads, Synodontis, basically anything in the 8 to 15 cm length bracket. Archers don't really like being kept with substantially bigger fish unless those fish are totally docile (gar and Colombian sharks work fine, cichlids generally don't).

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Paul_MTS]

All my recent fish have come from my friendly nighbourhood tropical fish importer... www.tropicalimports.co.uk won't find much better for price, quality fish and service.

 

[CAC]

Cool, so about 4feet long...does height matter???
so say an 31 UK Gallon (48"Lx15"Dx12"W), i could have one archer (i would have ago with the prawn, just would want to know i dont need a constant supply...) maybe 5 or 6 silver dollars?? and 5 or 6 cats too?
that would be an awesome tank, IMO B)