BeltwayBandit

Just to echo many of the sentiments already mentioned. I am thrilled that we have LFS that are willing to bend over backwards and give us A+ customer service. I will gladly pay a little bit more for the convenience of being able to pick up a critter that has already gone through some screening/quarantining and my own observation over ordering blind on line. I also am willing to support these stores because I know in an emergency I am 30 minutes away from a solution should i need a reef specific part not 2 days away for a fed ex. For those reasons I am willing to pay a little (and in many cases neglibly) more to support local businesses. For the record I have been to many of the area LFS (USA, Roozens, Marine Scene, Reef Tank, Fins and Feathers, and Blue Ribbon Marine). In my opinion BRK and F&F have hands down the best customer service and the best livestock in the area. BB

What I do is take a plastic bag and cover the intake to the durso. This way the overflow fills up and levels off with the rest of the tank (I have 2 overflows so i can get away with blocking one.) I then use a "tickle stick" to encourage the fish to come up to the surface and then either net them or in the case of firefish they just jump right back into the tank. Alternatively, when my clowns go in I wait for them to surf to the sump and then pluck them out of there with a net.

John, You are my store of choice in the area. You actually do put the customer first. Heck you even let me move your product for you...Wait I should get the employee discount now... But, back on topic. Keep up the good work. I will gladly drive thirty minutes* to get to your store, because you are willing to make me feel like I'm your most important customer (even though I know I haven't spent enough in there to get a decent goldfish yet). Keep up the good work, you just can't please some people. As long as you keep doing things the way you are doing them, we will have your back when clowns come in here with their first post bagging on your store. Thats just not right. "Oh BTW Just brought in about $$$$$ in Koi.......(decided to take the numbers out, but it is a lot of koi)" I guess you had a successful trip to Richmond then. I just might have to trek out that way. BB *with traffic it has taken up to 2 hours to get there, but it was still worth it.

I have an idea. Paul and I can telecommute. We can call into the shop and tell Byron what to do for us!!! Brilliant!

If you have your phone forwarded to my office I can be your receptionist!! Would that count?

So when are you going to change your shop to Blue Ribbon Marine and Koi?

Honestly, go for the smaller tubes. I always end up not being able to get the cap quite on tight enough on the larger bottles/tubes and end up with a nice hard mass of solidified glue. So now I just use the little tubes, and try to plan out my fragging to use up the whole tube at once.

Educational institutes (schools/aquariums) can obtain permits for these species. But, with the collective volume of the recreational reefers out there we could have a much larger captive brood stock in case the need ever arose to restock wild populations. Of course we would have the issues associated with people not wanting to keep the "ugly" ones "2) I think it would be fantastic if WAMAS could offer a fellowship or help fund a graduate student (or two, or three...) who is doing work in the area of reef conservation. I don't know how much excess funds are lying around, but $1,000 to $3,000 a year would go a long way towards someone's research. And, it would show that the aquarium community does care about what goes on out there." I think that would be awesome. With some due diligence on our parts I'm sure we could find an appropriate avenue to help fund valuable research. Even if we don't use club funds, perhaps a fundraiser to put together something. BB

So I guess now you need to try and teach the clownfish to use an acrylic polishing kit to remove the scratches!

Somewhat selfishly speaking but along the lines of what Larry said. Couldn't this be used to justify *limited* collection of Carribbean species for sake of their own protection. I mean if we could get captive specimens going, at some point in the future they could be used to reintroduce them to the wild in the event that they are completely wiped out.

Nice worm you have there. I used to have a 4 footer in my tank. I haven't seen him in a couple of years so I don't know if he is still there or not.

My recommendation: Talk to Davelin and see what size tanks he is looking for for his classrooms at Floris. Buy that size tank, run it as a q-tank, then donate it to Floris Elementary and write off the cost on your taxes. :D

I'm afraid i will not be able to make it today either. Sorry. BB

Ok. Ya'll better have some good stuff. I promised my wife a trip to the Leesburg outlets tomorrow if we can stop by F&F on the way home tomorrow. :D Actually, I can't wait. I love checking out new stores.

I too took a pass on the achilles. But I did not take a pass on the pick of the litter Ultra Maxima or the ORA "chip's special" acro. Both are doing lovely I might add. I'll psot pics of the acro. It is pretty cool, a light tan color with green polyps and purple tips.

Poor fish never did anything to you and you want to go sending it off to prison. :(

http://www.pemsea.org/downloads_pdf/tc/dec...icuananetal.pdf Interesting article about Tridacnids.

So I have been chatting with John and Byron at BRK and they say that no one has maxima's, other than a few tiny ones. I have noticed clams direct only has a few small ones, if any. I have also seen people mentioning a lack of maxima availability on RC. Anyone have any ideas what happened to the maximas? I'm guessing either a loss of aquaculture due to the Tsunami last year and there just aren't any larger ones coming into the market? Or just that demand is so high that they are shipping them out before they get larger than 1.5-2" Any other ideas?

Yes you could get one of the smaller tangs. I would suggest something like a Yellow, Kole, Scopas, Bristletooth Scomini, or Mimic Lemonpeel. (I just did a quick search on Liveaquaria for the smaller tangs). All of these tangs have recommended tank sizes from 50-70 gallons.

Also Fins and Feathers in Ashburn. I haven't made it out there yet, but it looks like a very good store also.

The last I knew it was Saturday April 8th.

I was pining away in the RC WAMAS forum

Here: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/cubtickets/ They are in 10 minute blocks. Tickets are free.

Anyone who is planning on going to the WAMAS social, there are still some afternoon tickets to the Panda house still available. Just a thought, arrive early check out the rest of the zoo and see the pandas! BB

I was like an addict without their trusty rubber strap and needle...