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Your Questions About Gardening « gardenerscardiff.co.uk
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gardenerscardiff.co.uk

For the Best Gardeners in the Cardiff Area

   Aug 12

Your Questions About Gardening

Charles asks…

Where can I find some advanced information about Aquariums and Fish?

I’m looking to open my own Aquarium shop is some years to come. Before I even think about going ahead with it, I first want to know as much as I can about Fish and how to keep them. I have read a lot over the internet and purchased a book on how to look after the fish,water and equipment, however I feel I still have a lot to learn. Does anyone know of any useful books or websites that I can find a lot of information on? It would be a great help.

Thank you
@ John B

If you haven’t realized sun beam.. I clearly stated I have purchased a book and looked on the Internet. I was asking for any useful books or websites, some people may know of really good and highly detailed ones. So before you come in like the big “I am” .. Try reading my question properly you fool.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Ouch! I just saw the UK flag next to your question & had plunked out a lot of US stuff. Much of it may still apply. There are often UK equivalents for examples given. And you seem freer of these big box stores too. Look for national fish associations, pet professional associations, district clubs and local wholesalers. Visit shops in a slow period.

Shops may need weekend help. It might be instructive to apply for a part time job for a while. I enjoyed moonlighting, but decided to keep the day job.

Planning ahead is so wise. A friend took a local architect and wholesale manager to lunch and they began setting up a shop together.

On the business end, check out Ray Lucas’ site http://www.kingfishservices.net/
He has been a company rep at fish shows for a couple of decades. Among other programs (including a great hand’s on for kids) is an evaluation of the industry (serious consolidation, people being ushered into retirement). A couple of years ago, He noted that over the preceding 15 years 50% of the general aquarium clubs had ceased to be. At that time he contended that every week on average an independent US pet shop closed their doors.

There are shops like Hoeffers in Milwaukee (a wonderland that started with probably a million dollars in inventory) that seem to be doing ok. There are niche specialty shops (Marine tanks, cichlids) that seem to hang in there too.

There are also specialty sites like
http://www.loaches.com/hlid
http://www.planetcatfish.com/
http://www.bettysplendens.com/articles/home.imp
www.cichlid.org/forums/index.php
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org
http://livebearers.org.

National associations can be very useful. They include marine, killifish, catfish, native fish, Betta, cichlid. Aquatic garden, livebearer, guppy, anabantid & invertebrate groups. They also have great national conventions. (Yahoo made me drop URLs)

Local chapters may also have good stuff and contacts near you. Some successful local shops have developed a reputation for having wonderful fish raised by local aquarists. Big box stores are prisoner to their 150-200 fish computerized inventory sold to them through their own wholesaler. There are potentially thousands of species & strains they don’t carry.

Also Google your area and aquarium societies, aquarium clubs. Also look for pet dealer associations, pet trade shows, what do I need to start a pet store?

The major fish magazines have sites too.
Www.tfhmagazine.com/

AMAZONAS | the world’s legendary tropical fish and freshwater aquarium magazine


http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/
http://www.fishchannel.com/

A couple of great starter books include:
Baensch Aquarium Atlas Vol. 1 (7th REVISED EDITION 2007) * (also vol 2-3-4-5)
Setup and Care of Freshwater Aquariums (Animal Planet Pet Care Library) by David E. Boruchowitz
The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums (Second Edition) by David E. Boruchowitz
The Everything Tropical Fish Book (Everything (Pets)) by Carlo Devito, Gregory Skomal and Gregory Skokal
Freshwater Aquariums: Basic Aquarium Setup and Maintenance (Fish Keeping Made Easy) by David Alderton
The Everything Aquarium Book: All You Need to Build the Aquarium of Your Dreams By: Frank Indiviglio

Fish clubs sometimes have swap meets and auctions. Sometimes there is a vendor there with a table or two of great aquarium books. Mike Schadle in the US Midwest in a great one. I both buy from him and mentally copy down titles.

Breeding Corydoradine Catfishes by Ian A.M.Fuller is one I would really like to borrow. A spawning fish is a happy fish and those accounts offer a lot of great ideas about keeping the fish healthy.

I might buy a couple of books after previewing them, but also drop by your local library. They may surprise you.

And I would also start building a list of books that I could get through inter-library loan (your tax dollars already at work). There are on-line fish book sellers. I have patronized several. But also one can highlight titles & info and paste together quite a list of works to borrow.

Look for newer works, especially those mentioned on forums. A bewildering list of titles comes up if you go to amazon dot com, click on books and put an aquarium topic in there. Lots to copy down. It might be good to Google a title and reviews.

Hope this give you a good start w/o overwhelming you too badly. 🙂

Sandra asks…

Is it difficult for an American to vacation in Japan?

I’ve wanted to go to Japan for years, but never decided to until now. If I could get tips and cool locations to visit that would be great. Also I need to learn some Japanese, so if anyone knows an easy way to learn some Japanese, I would also greatly appreciate that too. Thank You Very Much

GardenersCardiff answers:

Well as far as traveling to Japan all you need is a valid passport and you can stay for up to 90 days. No Visa or anything else is required.

I would recommend to you the Kansai area which is made up of Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nara, Wakayama and several other areas.

You can fly into Kansai International Airport (KIX). I would stay in Osaka and from there it is a short train ride to the other cities in the area. The Umeda area is very convenient as you have access to many different train lines and they have transportation to and from the airport directly there as well. Umeda also has tons of shopping and places to eat pretty much any kind of food you desire.

Japan is very seasonal so unless you love humid heat don’t go in Summer and try to avoid Winter if you hate cold and snow. Spring and Autumn are the best times in my opinion.

Getting around is easy. Trains will pretty much take you near enough anything you would want to visit but taxi’s and buses are also easy to come by.

Kyoto is amazing. You will be able to visit countless Temples, Shrines, and Gardens there and will get a great sense of History. I reccomend Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, and Nijo-jo at the minimum. Kyoto station is very impressive also.

Nara is also awesome. You can feed and pet tame deer that wander the streets around the impressive Todai-ji and deer park. There are some good places to eat around there too.

Kobe has some great spots to visit. The city has a very nice feel to it.

As far as language you should learn at least the basics of hello, excuse me. You can buy software cheap at Costco, and perhaps hire a tutor where you live or take a class at the community college if they offer it. Also there are some online resources you could search for. Manners are perhaps more important than language in Japan. You should study up on etiquette things like always wear good socks because you will need to remove your shoes upon going into someones house and at certain temples and shrines, not eating while walking things like that. You should also be alerted that some public bathrooms do not have paper goods so you may want to bring a small supply or at least check before…

Hope this helps. Japan is an amazing place and you will have a blast.

P.s. Japan is only as expensive as you make it. You can stay at a nice business Hotel for less than a hundred dollars a night if you shop around and can find very cheap but delicious food all over. If you stay at an expensive hotel and eat at high end places then yes it will cost a fortune but you can find yummy meals for under $5.00.

Lisa asks…

Collecting: Am I the only weirdo who has a strange collection? What do you collect?

This sounds strange, but it started innocently enough. Many years ago for the sake of my clothes I started useing plastic hangers and gradually got rid of the wire ones. I bought the plastic ones in lots of colors, and over time I had quite a collection. One day it occured to me why not sort the clothes onto hangers the same color to make them easy to find. So now my blue shirts are on blue hangers, etc. This has grown into a bit of an obssesion, if I see hangers in a new color I don’t already have I must buy them. (I’m lucky hangers are cheap). Like other people with collections I even have my “rare pieces” – hangers from the 70’s in colors like rust & olive that are no longer made. I’m curious if anyone else has an odd or unusual collection?

GardenersCardiff answers:

I collect seashells and unusual rocks. Then I make things with them. I have created a beautiful mirror by finding a cheap, plain, framed mirror, then pasting all kind of different shells, crabs that have left there molting behind, and some small rocks on the frame. It is something to see. Everyone thinks I bought it like that and can’t believe that every thing on it is real.
The bigger rocks I use in my gardens as a border or decoration.
I love the outdoors and ocean…….can you tell? I live near it and like too have a small piece of it in my home and yard. The ocean is very calming for me and always cheers me up when I am feeling blue.

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