Hi All,
We are now 4 weeks away from our scheduled Local Fish Store (LFS) Shop Hop venturing into the far reaches of Maryland and Delaware. Time to jack up your cash flow and plan for a road trip armed with Styrofoam boxes and plenty of greenbacks.
The current plan is to visit Londontowne Tropicals in Annapolis, MD from 10:30 - 11:30 am, then drive to Dover, DE to visit SuperCichlids from ~1:30 - 3:00 pm. Depending on who signs up, we can determine carpooling and lunch arrangements. First, we have to know who wants to go and where they live.
So, if you want to go, please indicate so here. We will also pass a sign-up sheet around at the February meeting on 2/1.
And while we were having fun in MD and DE, Jacob Waters went down to Nova Tropicals and visited with Dave Dempsey. We are so fortunate to have new, quality stores in the area.
Could not agree more. Had a great time, hanging out with other PVAS'ers and visiting the two shops. Londontown Tropical has 400 tanks of fish, well worth checking out for the fish. They have a small dry goods section, mostly food and competitively priced.
Super Cichlids, has fewer tanks (maybe "only" 100 , but they are all 75Gallon or larger, including one 600 Gallon show tank (10'X3'X3') in the front room. Super Cichlids had an extensive selection of Cichlids as well as a decent assortment of other fish.
SuperCichlids also had a great selection of Northfin, Cobalt, and Tropical (https://tropical.pl/) fish food.
As usual, I bought too much.
Yeah, it was a great trip. Two really nice shops, a beautiful sunny day, and great travel companions. Mark, Matt and I left from Silver Spring and formed three fourths of the Maryland contingent. An added bonus was the (alpha gal safe) Impossible cheese steak (sans cheese) I had at the sandwich shop in Dover. Also, I bought a group of fireline danios from Super Cichlds, too. They were really reasonably priced. Lots of photos of the trip on the PVAS Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/PvasFish/posts/?ref=page_internal
Linus it was a fun trip and along day for me driving from Centreville, the day started at 8 and I didn't get home until 7pm. LT had L129 plecos for a reasonable price, I didn't pick them up on the 1st visit... Patchin,Raychel and I stop again around 5PM and I picked up a group of 6 to add to my group at home. Super Cichlids is a nice new shop, all there tanks for 75g. I bought additional devario sondhii (fireline danios) as well as restocking on Northfin foods
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all in all, it was worth the tip.
Trip was fun. Both shops (Londontowne Tropicals and Super Cichlids) are very good aquarium shops.
I didn't buy anything all that exotic, but I picked up some chili rasboras (for a friend, really) and some tiger lotus at Londontowne and some interesting food at Super Cichlids.
So how was the trip? Folks buy anything interesting? Thank you for not buying out Londontowne Tropicals. I went to LT after the orchid show at Homestead Gardens and got some marbled hatchets and P. luminae. When I showed the PVAS card, he mentioned about 7 members already came by.
Yes, time for logistics. Here's my proposal.
10 am Assemble at Patchin's house in Annapolis
10:30 - 11:30 am Londontowne Tropicals
11:30 - 1:30 Drive to Dover grabbing lunch along the way
1:30 - 3:30 SuperCichlids
3:30 - 5:00 Drive back to Annapolis
I believe that Mark Kaprow and Matt Chambers are planning on meeting up at Bob Bock's house for the drive to Annapolis. The three of you could drive from SuperCichlids directly back to Silver Spring.
We have a number of people from VA who could carpool to Annapolis if so desired. David Snell lives in Centreville, Daya Hall-Stratton in Fairfax, Michael Barber in Reston, and Raychel Upright in Alexandria. I'll send an email to you as a group, and then all y'all can coordinate with one another.
It will be cold on Saturday, so don't forget to bring Styrofoam boxes. We will most likely have to drive in 2 vehicles. We'll rotate people through cars so people have a chance to chat with different folks.
Looking forward to it.
Have we arranged a meeting place and time?
If I'm 99.99 percent I'll go too.
My Saturday kitchen pass was just approved by the boss. i'm in for the Shop Hop and I can drive too (4 passenger RDX)
I've got permission, too.
I have received permission to attend. I live in Olney, MD, and I can drive, I have a Subaru Outback, would any Marylanders or DC-ites want to meet in Montgomery County and go from there?
Sign me up!
I would like to sign up.
I'm most likely attending. I'll know for sure by next meeting.
And... let me be the first to sign up. I live in Annapolis, so VA and MD members can meet at my house and we can all carpool from there.