it's cold, it's wet, it's raining,
it's winter in Melbourne, let's go inside somewhere where it's warm, let's go inside an aquarium store.
Boronia Reptiles and Aquariums is a family-owned business run by David
and of course they have reptiles, but I'm here for the fish, and the fish they have
are tremendous, I absolutely adore these Rivulatus, the green terror cichlids, they've
always been a favorite of mine and if I ever had a large cichlid, this is the one I would have.
these are magnificent looking fish and you can see why they have a display tank all to themselves
in the store they've got some beautiful display nano aquariums on the counter
and this is the first and only african cichlid planted display tank I've ever seen
so there you are, and of course planted tanks are tremendous no matter what kind of fish are in them
there's so many different combinations and possibilities that you can go with
at the store we also have a lot of African cichlids and this display tank shows you why
they are so popular, you have a number of different types of African cichlids which
are not my particular specialty, but Haplochromis peacocks, all different types of Mbuna and cichlids
that have tremendous colors which rival any marine fish at a fraction of the price
and of course much easier to keep as well, so you can see why African cichlids are so popular
and have so many fresh water fish keepers looking out for them.
in the store there's also a beautiful large
shrimp tank, and when you see these little creatures, these are red cherry shrimp they go
tremendously well in many community aquarium tanks and surprisingly a lot of fish leave them alone
these little live bearers are called tiger Endlers and like all the live bearers they are very active
colourful, peaceful, and they will give you lots of extra little fish, these tanks are incredibly
clean in Boronia Aquarium, and not only are they very clean they also have lots of live plants
right throughout most of their fish selling tanks and the plants of course, add to keeping
these tanks not only attractive, but a lot more healthy and all the tanks that we're looking at
are incredibly clean with gravel which is in excellent clean condition and very, very,
clean water, when you see livebearers this active that's always a sign of a healthy
fish so this aquarium the fish are not overstocked and overcrowded the fish have lots and lots of
space and of course that's one of the reasons why these fish are very, very, healthy and tremendous to
buy
the thing that draws you to African cichlids is the color and in this tank here, you can see
three different fish with very different colors
and as I look at them the question is, which one would be your favorite?
there are probably hundreds and thousands of African cichlid species
so there's something for everybody and of course there's different lakes
that have these cichlids so there's many different species
community fish, angelfish, there are lots and lots of regular aquarium fish and also some weird
ones, this is a very strange looking one and no it's not dead, have a guess what this fish is?
this aquarium in Boronia has a tremendously large variety of community fish
there is something for anybody with a community tank
not every fish though is a community fish so yes some of the ones that look small now
end up being giants later, so talk to David about which fish suit your tank
the thing about many of these fish in the selling tanks is that they don't show the full colors
that they really have and they won't really show their full colors until they're settled in a tank
which usually, the more plants, you'll find, and a darker bottom, the more color they'll show
so don't worry that the fish in the store look a bit pale, that's perfectly natural, when they get
home when they get settled they can really darken in color and look quite spectacular
remember this fish from before? well
the answer is, this is a fresh water flounder which is a very strange looking critter
and my favorite German blue rams, this store is very small but it's packed full
of surprises, so well worth a trip to have a look at Boronia reptiles and aquariums
hope you've enjoyed the tour and click here for more videos and we'll see you on the next one