I came to Philadelphia this weekend to interview for the Knowles Science Teaching Fellowship. I decided to come a day early so that I could hang out with Mark Denaro, an amazing hobbyist turned business fish person who is the current president of the Labyrinth Fish Association and past president of the International Betta Congress! He has extensive experience in almost every kind of fish adventure - in fact, he has me convinced that I need to try salt water some time in the near future :)

Mark picked me up at the airport and proceeded to whisk me around Philadelphia. I ate an AMAZING Nick's roast beef sandwich (with broccoli rabe and italian hot peppers), fresh-baked Terminis canolis, and also visited Mark's Natural Pet aquarium store and Reef to Rift. We ended the night by checking out the Buck's Aquarium Society, where I met up with some awesome fish hobbyists (some who recognized me!) and came away with some awesome Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazines!

Going to Fairy Lake is like going back in time. There are the old steel rimmed tanks filled with the classic aquarium fish. It is also one of the few stores to sell freshly hatched baby brineshrimp, so if I'm ever in a bind, I can run over and grab some. The resident cat is very sweet, and the elderly couple that runs the store is very conscientious  about making sure your fish make it home safely. They even re-bagged some fish with more oxygen and an outer bag once they found out that we were on a fish tour and were not likely to go home right away!

Lucky Ocean is the closest fish store to me, and it's always fun to go chat with Steve about all things fish. He's been a part of the San Francisco fish scene since he was a kid, so he's got the ins and outs on fishkeeping in the Bay Area since who knows when. His store also stocks some pretty awesome saltwater fish in addition to his planted tanks and freshwater, plus walls full of every supply you could ever need. Love this place!

In direct contrast to Aqua Forest's immaculate tanks, Justin at Ocean Aquarium (blog of incoming fish at http://oceanaquarium.blogspot.com/) has a much more low-maintenance strategy that still, somehow and magically, produces beautifully wild aquariums with stunningly healthy fish on a budget! Since my tanks more often resemble Justin's, this is one of my favorite stores in the Bay Area. The delightful chaos makes visiting this store a real adventure!

The California Betta Society went on a tour of the awesome fish stores in San Francisco this weekend! We hit almost all the major fish stores in town on our quest to find brilliant bettas and fantastic fish. It was a real blast to visit all these fishy places with fish people!

The first store we visited was Aqua Forest Aquarium, a high-end store founded by planted tank extraordinaire Takashi Amano himself (http://www.adana-usa.com/). They take aquarium keeping to a whole new level!

Seascapes in Mountain View, CA is a REALLY cool store. You know it's going to be good when you walk in and are immediately greeted by a ravenous, enormous, and gregarious giant gourami!

Diana is a wonderful supporter of us crazy bettaholics. (Or should I say, enabler?) She owns and operates a great exotics pet store in downtown San Jose, and we congratulate her for renewing her lease for her second year in business! Big steps forward!

Her store stocks not only healthy and beautiful reptiles, fish, and a lot of other exotic pets (quails, cockatiels, you name it!) she also stocks some kinda rare stuff for fish keepers, like kanaplex and methylene blue, which are great for when you bettas run into bacterial trouble or to keep fungus at bay while artificially hatching eggs. She also carries repashy, which is a great gel-based food that I love to use so that my fry are snacking on it all day.