From Down under, heading to baltimore!

[aussie-dave]

hi all,

Super enthusiastic aquarist best describes myself. I live in melbourne, australia, and am relatively active in the aquarium clubs here, including being president of the aquarium society of victoria during 2009. I keep 11 aquariums featuring malawai (nothing too exciting) and tang cichlids (frontosa & princess 'kiku'), along with my special favourite fish, stetocranus tinanti. Although i like my catfish, i only keep a few bristlenose cats, whilst i also enjoy keeping NG Rainbowfish and a variety of mouth-brooding betta's.

Sometime ago, back in 2000-01 i travelled the world, including lake malawai and i used to live NYC and work at New World Aquarium which was a lot of fun before i headed home to australia.

IN august i am heading to baltimore to the big national sports collectors convention, and would love to meet some other keen aquarium fish keepers in the area and see their fish and shops, and hopefully the footage can go towards a talk at either our cichlid or aquarium club. I will be arriving in Baltimore on Tuesday morning, 3rd August, and plan to catch a train to NYC on the Sunday night, 8th August.

Most evenings during the week will be free, so if anyone wants to catch up, let me know!

 

[DiscusnAfricans]

Hope you enjoy your trip to Baltimore. You should definitely visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore when you're here. Its very close to the convention center and a very nice aquarium.

There are some nice local fish stores around Baltimore also. Hopefully you'll have time to visit some of those.

I once heard that in Australia you could only keep native fish. I'm assuming thats not correct if you keep Africans?

 

[longstocking]

How cool ! Welcome !! I spent a few years as a child living in Brisbane with my family when I was a child. Loved it.... wish I could retire there

Quite a few of us have fish rooms... I'm sure some of us will open them up for you.

 

[aussie-dave]

thanks for the quick replies!
Whilst i'd be happy to visit the public aquarium, it is very similar to the one in lisbon, portugal, so its not the #1 place, but nothing beats a great fish room and cool aquarium store that has a variety of fish.

There are restrictions on some fish you can keep, and they will increase in time, but at this point most fish can be kept. In australia, we have some great native fish, and much like the native fish throughout the usa, conservation must continue, but also to promote these fish in aquaria too.

 

[Tony]

Hey there David. Thanks for checking us out.

If you could find a way to get by our place, we'd certainly love to have you. The only issue is that my wife and I live about 45 minutes from Baltimore (without traffic) and probably over an hour during rush hour.... Google Gaithersburg, MD.

We pretty much exclusively keep Malawi fish... mostly medium to large haps and peacocks in about 30 tanks.

Tony

 

[dogofwar]

I'd bet the sports convention you're attending will be in the bmore inner harbor... Which is where the national aquarium is. Well worth a visit...especially if it's walking distance.

There are a couple of good fish stores in metro bmore. And dc is a relatively short train ride away.

To see the real bmore check out "the wire" (hbo series). It will encourage you to not wander too far from the inner harbor

Matt

 

[Pat Kelly]

If you come out of the convention center and go towards the baseball stadium you will find a Light Rail train station. Its slow but if you ride it south to the end of the line that you are on, then look across the street, there is a fish store in the shopping center. Its called House of Tropical. At times they have some cool fish. The light rail is slow but inexpensive.

The other store I would recommend is called Exotic Aquatics. Its north of the city. There is no direct way of getting there with out a car. Possible one of us could arrange something.....

 

[aussie-dave]

I'll be heading most days from the hotel to the nearby convention centre for this event.

it would be great to catch up with some fishy fanatics and drop by a few shops and fishrooms. Tony and Pat, thanks for the kind offers so far!~

 

[aussie-dave]

here is a pic of my fish tanks at home

 

[F8LBITE]

I hope you have a great time Dave. The Baltimore Aquarium is very nice and people come from far away to check it out. I highly recommend it. What is your favorite team? Is Baltimore the only city the convention visits?

 

[aussie-dave]

hi there, i probably will check the public aquarium out, if anyone knows the curator that would be great, a behind-the-scenes look i have had at San Fran some years back, which lead to my huge appreciation of US native fish.

Perhaps your club can organise to visit out-of-hours that week, and see the nuts and bolts of the place.

I dont have a specific team anymore, more a basketball fan than anything else, but in baseball i have soft spots for atlanta, and used to support the lakers in the NBA, until they traded my stars away. I will be going to the orioles game on the tuesday night if i can.

The sports convention will be held in chicago next year.