North of the border

We were planning a week holiday in Edinburgh in January 2009 and the natural thing to do was to look up whether there were any aquarium attractions near by. We were excited to find Deep Sea World just a short train journey away, and on further investigation, that it had the UK’s longest underwater viewing tunnel!!

Neither of us drive and we’re both huge fans of train travel. I find it really relaxing and often snooze inducing. We ate asparagus cup a soups and pre-cooked pizza on the journey which was very pleasant indeed. It’s important to be prepared.

Once we had been in Edinburgh for a few days we decided it was time to take the trip to North Queensferry in search of all creatures sea bound. The view en route was beautiful with lots to keep you looking especially when crossing Firth Rail Bridge.

Here is a selection of the sea life on offer for your viewing pleasure:

Our favourite by a mile, was the Stone fish, the most venomous fish in the world! It has the saddest face and who wouldn’t, if your two most famous qualities were looking like a stone and being well deadly.

Video footage of the amazing tunnel coming soon!

My birthday present

Having got slightly over excited about our first visit to the local fish shop it wasn’t long before we decided to take the plunge and get an aquarium of our own. I (Al) was presented with an incredibly generous starter kit for my birthday about a year ago. It comprised all the basics to set up a tropical aquarium.

I have a tendency to try and make things difficult for myself (I like to think of this as doing things properly but some may disagree). So rather than plugging everything in, buying some fish and chucking them in I took it upon myself to do a fair bit of reading. Deciding fairly quickly that I was going to commit to doing a fishless cycle, firstly using uncooked prawn, then using pure ammonia. The whole process took about a month to six weeks, I spent that timing adding plants and decorations and generally moving things round a bit.

Once satisfied that everything seemed okay we headed down to Marquatics and picked up our first fish – ten Neon Tetras. A fairly brave move as they aren’t exactly the toughest of breeds. So began our new fishy hobby, which does become strangely addictive. Since then we lost all but two of the original Tetras, but have added six Glass Bloodfin Tetras, two Amano Shrimp, one adopted Kissing Gourami (who had been bullying our friends other fish to death), algae, snails (not intentionally) and just recently an additional twelve Neon Tetras. We lost one of the latter straight away and another has a rather odd shaped tail (nick name: Bender). The tank itself is fairly heavily planted and our water quality is very good and requires few water changes.

Suddenly hearing about different types of fish was exciting! We decided that visiting aquariums was the best place to feed this habit.

The beginning

We are two people shacked up together in sunny Sherwood, Nottingham. We had a wander up Sherwood high street looking for adventure (maybe). We found Marquatics! We walked in, our knowledge lacking, the naivety glowing from our faces.

Little did we know that a tiny little yellow fish, the shape of a box with black polka dots was going to charm us into a fish frenzy. Immediately we were drawn to him, like a chocoholic to a post Easter half price sale. The way he moved was light, like a bubble of joy. We wanted him.

We asked, who was can only assume (wrongly or rightly) was called Mark, what the deal was with this little delight. The response was deflating. Not only was he not for sale but he was an unsociable little critter who when stressed secreted poison into the tank, which could kill his fellow tank mates. He could also grow to the size of a football*, which wasn’t the point, we wanted him to stay tiny and cute forever. This was our first of many lessons about the complexities of underwater dwelling.

*which may, or may not be a huge exaggeration.