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of the Tank: 3/04
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I still had the immediate problem of being stuck in LA with not much to do however. This may sound a bit odd given the perception of the town from all of those ‘entertainment access’ type of tv shows. But if you’re not the star-struck kind, or at least a fan of whatever is passing for pop culture at the moment, this can be a pretty boring place. Fortunately, before I left home, I let it be known on the reef boards that I was coming and would like some suggestions of places I should visit. Love it or hate it, Southern California is the undeniable Mecca of the American reefkeepper’s world as just about everything from the Indo-Pacific HAS to come through LAX. Most of the major wholesalers are there, as are a goodly amount of vendors, lots of very experienced reefers, and not surprisingly, a completely disproportionate amount of ‘cherry picked’ corals and fish that most other places rarely see live. I was hoping that I’d get enough leads to spend a few hours simply window shopping and seeing how the ‘other half’ lives. What I got was MUCH, MUCH better.
Before I left Connecticut I had been contacted by Ali; major reefkeeper and one of the regulars on Reef Central, about accompanying him on his normal Friday rounds to many of the areas wholesalers and retailers. In addition to being a long time and very knowledgeable hobbyist himself, Ali also operates his own mail order business and sometimes free-lances as a buyer for other individuals. He therefore has a ‘total access card’ to the SoCal reef scene. I jumped at the chance. |
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To say this was an amazing experience would be an understatement. For me, it was a day spent in Reefer’s School. And although I had the opportunity to visit a couple of local wholesaling facilities before, never had I felt so privileged to witness the goings on in the reefers’ ‘inner sanctum’. Hanging with Ali was the equivalent of touring the NASCAR circuit with Kyle Petty; everybody knows him and he seems to have a great reputation. I therefore met some wonderful people along the way, many of them were the faces of those I’d exchanged posts with on RC and other boards for a couple years now. That was fairly weird. But I also got to see more unique and ‘cherry’ corals and fish in that one day, than I see in several months back home. And much of it was at various retailers!!!
Don’t tell anyone, but for the very first time, I kind of wished I still lived out there. It was THAT much fun.
Therefore, I’d obviously like to thank Ali for putting up with me for the nearly 12 hours it took to make these rounds. But I’d also like to thank the all vendors who were nice enough to give me a little peek backstage, put up with my questions, and occasionally help me pick my jaw up off the floor. They are as follows: Walt Smith’s Pacific Aqua Farms, Sea Dwelling Creatures, Quality Marine, Aquarium Arts, Jeff’s Exotic Fish, Steve Tyree’s Dynamic Ecomorphology, The Fish Collection, and last but not least, Tong’s in Fountain Valley.
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