A1/M62 Junction

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Took a bit of a road trip recently and took the opportunity to visit 2 independent aquatic shops that are close to this junction
The nearest just 5 mins away is Ferrybridge Aquatics in, you guessed it - Ferrybridge,
From an unassuming shop front in a short but busy high street this was a bit of an Aladdin's cave crammed with many tanks possibly 100 or so

Plus points
- the guy I was talking to said all stock is quarantined for a week to make sure it's eating well and this did show most of the plecs looked to be well fed
They have a good range of more unusual fish, and not all big predatory stuff either, lots of smaller livebearer types I had not seen before, a good choice of small to medium sized catfish/pleco plus they had a tank labeled as wild cardinal that had much less blue than you would expect - I will attach a pic,
Cheap frozen food 10 packs for £12 I have yet to compare it to my normal stuff, in fact prices in general seem reasonable,

minus points
- they carry only small numbers of each type of fish and they are all jumbled together in tanks in no particular order, the labeling only sometimes corresponds to the fish inside
The biggest issue was disease, one large tank containing a lot of good plants and a motely selection of fish also had a bad case of whitespot of which they did not seem to be aware, I should think with so many different fish jumbled together and so many tanks to look after this would be a continuous risk (I didn't buy any plants)
position of shop on a one way high street can make parking tricky there is some on the street but there may not be spaces small car park at top end I wasn't happy leaving the dog there so found a nearby side street which was fine.

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Nautilus Aquatics in Wakefield about 20 mins away from first shop

plus points
- In a garden center so parking no problem also toilets and very nice café,
Well organized shop, well labelled clean tanks a much more relaxing experience than the first shop
large pond section for a small independent with some big (expensive) koi to look at that was also undercover

minus points
- smaller in size maybe half the amount of tanks and a good number stocked with 'normal' fish so less in the way of choice if you want something a bit different, still they has some things I had not seen before - banded knifefish and diamond neon tetra spring to mind, also I did buy a few very nice fish from there, dwarf gourami with a subtle but nice blue colour and a mystery plec that came in with a shipment of others.
A bit old fashioned in it's set up with deep beds of gravel in the tanks and the lighting was perhaps not all that brilliant
It is in a garden center so you do get the small amount of space taken up with roving children from time to time
plants were disappointing although in a separate section they were all bunches no pots
The biggest issue was perhaps that a lot of the plecos looked very skinny even the BN, but I would stop in again if passing that way as I did enjoy looking around :) Hope this might help someone one day.


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500l - Africa river - https://www.aquariumforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6873
2x200l - https://www.aquariumforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7790
Others - https://www.aquariumforums.co.uk/viewto ... =15&t=7411
230L 6ft - Shallow stream
Roma 125l - Holding fish
Qubiq 60 - Dwarf Spotted Danio
40l/25L - Black- bellied Limia/Pygmy Sunfish
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