FISHY
TAIL --
A PET SHOP ADVENTURE
By Patrick A. Tosie, Sr.
T'was a cold and rainy night as I drove through No'Where, Mississippi.
It was Friday night, 11:32 PM April 7, 1995, my family and I were
on our way to Florida for a much needed vacation. The kids were asleep
in the back of the van and my wife was asleep in the passenger seat
as I drove through the dark and dreary night when I first saw it. On the
side of the road in glowing green letters I saw an unusual sign that read
"Pet Shop -- Open 24 hours -- 7 days a week" followed by "We Never Close"
in faded red letters. I thought for a moment and then decided to stop.
When I pulled into the parking lot I saw dozens of cars, most of them with
out of state license plates, some from Illinois, New Jersey, California,
Florida, Oregon, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and even Alaska, just to
name a few.
I parked our van between two cars from New Jersey, one with personalized
license plates with "GINNY" on it and the other had a bumper sticker which
read "Ichthyologist Do It In The Water". I told my wife, Kathie, that I
was going in to check this place out and since the kids were sleeping Kathie
said she would stay with them in the van while I go inside. The building
looked like an old airplane hanger, the kind that looked like a metal barrel
cut in half, it had a curved tin roof and each end of the building was
flat. The entrance had twin, oversized mirrored doors with angelfish door
handles. When I opened the door I was greeted by two large, floor to ceiling,
fish tanks that were the sidewalls for the foyer and the end opposite of
the doors had a large desk with a cute young lady in a tight fitting shirt.
Behind the receptionist, a red velvet curtain stretched across the wall.
I walked over to the desk and asked this babe where the pet shop was.
She replied that it was behind the curtain and started asking me what kind
of pets I was interested in. While she was talking the red curtain slowly
opened up. While the curtain was opening I could see several doors behind
it. The first one had some kind of lizard rendering on it, on the
second door there was a pirahana and the third one had a Neapolitan mastiff
looking up to a Siamese cat in a tree. I told her that my main interest
is in fish. As soon as I told her that she pushed a button and the fish
door opened. When I entered I was greeted by a middle aged man in a doctor's
coat and he asked "May I help you." I answered "I'm just looking"
so he went on to tell me to take my time, look around and if I have
any questions to ask for "Dr. Fisheyes." I thanked him as he walked away
remembering just how familiar his name sounded....
As Dr. Fisheyes walked away, I started wandering down the fish aisles.
The tanks were neatly stacked fifty-five and forty gallon tanks, they were
sorted by type of fish, each fish family had their own aisle. They had
aisles of livebearers, barbs, rainbowfish, characoids, catfish, killifish,
anabantoids and cichlids just to name a few. First I started down the livebearer
aisle and I saw all different color varieties of guppies, platy's mollies
and swordtails. There were goodieds, Pike livebearers and halfbeaks. All
the fish were at reasonable prices. At the end of the aisle there were
several tanks with some fish at ridiculously low prices. It looked
like Pat Hartman looking in one tank that had some Poecilia dominicensis
in it that were just three for ninety--nine cents, the tank next to them
had Phallichthys pitteri at a price of twenty-five cents each and the last
tank in the livebearer aisle had Allodontichthys tamazulea that were just
seven cents each! I could not believe the prices for these unusual fish.
Barbs were in the next aisle and it included all the common barbs such
as tiger barbs, Cherry barbs, Black Ruby barbs and so on. Again at the
end of the barb aisle were some fish with unbelievably low prices There
were some Chela laubuca that were five for a dollar, some Puntis bimaculatus
at sixty--two cents each and some Raiamas ansorgii at just thirty--nine
cents a pair. Seeing these unusual fish made me start to walk faster to
see what treasures may be hiding in the cichlid aisle, however, I did not
want to miss any aisle. I wanted to see for myself what was in each
and every tank n the store.
The next aisle had the Rainbow fish. When I turned into the Rainbow
fish aisle I could have sworn that I saw Gary Lange duck under the tanks,
trying not to let me see him. I walked by Gary trying not to let
him know that I saw him. At the end of the Rainbow fish aisle, there were
some Psuedomugil novaeguineae that were ninety--nine cents each, some Melanotaenia
eachamensis that were three pairs for a dollar and Scaturiginichthys vermeilipinnis
at sixty--nine cents for a reverse trio. I wonder if this is where Gary
gets his unusual fish?
On to the next aisle where I saw "Indy Al" peering into the characoid
tanks. among them were some Cataprion mento, Acestrorhynuchus falcatus
and a few Aphyocharax rathbuni just to name a few. "Indy Al" was drooling
over the little beauties he saw. Entering the next aisle I saw none other
than the infamous "Catfish Ginny" strolling through the catfish tanks.
She was carrying several boxes that were marked LIVE TROPICAL FISH -- KEEP
WARM with a blanket partially covering them. In this aisle there were very
few common catfish. Some of the more unusual types I saw were Aspredo aspredo
at the low price of thirteen cents each, Tatia perugiae that were also
just thirteen cents each and Aspidoras fuscoguttatus at a whopping twenty--one
cents apiece. All the prices I saw were unbelievably low. I wondered why
more people, including pet shop owners, were not shopping here.
Dr. Thomerson was the only person who I saw in the next aisle, the killifish
tanks. One of the fish missing here was Aphyosemion gardneri! I did see
a few things which I never saw before and some which I never even heard
of, they included Cynolebias dolichopterus, Trigonectes balzanii and Aphyosemion
celiae. All the killifish were sold in lots of 13 and all were the same
price, two dollars and ninety--nine cents per lot. Jim Thale and Jack Heller
would have loved these fish at their low prices. Going into the next aisle,
Anabantoids, I noticed Heiko Blehr wearing a pair of sunglasses, an overcoat
and a large hat. He appeared to be attempting to cover his identity. He
was looking extremely close at three tanks, one with Parosphromenus paludicola
that were forty--two cents each, Betta bellica that were on a special of
buy one get two free and they were just nineteen cents each. The third
tank Heiko was looking at had three for a dollar Betta macrostoma. In the
reflection of a tank I thought I saw a tall red headed man run past me
while I was looking in. Could that have been Ed Millenger?
The last aisle, the one I was looking most forward to, has the Cichlids.
Going down the aisle I took my time to carefully look into every tank,
making sure not to miss a thing. Some of the cichlids included Cichlasoma
bocourtii, Cichlasoma ramsdeni, Nanochromis dimidiatus, Nannacara taenia,
Steatocranus mpozoensis, Apistogramma "sp." tucurui and some Teleochila
cinderella. I saw Dr. Paul Loiselle leaving the cichlid section as I was
entering.
After strolling through all the fish aisles, I decided to get a few
fish to take with me. I didn't want to get to many because I wouldn't be
going home for a week or so. I asked for Dr. Fisheyes and told him the
fish I wanted and I also mentioned to him that I wouldn't be home for
a week or so. He said he could take care of that and when he was bagging
up the fish, he put them one to a bag and included a tranquilizer with
them that he said should last that long. The fish I purchased were
a dollars worth of Poecilia makerupper which were sixteen for a dollar,
twenty--four Melanotaenia whatchamacallit at four for thirty--six cents,
a dollars worth of Coryodoras plainjaneea that were ten cents each, six
pair of Betta thingamajig for sixty cents a pair and three dozen
Apistogramma unaffordabulli that were the low price of twelve dollars a
dozen.
As I was paying for my purchase I noticed a couple of guys sitting at
a table in the dry goods section that looked like Reet Thomas and
Jim Miller, I thought could it be?
I thanked Dr. Fisheyes and the lovely receptionist for all their help
and carried the fish boxes to my van. When I got to the van the first thing
my wife asked was "How much did you spend?". I went on to tell her my Petshop
Adventure and how I got ninety--eight rare and unusual fish for only forty--three
dollars and seventy--six cents, they didn't even charge tax. I believe
my wife thought I was crazy for stopping at such a wierd place. Now I have
a special shop to go to and find the unthinkable fish that I used to only
dream about.
The story you have just read is not true, the names were made up to
confuse. Any similarity between the people, fish, places and things mentioned
herein were intentional. |
