My 4 Favourite Shops in Tung Choi Street.

**Rupert** · 28th Jun 2006, 19:03

My 4 Favourite Shops in Tung Choi Street.

Since the beginning of 2006 I have had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong about 30 times, next week being my last for quite a while. Practically every week I would visit fish street & have dinner then walk back to the Langham Place hotel where I lived. So having walked up Tung Choi Street so many times, I thought I would document my 4 favourite shops as I walked from work, to the hotel

Aqua World HK
G/F 157-159 Tung Choi Street
Tel: +852 3426 3038
Email: [email protected]
Or [email protected]

This shop stands out in 4 areas Saltwater & Freshwater ADA and Plants. This shop has an extensive ADA equipment / product range. If you haven’t seen a lot of ADA equipment then this is the place to go there are about 7 ADA display tanks 5 small ones and two 2 footers. All the ADA tanks have full ADA equipment operating, some with ADA Canister filters. Like most shops in Hong Kong they carry a lot of inventory. The two ADA 2 x 1 foot display tanks are by the check-out, one of which is the kind that is a single cast, ie does not have silicon joints/joins and is made of single piece of glass, with glass Lillie pipes, interestingly on this tank they are using stainless steel piping from the ADA canister filter to the tank.

It is quite surprising how often they change the planted tank aquascapes of the small tanks, which makes it interesting to visit on this basis. But be warned this is a busy street and the best time is to go is early in the week or early afternoon and avoid Thursday, Friday evenings, Saturday, Sunday, plus any public holiday as some shops you will not get in because of the volume of people.

Aqua World carries a ready supply of Tropica plants, when Tropica releases a new plant this shop has it soon afterwards, such as the Utricularia graminifolia which was selling $HK250 a pot but sold out the next day. Another consideration if visiting is that I have noticed the plant stock seems to come in Thursdays.

Out the back there is plentiful selection of fish…. quite a few apistos, so it is very hard to walk out of this shop without something to take home. If you are into saltwater fish & critters then this shop will probably impress you as well with its extensive amount of corals, clams, shrimp.

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures inside the shop... but that why shops have windows

So if you are looking for ADA stuff give them a call as they probably have it.

It is a bit hard to comment on the expertise of the staff as there are many [possibly 6-9], plus I have had limited purchase interaction with them, however they are only to happy to assist. This shop is in the MUST SEE category, but once you have walked out of that shop, go directly across the road and visit HK Aquarium

Hong Kong Aquarium
Tel: +852 3188 0912

This shop has a couple of sister shops along the street, this one of their shops and it tends to sell equipment and lots of it.

Why is this shop on my list? The sales people are experienced and can talk from a practical perspective from Chillers, filters to lighting. For example in lighting they can show a variety of MH systems in operation from the common to the not so common, from the moderate to the extreme. In the picture below there is the not so common Solarmax 4ft lightest with 3 MH’s and 2 x T5 HO, dual fans with a total output of 558w.

Just next to it is the more moderate 360watt Dymax Galaxy 4ft… then there is the tank in the shop entrance, a 5 footer that is about 2.5 feet deep maybe more, but it has 8 x 150w MH’s or 1200watts! The person that set it up and maintains it admits that it has too much light, but in this tank the plants have amazing deep colours, naturally the growth is quite phenomenal.

What I like most about this shop is that they remember what I have bought before, plus as usual there is a sales person that stands out, out of the 4 that are usually present, Raymond provides feedback on the merits/issues of various pieces of equipment… “Cheap, looks good but in 18 - 24 month this will happen… ”, “here have a look at this… “ . However time is money in HK and shops are busy and they quickly assess if you are a buyer or not. If you have to take items by plane back home the packaging tips offered willl ensure you get that chiller, light set back in one piece.

Inventory volume in the shop is quite amazing lots of Chillers, Filters Tanks, specialised filter media & electronics. This makes it easy to do comparative analysis of items. The pictures don’t show all of what is present and really do not do justice to what is present. When leaving this shop a couple of shops to the right there is C a couple of shops down on the right there is Guppy World.

C Aquarium
Tel: +852 2394 1111
Email: [email protected]

There are two shops in the street the new one has 5 LCD screens over the entrance, both are very similar and I consider them the same. However if you need CRS products, generic and specialised from Japan, this place has it. Only afterwards I realised that I did not take any picture of what compels me to enter.

The staff are always friendly and only 7 shops up for HK Aquarium

Guppy World
Tel: +852 3188 1886
www.guppyworld.net

A discrete shop often has a very broad and high quality collection of guppy’s. Even If you are not into Guppy’s then visiting this shop could change your mind. As you can see this is not a shop where the fish are displayed in plastic bags. Pricing naturally reflect the quality / rarity of the fish, not all are expensive, there are many moderate priced good quality fish. So if you want guppy’s that are impressive this is the shop to go too. Once saw some very good looking CRS and at $HK18,000 which I still think was a pricing mistake, took my breath away, anyway they looked good.

I cannot say that I have enough interaction with the staff to comment on service only to say that the countless times that I have visited without buying anything that the staff have been friendly and willing to assist.

Ok if are getting hungry now you can walk out of C Aquarium and towards Aqua World side of the road there is a Thai restaurant, this is a good restaurant [lunch & Dinner] as they provide the old fashion receipts that do not state what you have eaten or drank. In the modern corporate world this ambiguity offers the freedom the expense police hate… so naturally I ate at this restaurant many times.

Or you could stay on the same side and walk up the road to my last favourite:

Aquatic Plants Shop
Phone +852 26271885
Email: [email protected]
G/F 164 Tung Choi Street

This shop has ADA equipment as well, but not a huge selection, I like this shop as it has plants, shrimp, other unusual invertebrates, and unusual mosses. It is the plant selection that makes me visit it again and again. Note the MH’s one after another over the entire length which is so common on the display tanks in HK.

There are other good shops, which often carry unique items not found in other shops, so if you get time to visit Hong Kong and all of Tung Choi Street then great, if you only have time to visit 4 shops then the above 4 will serve you well.

**lEddyl** · 28th Jun 2006, 19:31

Awesome!

will definately visit

**cairocks** · 28th Jun 2006, 19:37

Thanks for the report. So you know Guppy World too. Was there last month. They have a very good selection of predigree guppies ( eg blue glass etc). But that time, they still do not have endlers. Do they have them now?
Agree with you about Aqua World HK. Was so tempted to bring back an ADA tank. But knowing my mom would scream at me if I do so, I have to drop the idea. Also the risk of transporting such an expensive tank over is too great for me to take.

BTW,at the neighbouring street (fa yuen street) has a traditional chinese style cookie/kuey shop. Its "Siew ban" (roasted biscuits??) is really very good.

**Rupert** · 28th Jun 2006, 20:15

Then you would enjoy this. Just took this picture an hour ago from my hotel… out of the many crap pictures taken, thought you would appreciate that HK actually had a pollution free night, one of the few this year.

**Jungle-mania** · 28th Jun 2006, 20:47

Was there earlier this year, miss that stretch of shops. To all those who are going there and hope to bring back fishes and the likes, be forwarned, declarations is a taboo with airlines. Customs do not have an issue about it on both sides.

**cairocks** · 28th Jun 2006, 20:48

Originally Posted by Rupert

Then you would enjoy this. Just took this picture an hour ago from my hotel… out of the many crap pictures taken, thought you would appreciate that HK actually had a pollution free night, one of the few this year.

Wow!!! very nice!!!

Yup, most of the time, HK air is very polluted. Talking about that, I just remembered I still have half a roll of film in my SLR that is not developed.

**Nicky** · 28th Jun 2006, 22:38

well documented

**Justikanz** · 28th Jun 2006, 23:47

I am printing this for reading to ready to fly there...

**cairocks** · 29th Jun 2006, 00:14

Originally Posted by Justikanz

I am printing this for reading to ready to fly there...

Enjoy your trip. Heard from my HK friend that there is a new mall opening in HK with 80 over fish shops. Not sure of the name, location or if it is fully operational now. Will try to find out if I manage to find my friend on MSN these few days. If you are able to go there, please tell us how is it when you return.

**Justikanz** · 29th Jun 2006, 00:25

I am going late July/early August...

**kemp** · 29th Jun 2006, 00:28

envy! shopping spree at Hongkong~~

**cairocks** · 29th Jun 2006, 00:56

Got some info from my friend. It is a new mall call Hong Kong Aquarium Plaza, located in Quarry Bay. Not sure where is that.

. According to my friend, it is still very new and not all shops are open. Below is a link to them.
http://www.hkap.com.hk/

**cairocks** · 29th Jun 2006, 01:09

Opps!!! Sorry to Rupert. Got carried away and unintentionally hijacked your thread.

**ranmasatome** · 29th Jun 2006, 01:57

Rupert.. this is awesome!! thanks!!

Anyone wants to go?? i'm in.

**kemp** · 2nd Jul 2006, 02:33

Outing to Hong Kong? Hmm...Interesting! But i'm sure my wife would kill me for not bringing her there for shopping. *Laugh*

**ranmasatome** · 2nd Jul 2006, 16:08

bring loh.. then agree on individual shopping.. she buy what she wants.. you buy what you want..cannot spend over a certain amount.. thats the agreement i always have when i leave the country.

**magic1980** · 2nd Jul 2006, 19:07

i miss this street in HK

**Rupert** · 3rd Jul 2006, 18:43

Originally Posted by cairocks

Got some info from my friend. It is a new mall call Hong Kong Aquarium Plaza, located in Quarry Bay. Not sure where is that.

. According to my friend, it is still very new and not all shops are open. Below is a link to them.
http://www.hkap.com.hk/

Well I have just returned from an outing to Hong Kong Aquarium Plaza and it was well worth it. Let me digest my thoughts, I might even go again before writing up them up, but this place also needs to be visited.

**cairocks** · 3rd Jul 2006, 20:54

Wow!!!Excitingly waiting for your write up.

**galactuz** · 5th Jul 2006, 10:04

Ah..... GuppyWorld......Thats the 1st place I will head to and probably the last I will visit in Tung Choi......

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