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Thread: HK Trip

  1. #1
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    HK Trip

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    Will be going to HK over the weekend to look see at the aquarium shops.... THere is one street which is full of Aquarium shops....(dunno where but wife knows).

    Anyone know of any interesting hard to get plants that I should look out for ?? What about their names in Cantonese ?? (I cant speak cantonese but my wife can..) Hope to bring some rare plants back but as I am a newbie...may end up getting common plants... (


    Are there any restrictions in bring back plants ??

    Appreciate any assistance
    YOU may like living in a pig's sty.... but I dont like swimming in a toilet bowl....CHANGE MY WATER !!

  2. #2
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    Golden Dragon, the street is called "Tung/Tong Choy" Street meaning Jalan Kangkong or Convolvulus Lane.
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

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    There are a few specialised in plants but I don't know the names. Just a street, you can easily find them. I was pretty impressed in my first visit, but now I would skip many shops..

    I am going to HK end of this month, but will spend a day to visit GuangZhou, the distribution center of China on 2nd May I think.

    I don't think there's any problems carrying them back.

    Cheers,

  4. #4
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    MrTree, get more hongkongensis and find more Yaoshanicus spp. :wink:
    why I don't do garden hybrids and aquarium strains: natural species is a history of Nature, while hybrids are just the whims of Man.
    hexazona · crumenatum · Galleria Botanica

  5. #5
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    In 1999, before there were things like message boards, I posted a message about my trip to Hongkong in a aquaria newsgroup. It took me a while to find it. Here it is:

    From: Loh Kwek Leong ([email protected])
    Subject: Aquariums Market in Hongkong
    View: Complete Thread (6 articles)
    Original Format
    Newsgroups: sg.rec.aquaria
    Date: 1999/06/25

    Hi, folks,

    Just came home from a great holiday in Hongkong. I went there for a
    short vacation with my family, my wife and 2 daughters. I thought
    before I left that it was just going to be one big shopping spree, "shop
    until you drop" sort of thing. Was I surprised?

    It was the first time ever I visited that country, so like any
    first-time tourist, I studied their sight-seeing brochures closely. I
    was actually looking for the way to go to their famous "Ladies Market"
    which is sort of a "pasar malam" where shopkeepers display their wares
    in make-shift stores. Mostly clothes, bags, pirated VCDs, all very
    cheap and dubious-quality stuff. But while looking at the map, I saw
    another street called "Aquariums Market" which is actually along the
    same road -"Tung Choi Street". I thought at first that maybe there will
    be a few fish shops there, maybe selling different kinds of goldfish
    because that's what the Chinese characters say - "Kum Yee Kai" which
    means Goldfish street.

    Anyway, I hopped into a taxi and asked the driver to bring me there.
    What a pleasant surprise it was when I got there. Along the whole
    street which was about maybe a quarter mile long, fish shops were
    everywhere. There must have been something like 40 over fish shops all
    concentrated along just one street.

    Whether it's fish, plants or aquaria equipment, the variety was
    limitless. Besides the standard brands we see here in Singapore like
    Eheim or Sera, there were many other brands which I have not seen
    before. Brands like PowerHorse and some others which I can't
    remember. Dupla and ADA products which are sold only in certain fish
    shops here were also available in many shops there. Prices for most
    brands are about the same when converted to Singapore currency but the
    products from Dupla and ADA were definitely cheaper, about 15% less.

    The Hongkong fish shop keepers also appeared to be much more
    enterprising and well-informed than their Singaporean counterparts.
    They have found a good way to overcome the shortage of tanks to display
    their fishes. What they do is pre-packed the fish and display them all
    hanging from a rack. Almost every fish shop there does that but usually
    only for the cheaper fishes, like Mollies, Swordtails, Dwarf Gouramis,
    Angelfish, etc. They were packed in about 4 to 8 fishes per plastic
    bag, depending on their sizes. Even fishes like Discus, Black Ghosts
    and some types of Chicilds were also sold this way but packed singly.
    On every plastic bag, the name of the fish and the prices were stated
    clearly. Besides fish, you can also find snakes, frogs, salamanders,
    crabs, shrimps all packed and ready to be sold.

    Some shops specialise only in marine tanks while others specialise in
    Chicilds, Discus, Kois or Goldfish. There were at least 5 fish shops
    specialising in planted tanks. What surprised me was that Guppies seem
    to have quite a large following in Hongkong. There were many types on
    sale and one particular pair cost about 400 dollars. That is in
    Singapore dollars, mind you. I also saw a fish that I have never seen
    before. It looks like a cross between a Neon Tetra and a Cardinal. I
    can't describe it exactly but the red portion of the fish looks much
    more blurred unlike the well-defined red portion of the Cardinal. Would
    have bought some but wasn't confident that I would be able to bring them
    home alive.

    But I bought a plant that I have not seen in any local fish shops or in
    any plant book. It looks like some kind of stem plant. The leaves are
    bright green in colour and very small, like some sort of miniature
    Micranthenum. In fact, it looks like some kind of moss. I saw it in
    the display tank of a fish shop first but the owner said it was not for
    sale. So, I went around hunting for it and found it displayed in a
    basin in another fish shop. It was the only one that sells this plant.
    Cost me about S$6 for a bunch about the size of your palm.

    I also bought a digital thermometer with LCD display, (cost about S$13)
    which gives the temperature to the nearest one decimal place. It has a
    probe which is placed inside the tank. By means of a switch on the
    display, you can either choose to tell the temp of your tank water or
    your room temperature. Great product, I wonder why I have not seen it
    on sale anywhere in Singapore. Anyway, with this digital thermometer, I
    confirm that the temp in my tank today is 26.5 degrees. It was raining
    this morning and the weather is pretty cool today but goes to show how
    much cooling fans can do to pull down the temp in your tank.

    Besides the thermometer, I also bought several other items, a JBL glass
    pane cleaner which is made of a bunch of very soft steel wool attached
    to a holder. Just rubbing it gently on the sides of the tank will
    remove all the green algae but it won't scratch the glass. Another item
    I bought was a box of fertiliser sticks from Jaqno. Can't understand
    the instructions because it's all in Japanese but it's probably
    something you shuff inside your substrate to make the plants grow.

    For those who may be going to Hongkong and want to visit this place,
    it's somewhere near to Mong Kok Station. If you take their MTR to this
    station, it's not very far away, about 10 minutes walk. You will need
    about 3 hours to be able to visit every shop and take a good look at
    what's on sale inside. The fish shop owners there tell me that they
    usually open at around 11 in the morning and won't close until about
    half past nine at night. They are a hard working bunch, these
    Hongkongers. Even at 11 pm, most of the food shops and other retail
    stores along their main roads are still open.

    I suppose fish-keeping must be quite a big hobby in Hongkong in order to
    support so many fish shops along just one street. This is not counting
    the isolated fish shops in their residential districts. I saw two such
    shops while walking around Tsim Sha Tsui where my hotel was located.
    Local fish shop owners have always complained that business is tough
    because of the keen competition here. I've always thought that to be
    true but after visiting Aquariums Market, I can tell you they don't know
    the meaning of the word - "competition".

    Loh K L

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by hwchoy
    MrTree, get more hongkongensis and find more Yaoshanicus spp. :wink:
    Hmm, this time don't have much time. labour day is on 1st, which is Saturday, so I don't have to work on 3rd(Monday)...I come back on 4th but still a short trip..

    I will probably meet the "local king"(in aquatic photography) in HK, hope he will accompany me to GZ too.

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