Best. Day. Eva!
As most of you know I recently lost my beloved bellus angel and kole tang well to add salt to that wound I came home on Wednesday night to my darling little possum wrasse caught in the powerhead and torn in half :( What a heartbreak it was coming home to that destruction! That left me with only my gorgeous little h. melasmapomus (earmuff wrasse) left in the tank and she was very lonely. Unfortunately I couldn't buy some more fish as none of my list was in and I had no money to order any more as it was all budgeted for the sump and vectra.
As I was chatting to Dave of the lovely @Deerpark Aquarium I asked what was coming in this week and if there was anything of intrigue coming in and I got this reply lol:
"Ill never tell :)
Ok maybe....
Umm.....
Rainbow trachys
Master scollys
Insane 60 something sps
Mega chalice
Plectranthias
Rainbow rics
And many many more"
With some more questioning:
"That's just some of it. 26 clams!"
Needless to say I wet my pants with excitement, even with the fact I couldn't buy anything! Just going to see the plectranthias longimanus was worth going to be worth the trip out! And with just a few clams in store it sounded like my kind of day to visit!
So off I set after dropping Georgia off at work over to Dave's! I got there and H.O.L.Y S.H.I.T the goods were THE GOODS!! (as they usually are ;) lol). So off I set, dribbling and drooling while bouncing around the store from tank to tank, coral to coral and fish to fish. Catching my eye on a few pretties in the store! P. longimanus, lori anthias, juvi empropers and the teeny tiniest Regal that hadn't even develop full colours yet it was so cute, stunning lps:
Christmas tree rocks:
And acro's!
It was glorious but I paused at one particular tank that a blue and rose flash caught my eye in! Two stunning little wrasse were in this tank, a terminal phase male cirrhilabrus rubriventralis (Longfin Fairy Wrasse) and a small sub phase male paracheilinus carpenteri (Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse)! And two that were on my list (well carpenters is but the longfin fell into my category), just my luck, fish I want with no budget for them.
While admiring these beauties, Dave comes over and tells me the longfin was super expensive and that immediately knocked it out of the park for me so a little disappointed I decided I spare the cash for the carpenters and not eat for a few days instead.
Once I'd finished my standard rounds and mopped up the dribble, I started chatting with Dave and Mark and that was when Dave looked over and said
"Hey Mark, can you go and get the little blue thing from behind the counter for Dom"
The alarm bells started immediately, "who's leaving me things with Dave?". Those bells got louder as I saw what it was, a box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a ribbon and the works...
"what the fuck...??"
So off I set, with everyone in store watching me unwrap this present and what do I find...? A box with ten goddamn layers of DUCT TAPE!! and a note
"To Dom, Love Georgia"
Well at least I know who it's from so I start peeling and Mark just hands me the razor so I start hacking through to find a box with no markings I recognise and I have no idea what's happening!
"thank fuck that's over"... at least I thought!
Out comes the inner bloody box and what's that got... MORE DUCT TAPE and two layers of CABLE TIES!! Mark and Dave just burst into laughter along with everyone else haha so with everyone laughing at me off I set cutting my way through the ties and hacking the tape off and I finally get to inner box (15mins later lol) and that's when I notice the final bloody layer! A ball of duct tape!! Well by now everyone is having a right old time watching me so I start to unravel this bloody ball and that was when Dave finally put me out of my misery:
"Did you check the other boxes?"
No Dave, I'm too busy with the metres of tape on this thing!
So Dave very enjoyably pulls out a little note from the inner box that I completely missed.. lol
My heart dropped, I was left completely speechless and nearly cried in the middle of the store but I was strong lol. It turns out that Dave and Georgia (my amazing partner) had been plotting behind my back since I lost my bellus and kole to do something nice to cheer me up again! I was and still am completely blown away by the generosity of both them to take the time to surprise me like this. It turns out the gorgeous longfin had only come in on Thursday night so they'd organised it the night before and Georgia and paid for everything so I hadn't had to worry when I got there!
Well off I set with gusto, agonizing over which clam I was going to take home, I chose this little guy on the right in the end! No bigger than half your pinky!
And of course while I'm happily prancing around the store in utter joy, Dave comes over while looking at the wrasse and says:
"He's yours if you want" turns out he was only making me believe I couldn't get the fish just to say that with the biggest grin lol. So not only did I get to come away with an AcroAl clam!! But I also got the longfin AND the carpenter's because well it was on my list and I'd already prepared to buy it haha.
They're both in the tank and I now have three fish and movement in my tank again after a devastating couple of weeks! They're both eating and settled and my female earmuff doesn't care about either of them lol. Here's a crappy of them in the inspection box before being released into the tank:
I am just so blown away by both Georgia and Dave doing this for me and I couldn't have better friends in my life! And Dave is hands down the best in the business!
As I was chatting to Dave of the lovely @Deerpark Aquarium I asked what was coming in this week and if there was anything of intrigue coming in and I got this reply lol:
"Ill never tell :)
Ok maybe....
Umm.....
Rainbow trachys
Master scollys
Insane 60 something sps
Mega chalice
Plectranthias
Rainbow rics
And many many more"
With some more questioning:
"That's just some of it. 26 clams!"
Needless to say I wet my pants with excitement, even with the fact I couldn't buy anything! Just going to see the plectranthias longimanus was worth going to be worth the trip out! And with just a few clams in store it sounded like my kind of day to visit!
So off I set after dropping Georgia off at work over to Dave's! I got there and H.O.L.Y S.H.I.T the goods were THE GOODS!! (as they usually are ;) lol). So off I set, dribbling and drooling while bouncing around the store from tank to tank, coral to coral and fish to fish. Catching my eye on a few pretties in the store! P. longimanus, lori anthias, juvi empropers and the teeny tiniest Regal that hadn't even develop full colours yet it was so cute, stunning lps:
Christmas tree rocks:
And acro's!
It was glorious but I paused at one particular tank that a blue and rose flash caught my eye in! Two stunning little wrasse were in this tank, a terminal phase male cirrhilabrus rubriventralis (Longfin Fairy Wrasse) and a small sub phase male paracheilinus carpenteri (Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse)! And two that were on my list (well carpenters is but the longfin fell into my category), just my luck, fish I want with no budget for them.
While admiring these beauties, Dave comes over and tells me the longfin was super expensive and that immediately knocked it out of the park for me so a little disappointed I decided I spare the cash for the carpenters and not eat for a few days instead.
Once I'd finished my standard rounds and mopped up the dribble, I started chatting with Dave and Mark and that was when Dave looked over and said
"Hey Mark, can you go and get the little blue thing from behind the counter for Dom"
The alarm bells started immediately, "who's leaving me things with Dave?". Those bells got louder as I saw what it was, a box wrapped in blue wrapping paper with a ribbon and the works...
"what the fuck...??"
So off I set, with everyone in store watching me unwrap this present and what do I find...? A box with ten goddamn layers of DUCT TAPE!! and a note
"To Dom, Love Georgia"
Well at least I know who it's from so I start peeling and Mark just hands me the razor so I start hacking through to find a box with no markings I recognise and I have no idea what's happening!
"thank fuck that's over"... at least I thought!
Out comes the inner bloody box and what's that got... MORE DUCT TAPE and two layers of CABLE TIES!! Mark and Dave just burst into laughter along with everyone else haha so with everyone laughing at me off I set cutting my way through the ties and hacking the tape off and I finally get to inner box (15mins later lol) and that's when I notice the final bloody layer! A ball of duct tape!! Well by now everyone is having a right old time watching me so I start to unravel this bloody ball and that was when Dave finally put me out of my misery:
"Did you check the other boxes?"
No Dave, I'm too busy with the metres of tape on this thing!
So Dave very enjoyably pulls out a little note from the inner box that I completely missed.. lol
My heart dropped, I was left completely speechless and nearly cried in the middle of the store but I was strong lol. It turns out that Dave and Georgia (my amazing partner) had been plotting behind my back since I lost my bellus and kole to do something nice to cheer me up again! I was and still am completely blown away by the generosity of both them to take the time to surprise me like this. It turns out the gorgeous longfin had only come in on Thursday night so they'd organised it the night before and Georgia and paid for everything so I hadn't had to worry when I got there!
Well off I set with gusto, agonizing over which clam I was going to take home, I chose this little guy on the right in the end! No bigger than half your pinky!
And of course while I'm happily prancing around the store in utter joy, Dave comes over while looking at the wrasse and says:
"He's yours if you want" turns out he was only making me believe I couldn't get the fish just to say that with the biggest grin lol. So not only did I get to come away with an AcroAl clam!! But I also got the longfin AND the carpenter's because well it was on my list and I'd already prepared to buy it haha.
They're both in the tank and I now have three fish and movement in my tank again after a devastating couple of weeks! They're both eating and settled and my female earmuff doesn't care about either of them lol. Here's a crappy of them in the inspection box before being released into the tank:
I am just so blown away by both Georgia and Dave doing this for me and I couldn't have better friends in my life! And Dave is hands down the best in the business!
