Southern California

April 2 - 6, 2008: As soon as I received my invitation to speak at the Marine Aquarium Expo in Orange County, I quickly decided to arrive a few days early to check out what SoCal had to offer. Even with my camera breaking by the end of Day Two, I still found a way to enjoy my trip immensely. Brandishing a borrowed Sony camera for the rest of my trip, I ended up coming home with over 800 images total. Below are links to the various places I visited during my stay, and I hope you will not only enjoy the summation but feel the motivation to make the trip yourself one day.

Thursday, April 3

Visit -- Acrylic World, Pacific Reef Tropical Fish store

Thursday morning, we ate a nice breakfast. Flowers blooming everywhere really enhanced the trip. My favorite are Geraniums and >Bougainvillea, and Lantana is also up there.

The first destination of the day was Acrylic World.

These very calming waterfalls were built here, and were mesmerizing to observe.

This is a huge one, still being built

This sign was made on...

A CNC router - I was told this bad boy cost $50,000.

These tanks were in the process of being built:

They prefer to use Weld-on #40.

They heated up and bent this acrylic using a huge heater and then two forms that seemed to be covered with ironing board-like material.

Their seams looked perfect.

They build their own stands as well as the acrylic tanks.

Small overflowing tank welded to its tray.

This was a picture frame tank. The trim held on with magnets.

The top access door is a great idea for cleaning.

The next stop was Pacific Reef Tropical Fish. The guy at the counter asked me not to take pictures of the store layout.

He told me that after I got this shot. heh This is maybe 1/3 of the store's selling area.

First thing I saw was this. I guess for all of you dealing with that pesky SPS addiction, they have a solution for $18.

In those tiny cuby tanks, you can find all kinds of neat little critters, like this Staghorn Hermit.

A tiny 1.5" purple lobster.

A green basket starfish. To care for it, read this article: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-02/feature/index.php

I loved this little guy, and just wanted to bring it home and set up a kreisel on my desktop. The employee didn't have any suggestion about how to keep it alive, nor its life expectancy.

This Harlequin Shrimp was enjoy a meal (can you see some of the starfish?)

Peacock Mantis

Nudibranchs of every color.

Live rock was more affordable in SoCal, compared to DFW....(It says 4.99/lb on the sign)

Check out this weird walking Scorpionfish.

Coral prices again seemed reasonable

More tiny cubbies.

This fish, as well as a few others, were given to the store in sad shape. This Cleaner Shrimp decided to do something about it.

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