Birmingham 2004

At one of our meetings one of the members (Graeme) put forward that we should do a weekend trip to Birmingham, which all the other members thought was a good idea. So it was decided that we would go up to Birmingham and see as many shops as we can, most of which were recommendations from the Practical Fishkeeper Magazine's Shop Guide.

Saturday 26th June we all met at Pete's and set off on our journey at around 7am.

We stopped at services near Bicester on the M40 so that the troops could have a hearty breakfast to help them get through the rest of the journey.

When we reached Birmingham we headed off to Mermaid Aquatics at Bromsgrove where we met Ian Fuller who will be coming down soon to Strood to give us a talk, which I am sure we are all looking forward to. The shop itself didn't have a lot of tanks but the fish were kept well and the selection was varied.

We then headed off to Worchester Aquatics at Martin Hussingtree. When we got out of the mini bus someone spotted a 4ft glass tank which had just been left in the car park in amongst some rubbish. After an investigation of the tank and seeing that it wasn’t in that bad a condition Shelley went in to the shop and asked the manager if she could have it, what a big mistake that was!!!!!!! J (It went on top of the mini bus and just about made it home with a few bumps and cracks) The shop had just been refurbished and looked very clean but the fish seems quite pricey.

We then headed to Oldbury to visit A&D Aquatics. It was quite a big shop but maybe a little too dark as you could not see the step that was just in front of the tanks and I think a few of us bumped our legs on it. They had a nice selection of fish and I also liked the idea that they had ill fish kept in quarantine tanks and where not selling them.

We decided it was time to head to Travelodge at Sutton Coldfield where we unloaded all of the boxes into Pam's room for her to fish sit. We then freshen up and all met again in the pub got the drinks in then sat down to have a lovely dinner. Then we retired to our rooms for a good nights sleep.

In the morning all fresh and joyful from an undisturbed sleep we all helped get the poly boxes from Pam's room and reloaded the mini bus then went to find somewhere to have breakfast. We ended up at Wychbold Hotel, Wychbold Green were we had a wonderful belly filling cooked breakfast with as much tea, coffee, Juice and toast as you could eat/drink and most of us were near to bursting when we left.

We then headed to Erdington Aquatics at Erdington which we all looked at a little disappointed as we thought that it was going to be very small but once inside we was amazed as it went back quite a long way. They had a nice selection of big fish and also a tank of aquatic turtles.

Once we had stocked the mini bus with even more poly boxes we were then off to Shirley Aquatics in Shirley, Stockhull. It is a very big place with lots of different Koi and coldwater fish, there is a small selection of Marine fish and a slightly bigger section of tropical fish, the only problem with this shop was that the tropical and marine tanks were all guarded by a barrier so you couldn't get a close look at the fish in the tanks which really put me off as I do like to have a good look at a fish in its tank to see signs of damaged fins, scales etc. They had a lot of dry goods for sale, if you ask me too much. With all the space they had they could have really expanded on the fish front and still had lots of room for the dry goods it really did seem a bit of a waste.

We all really enjoyed the trip and I think we will venture out to different parts of the UK map for another weekend of fish shop hunting next year. So watch out we could be in an area near you soon!!!

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