Hi all!

[Hannah]

Hey everyone! Right now, I live in DFW, but come August I'll be in College Station as a freshmen at A&M, and figured I ought to find myself some aquarium connections in the general area. It'll be nice getting to know all of you!

My current tanks:

10 gallon- 5" black ghost knife
10 gallon- divided, three bettas
18 gallon- 2 zebra danios, 3 blue danios, 3 Buenos Aires, and a pleco
2 gallon- betta
20 gallon- in the works, no plans yet (maybe a brackish tank? or a goldie tank?)
58 gallon- in the works, will have the ghost knife, 3-4 clown loaches, 1 dwarf gourami, and a school of hatchetfish

[geoff_tropheus]

Re: Hi all!

HOWDY! Welcome to the Forum.

I graduated from Texas A&M in December 2002.

Great school, you will like it very well in College Station.

There is a Petco, and Petsmart in Bryan/Collge Station.  There is also a couple of local fish stores that will have some fishes for you.

Do you plan to live off campus and bring your tanks with you?

[Hannah]

Re: Hi all!

Howdy to you, too!

As far as your question, I'll be living on campus (I'm entering the Corps of Cadets) but my LT boyfriend lives near the college and is letting me setup my tanks at his house. The poor guy won't be as crowded as you might think--the 18 gallon is largely my mother's and she'll be putting it in her 5th grade science classroom come August, and one of the 10s will be fishless when the ghost knife gets moved to the 55 gallon, and may stay that way for a while (at least until my bf gets the hang of this fish thing--maybe I can get him to catch the bug?) and the 20 gallon may likewise be empty for a while yet. He'll really only be stuck with the 58 gallon, a 10 gallon, and a betta tank or two at first. Also, though it breaks my heart to say it, I've had these bettas for awhile now, and given their short lifespan, in a year it's likely the second tank will be empty, too (we'll see how fast that changes, though, won't we?). I may eventually keep up to a 20 gallon tank in my dorm room, but I believe that sort of thing is discouraged for fish (the freshman kind!) in the Corps. :P

Nice to meet you, and thanks for the headsup on the stores in College Station-Bryan!

[HFBfounder]

Re: Hi all!

Welcome! Glad to have you in. Let us know if we can help. mynameiscandace lives up there.

[Ellen]

Re: Hi all!

Howdy! I live here in College Station also. I'm class of 06 but.....

Anyways, its good to see more people coming in here who know something about fish. As far as the petstores, PetStop closed this spring  :(  it was the only decent fish store around here that I've found. I've heard that they are moving to Houston, but I've not actually seen anything official about that.
Petco asks you what size your tank is but doesn't really know much from what I can tell. The average beginner generally has as much knowledge as most of their 'fish staff,' although a couple of the guys are very knowledgable (I think they're managers, but I'm really not there enough to tell.)
The Petsmart opened here less than a month ago, its really clean with a big horse section, but a pretty average fish section. They do have a good amount of dry aquarium stuff there. I haven't really dealt with the fish people there, but they are really nice and helpful when asking about dry stuff.
I go to Houston when I want something living.  :wink: The LFS's in Houston are wonderful (even if they're not so L) and I think that supporting a LFS is better than supporting a chain any day. Before Petstop here closed, I bought everything from them, even if it cost a buck or two more.
Have you had your new student conference yet? I'm always late to class this summer because everybody gets lost.    If you don't know where you're going, certainly don't be afraid to ask, everybody here is super helpful when it comes to giving directions.

Ellen

[Hannah]

Re: Hi all!

Howdy! No, my NSC is in July. Fortunately for me, my two best friends just finished their freshmen year at A&M, and I visited them enough to be rather familiar with a lot of the campus. (I also made my way over for every Corps event ever--and there were a lot.) And yes, everyone is wonderful about directions. One of my first visits, I asked a girl for directions and she walked me there because it was a little confusing, even though it was out of her way.

It's very likely that if I buy fish during my college years, I'll just pick them up in DFW when I visit the 'rents. I know the fish stores here, and it's been my experience that a three hour road trip won't hurt a fish too badly. I prefer LFS's, but I'm personally fond of PetSmart--the one by my house is excellent in its care for their fish (or so it seems, I could be wrong) and they always seem to have one knowledgable guy on hand if you have questions (unfortunately, this also includes this one guy who thinks he knows everything ever about fish and won't stop telling me things I already know when all I want is a d--n mystery snail).

Still, it's heartening to hear that there's good stuff in the area (or sort of...Houston isn't quite the area is it?).

Anyways, it's great to meet all these other Aggies who are into fish. Did you ever try to keep a fish on campus, by the way? Anything I should watch out for if I ever do that (as an upperclassmen, of course)?

[Ellen]

Re: Hi all!

Its great that you know the campus, I was lost for 3 months!

I agree about buying the fish from stores you know. I have always liked Petsmart better than Petco, and who knows, the one here could turn out to be a great one. They still probably won't support local breeders though, which is a real loss for them.

Houston's not really that far from here. It takes ~ an hour to make it to Houston, maybe a little more if you follow the posted speed limits, I wouldn't know about that.

I never lived on campus here, so I can't really answer your questions about that, maybe somebody else can. I do know that at UNT we could have a ten gallon fish tank. That was the limit. (My RA ignored the huge rubbermaid and the betta jars though, wow that was a cool roommate to let me breed bettas in the room!)

Ellen

[Hannah]

Re: Hi all!

Well, the housing handbooks (including the Corps one) all say that fish in aquaria are fine with 20 gallons as the max size, but it's my suspicion that freshmen in the Corps are, ah, discouraged from this (we can't even listen to music during Call to Quarters (study time) for the first semester). I would bet it's a junior priviledge or some such, though.

Thanks for the help and welcome anyways!