We got an aquarium!

Warren introduced me to this cool Opera widget, SimAquarium, and got me hooked last week.

Then, out of the blue this weekend, he decided to bring me to Cartimar to see if we could take the Aquarium fever to the next level and if it would do us some good on a hot, bristling Saturday.

Cartimar is located in Pasay and it is by far the biggest animal shop I have seen. It is a one stop superstore with endless shops that sell freshwater and saltwater fish, dogs of different breeds, cats – Siamese and Persians alike, a few exotic animals, birds and yeah, even shoes.

After scouring the shops, we finally decided to set up an aquarium, well of course we already knew what kind of aquarium we wanted to own. Warren once saw this type of aquarium with round edges and he thought, although far more expensive than average aquariums, that type is safer and looks better. We also thought we wanted about 10 guppies swimming in the aquarium. With those in mind, we started our hunt.

Here are some of our finds at Cartimar:

These are all saltwater fishes.

We chanced upon this shop that sells top of the line aquatic plants and although mixing plants with the guppies wasn’t originally our idea, we were so taken with the look of the aquarium they have on display. Bonnie, the owner of the shop, was also kind enough to introduce us to the idea of planting. He gave us tips and recommendations and after a bit of thinking, Warren and I agreed we also want some plants.

I still can’t believe we are getting an aquarium when all I really want to have is a dog!

After what seemed to be an endless day of touring the whole of the Cartimar area, we finally made our purchases. We got just about everything we needed. Of course, we got the aquarium we wanted for P700.00, the plants (prices vary depending on whether imported or local), 2 bags of sand, filter, a driftwood (which we might not need in the future if we want to take planting seriously), guppies (we got 15!), fish food and Bonnie gave us 3 scoops of fertilizer to mix with the sand to help the plants thrive. With all these things in hand, Warren and I went home excitedly.

The pictures above show the steps we took to set up the aquarium.

Finally, we’re done! Look what we got!

Tags: aquarium, cartimar, Hazel, Warren

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 8:09 am and is filed under Family, Love&Marriage, Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “We got an aquarium!”

April 7th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
We got an aquarium! : PinoyBlogoSphere.com (PBS) says:

[...] (Read the rest of this entry here and see pictures and a cool video as well!) [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Carl Strohmeyer says:

That is very interesting pet market you went to!

I think you will find the aquarium hobby a lot of fun, just be patient in the beginning as it takes time for the tank to cycle (about 4-6 weeks) unless you seed the new tank from a well established aquarium.
The video showed a nicely decorated aquarium, although the guppies looked a bit stressed.

I would strongly suggest you look at these two sites and their many researched articles for further help in your aquarium keeping journey:
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html

Good luck in the hobby!
April 28th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
don says:

youve got a simple yet beautiful aquarium set up..

ive got some question here. where is cartimar located? i heard it is along taft near buendia but im not quite sure.
i also like the round edge aquarium… does it come with a filter and light at only 700?

hope ul reply to this one coz im planning to have one
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Kenneth says:

Ei bro, nice set-up…can i get the contact number of the supplier of the saltwater fishes there? i like to own a few of them. but im from baguio so i cannot go there myself. thanks. email me at dogfaja2@yahoo.com pleeeaase..