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As the name implies it is clear,
at least to an Italian,
that this
fish-house is located in the north of Italy and
chances are
that
it is the oldest (in terms of long time activity)
fish-house in Italy (not actually sure but I’d bet on it!) even though the name of the company has changed some times
during the many years of its existence.
On the top of this page you can see the
picture of
the brand name and logo
of Acquario di Bolognia.
Having visited during my trips abroad Stuart Grant’s
fish farm in Salima - Malawi (twice); Yacaruna aquarium in Iquitos - Peru;
AB-Zaire and Hustinx Discus in Belgium; Verdujin Cichlids in Holland; I was
quite curious - since I had
the opportunity - to know how a big wholesaler plant is set up and how
it runs here in Italy. Here comes what I’ve discovered. The whole
fish-house is divided in several areas such as quarantine/stocking tanks
area, plants' tanks area and more.
In the
top
picture one
of
the corridors of the quarantine/stocking area
is shown; while
in the
bottom
picture there
are some glass
jars containing some
male Betta splendens
(Siamese Fighting fish) undergoing their quarantine period
(see colour of the water). Below
is the water plants area.
The fellow at the left
in the pic (leaning over the tanks) is Rocco Erra who
led our tour
through the whole operation,
while on the left (red/white shirt) is Stefania (aka
my better half). Because of
some works that had to be done
at the time of my visit
the plant was keeping a very low stock
of cichlids (sold out
and waiting for more supply). Furtehrmore, the few pics (of cichlids) I managed to
get were almost impossible to display here
because of their bad
[to be kind to them] quality (I regret to report that
but it also happens in the best of families!!!).
At the same time
browsing along the countless tanks
proved to be extremely
interesting. Let’s
see why then..
A huge Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps
(Sailfin Pleco) that fashinated a friend of mine to the point
of buying it (not directly from
Acquario di Bologna
since they only supply
wholesalers) buy it! Nice fish isn’t it?
A giant Protopteus sp. (Lung
fish) - see
the pleco
in the
background, to get
an impression of its
actual size!!!
To my surprise
I
also
fould some nice critters only partially related to water such as
some Uca sp. (Fiddler crab).
Or even
not related
at all to water
-
such
as
these baby Iguana iguana (green
Iguana) a reptile,
which I will surely keep
some time in the future. What
a pity they can attain a TL of 1,5 m (5 feet). Given
some
time and
…
hoping that
Stefania isn’t
going to shoot
me
in
the head!!!
That’s all
folks (do you remember those cartoons?)… I hope everyone has enjoyed the
visit as I did.
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