Fish & Friends

Happy 4th of July everyone! We hope you all have a fun and safe holiday weekend! I’m currently working on placing the first fish order for the new store, so let me know what you guys are looking for!

Happy Birthday to the other half of Fish & Friends, my wife Tara! I can assure you all that there’s no way this store would continue to exist without her keeping me as sane as possible during this whole mess.

Some more goodies hitting the tanks! The man himself, Pat Kelly, brought me some absolute stunners this morning! Ruby red peacocks, albino eureka red peacocks, Ngara flametails, and red empress! We also got a ton of small bristlenose yesterday from a very nice woman that came down from Harrisburg to drop them off! At the rate you guys are bringing fish, we’ll have the whole place stocked before I can place an order! I also apologize for the subpar picture quality being posted. We can’t install our power poles for lights without the permits and I haven’t had a chance to go through and clean up the glass yet. I can’t wait to see what comes through the door next!

Our very own Steve Brosey brought some fish in today! Now happily swimming in our tanks are gold lazer cories, black Venezuelan cories, spot cheek cichlids, São Gabriel angelfish, koi angelfish, orange koi angelfish, and kribs!

The first fish have hit the tanks! Just realized a few minutes after posting that I didn’t spread the sand out for aesthetics 🤦‍♂️ I was just too excited to have fish swimming in the new store!

Time to find out how many tanks actually survived the move 🙏

Alright folks, the air system is finished, Steve and Lonny will have the last of the gondola shelving up within the next few minutes, and then it’ll be time to start unpacking product. While we still have a good amount of time to wait on this permit process, the township gave me the go ahead to do online sales like we did at the mall under the condition that no customers can come in the store until the permits are cleared and we pass inspection. Several of you have stopped by to check things out over the past few months and I loved getting to show you guys how things are progressing, but I will have to ask that no one stops by until we are officially open just to be safe. I am very grateful that the township is allowing me the opportunity to bring some money in this way and I don’t want to jeopardize it. Give me a week or two to get some livestock in and to get the inventory lists updated, but I will definitely let you all know when I am able to start selling! Also, I know I’ve talked to a ton of you about giving store credit on home bred fish once we’re open. Please send me a message as I’ll start cycling tanks and be ready for your fish very soon.

Lots of progress made today! Steve and Lonny went to town setting up gondola shelving and there should only be four or five units left to do before we start unboxing product! I suspect I’ll have 95% of the air system done by tomorrow or Friday before I hit that bridge I said I’d cross when I get there. We got a visit today from the head of zoning for the township as well as an inspector and the head inspector from MDIA. The good news is that they all agreed that the work I need permits for is very minimal and they don’t foresee issues with it. The bad news is that all three of these units are listed as a different occupancy class than what I need for retail. This means that I will more than likely need to bring the architect back out to do a full scale layout which will run me $3,000 plus any additional work they require from her. It’s not really what I wanted to hear, but I’m just glad things are moving.

I also sincerely apologize to anyone that has been reaching out on messenger as I haven’t been on the store nor my personal messengers often at all. I get messages every day asking about updates, when we’re opening, where else to buy fish until we reopen, etc and, to be 100% honest with everyone, I really don’t want to have dozens of separate conversations about the store. I genuinely appreciate everyone checking in and we truly love each of you so much, but these last seven months have been so hard on my family and I just need those breaks from talking about the store when I’m not here working. I promise this isn’t directed at anyone in particular as I’m currently sitting at 14 unread store messages and 10 unread personal messages since the last time I sat down and replied to all of them. I promise I will definitely get back to every one of them, just maybe not right this minute.

Starting on the air system today! I’m so thankful that I didn’t glue it together like some people suggested at the old store because we’re able to reuse about 75% of it without doing any alterations. One of the hardest things about moving to a new location is that I designed everything to specifically fit the mall layout. From the quantity and size of the tanks to the spacing of the air valves, it was all made to fit what we had. Luckily, between myself, Lonny, and Steve, there’s a whole brain there so we’re figuring out ways to reuse as much as possible. Hopefully we’ll hear bubbles soon 🙏

Hey guys! I have a positive update for you! Fatima Moien from CBS 21 News caught wind of our story and came down to talk with me about what’s going on. After our interview, she reached out to the township. While they haven’t gotten back to her with a statement, her calling them warranted a phone call to me from the township. The woman I spoke with has definitely been the first person that I’ve had communication with through the whole process so far that actually seemed interested in helping me with our situation. Long story short, she put me in contact with the head inspector up at MDIA who, after talking to me about what we actually need done, told me to go ahead and submit my applications, don’t worry about the architect for now, and hopefully we’ll get things straightened out soon. This all happened because you guys shared our GoFundMe post 86 times!!! While I never intended for a news outlet to pick this up nor did I want to rub anyone the wrong way at the township or inspectors offices, I’m so glad we’re finally getting somewhere. Thank you to everyone who has shared and/or donated! This is just another example of God coming through for our store and putting the right people in our path.