# Goldfish Street (金魚街), Hong Kong (lots of pics)



## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

Last fall I attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong for as an exchange student. One of my HK friend recommended me to go visit a section of Tung Choi street, also known to the locals as "Goldfish Street" in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon. And holy crap I was not disappointed. The section was about 2 or 3 blocks of fish store or pet store one after another and stacked on top of each other. Not only were there so many, the quality in most of them were quite good, like you peps in SF who think Aqua Forest is legit stuff, some of the nicer stores here completely blows it out of the water in my opinion, both in displays/sale tanks and price... Fissidens geppii cost about 20HKD (1USD = 7.8HKD) and the shrimps were pretty cheap as well. 

Anyway for those thinking of visiting HK for awesome food and a nightlife that ends at sunrise. To get to Goldfish Street you get off at the Mong Kok East MTR station and walk west on the cat walk, there are signs guiding you to Tung Choi. Around the area is also the "Flower Market" which sells exotic house plants and a Bird street.

Here are some pics from my trip, I wish I took more.... the stores were generally super narrow, crowded, and some won't let you take pics.

Enjoy =)

(some of the vertical pics seems a bit smooshed, click them to view them)









The start of the street....









A sign for a beetle shop
































































































































Bag o shrimps













































































































































































































































































































































































Thanks for looking.


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

I demand to have a Goldfish Street in Pittsburgh!


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

unreal!!
that place is amazing!


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Great album! Thanks for sharing.

Fish already bagged on display??? Some were a PETAphile's head
just exploded. :tongue:


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

some of those display tanks were bigger than my bedroom.


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

ahh yes. the asian market! Fantastic place
Hey bro, 你看得懂中文嗎?
Yea man I'm chinese


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## radioman (Oct 29, 2007)

pics 52 and 54 are amazing


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## BradH (May 15, 2008)

Amazing! Thank you for sharing those pics! Looks like every tank in there was heavily lit and running co2.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Great pics! Thanx for sharing. Are there any stores in the US that even closely resemble these shots?


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## karatekid14 (Jan 16, 2011)

Very cool, I can't believe those fish are hanging in bags. Why? Save space, but wouldn't they die faster?


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## IWANNAGOFAST (Jan 14, 2008)

that is so cool!! I wonder too why they come prebagged.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

And we wonder why US is so far behind scoring on the IAPLC. It's because, "WE DON'T HAVE STORES LIKE THESE!!" 

AFA here in SF is better than nothing, but I wish we had Goldfish Street here as well. One day!


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## demonr6 (Mar 14, 2011)

I am so f*ing mad right now.

We couldn't combine all the stores in the US and come close to what is on that street.


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## dubvstudent (Jan 10, 2009)

What are prices like on a single portion of stems or moss? converted roughly to USD. With that kind of competition I imagine dirt cheap.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

dubvstudent said:


> What are prices like on a single portion of stems or moss? converted roughly to USD. With that kind of competition I imagine dirt cheap.



I am in currently in Hong Kong, and I go to the fish street a couple times a week if I am not traveling for work. 

Majority of ALL plants there sell for $10HKD ($1.2USD), wrapped in cotton, in a black pot, and bagged with water. The more rare ones will be double or triple the price. For example, the normal green bacopa sell for $10HKD, it comes with four stems. All the plants are PRISTINE, no signs of bad growth, no stunting, no holes, no yellowing or anything. The best looking aquarium plants you've ever seen in your life. After it gets into my tank, that is another matter.  After all, with so much competition, a customer simply walks to another shop to buy better plants.

More than 80% of the plants in this picture are $1.2USD per bag. I buy most of my plants from that shop.










I never buy the livestock hung on the bags, only in the display tanks. 

Here are some prices at the fish street(you must go to various stores to get these prices, but most are comparable):

-10 Taiwan Fire Reds- $12USD
-10 Cherry shrimps- $4USD
-4 stems of pink bacopa- $2.50
-10 Celestial Pearl Danios- $15USD (depending on season, prices were double this just two months ago)
-1 Electric Blue Ram- $7USD
-1 German Blue Ram- $5USD
-1 Cardinal Tetra(they give deals the more you buy, 5 and get 1 free sorta thing)- $.50USD
-1 pot of Downoi, with 4 heads- $3USD
-ADA 60-P- $80USD
-A big bag of moss(depends on the kind) - around $4USD
-Most swords/crypts with nice growth- $1.2USD
-10 Chili Rasboras- $6USD
-a 7"x5" inch densely tied bunch of Java Fern (10" high leaves) goes for $1USD
-a big rhizome of Anubias (bigger than you and your moms hand combined) also goes for $1USD

And of course, no shipping charges, no transport stress to the plants or livestock.

The above prices are for the fish street, if you go to the local HK for sale forums ( http://www.aqugrass.com/phpBB3//viewforum.php?f=2 ), prices are even cheaper. $.10USD for a cherry shrimp, crystal red shimp for $12USD, etc. With +100 cherry shrimp in my tank, I don't bother selling them in Hong Kong, I give them to friends. 

When the time comes for me to go back to the US, I may just quit the aquarium hobby, there is no way I'd be wiling to pay US prices after living in HK.


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

karatekid14 said:


> Very cool, I can't believe those fish are hanging in bags. Why? Save space, but wouldn't they die faster?





IWANNAGOFAST said:


> that is so cool!! I wonder too why they come prebagged.


Save space, save time on employees having to catch the fish. And convenience for new fish owners (or people that don't necessary care for the the treatment of the fish) to quickly buy cheap fish in a bag, and leave.

Remember, at night time, and during the weekends, those two city blocks are SWARMING with people. With space as tight as it is in HK, the most time saving, space saving thing to do is to hang the livestock on bags, and the customers walk right by the shop front, pick one out, pay, and leave.

There are a couple of better shops (a couple of them enter the ADA aquascaping contest annually) that do not hang the bags of livestock, they truly care about the animals. But most smaller stores simply have no choice, they must attract customers by displaying the bags at the shop front to attract customers.

Some stores keep fish in their tanks, and also bag them for sale out front, and release the unsold fish back into their tanks. Which in reality, it isn't any worst than shipping them in the States.

Some of the super bush league stores get them from a wholesaler (prices next to nothing), and I truly do not know what they do with the unsold fish after a couple days.


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## oscarsx (Mar 15, 2011)

I need to go theeeeeeeeeeeeeere


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## 150EH (Dec 6, 2004)

I could only wish my LFS had a selection like that, wow. They must do a brisk business with fish already bagged and ready to go or they toss alot at the end of the day.

That would be really cool to see in person.

We would all be broke if something like that was at our disposal!


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## JasonG75 (Mar 1, 2011)

IF only we could get stores like this in the states.....


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## dubvstudent (Jan 10, 2009)

chiefroastbeef said:


> Majority of ALL plants there sell for $10HKD ($1.2USD), wrapped in cotton, in a black pot, and bagged with water. The more rare ones will be double or triple the price. For example, the normal green bacopa sell for $10HKD, it comes with four stems. All the plants are PRISTINE, no signs of bad growth, no stunting, no holes, no yellowing or anything. The best looking aquarium plants you've ever seen in your life. After it gets into my tank, that is another matter.  After all, with so much competition, a customer simply walks to another shop to buy better plants.
> 
> More than 80% of the plants in this picture are $1.2USD per bag. I buy most of my plants from that shop.
> 
> ...


Wow, after seeing this, I can't help but feel horribly ripped off. :hihi:


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## chiefroastbeef (Feb 14, 2011)

JasonG75 said:


> IF only we could get stores like this in the states.....


I think HK is one of the places with such tight competition, with retail stores of the same industry grouped closely together, within 2-3 city blocks, I really wonder how it all works.

The district the fish street is in is called Mongkok. It is a major tourist/local HKers destination.

In Mongkok, you have streets upon streets of stores that sell nothing but the latest sneakers/sportswear, streets that only sell plants, streets that sell only electronics (imagine two of the same chain store within one city block of each other), and of course jewelry. You have shopping centers with 200+ stores (stores smaller than a standard US bathroom) all packed in, all selling new/used cellphones/cases.

It is all too fascinating.


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## jreich (Feb 11, 2009)

chiefroastbeef said:


> I truly do not know what they do with the unsold fish after a couple days.


 eat them? :icon_eek:


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## mach_six (Sep 12, 2005)

I've been to HK 3 times now and i always go to that street to look. What livestock or plants can you bring back w/o being confiscated?


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## Deahttub (Apr 17, 2011)

Truky stunning pics.....wonder what shipping would be to the states....


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## orchidman (Dec 15, 2010)

OMG! i want to be there! and the prices make it all the better! 80$ for a 60P?????


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

jkan0228 said:


> ahh yes. the asian market! Fantastic place
> Hey bro, 你看得懂中文嗎?
> Yea man I'm chinese


 lol, enough to know what your asking. Not enough to make it practical. Mystery dinner when the menu is completely in Chinese characters. 



speedie408 said:


> And we wonder why US is so far behind scoring on the IAPLC. It's because, "WE DON'T HAVE STORES LIKE THESE!!"
> 
> AFA here in SF is better than nothing, but I wish we had Goldfish Street here as well. One day!


 Exactly what I was thinking, half of the winning entries seem to come from Asia. haha.


Chiefroastbeef, got any tips on trying to get a job in HK? I've been dieing to go back, ahah. Its been a year since I went and I'm still having a hard time readjusting to normal life again. Not the mention the job market for new grads is shot to hell in this country. S Korea and Australia also seem to have better job outlooks atm...


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## thinBear (Dec 16, 2011)

Oh you won't know how much I miss just wandering there after school back then. Thanks for these photos!

Most recent news I heard about that street is, the urban planning dep. are going to re scape the street, which killing lots of the "side-walk" selling/ small shops, and jet up the rent for the shops... :icon_cry:


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## Axelrodi202 (Jul 29, 2008)

Nothing matches the fish markets of China. Makes me want to go back, haven't been there in years...


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## HD Blazingwolf (May 12, 2011)

anyone else notice how rediculously clean the tile flooring is??
i wish it was that way here. evyerthing there looked meticulously cared for


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## Alaskan Fishface (Feb 16, 2013)

It's like I picture heaven!


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## rocksmom (Mar 6, 2012)

Thanks for sharing, those were some great pics! The ranchus and self serve plants had me drooling.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2009)

Love the 'fresh produce' section! lol


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

Wow! lots of good stuff. Wish there is one like that near my place.

Thanks for sharing the photos.


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## TexasCichlid (Jul 12, 2011)

Amazing place. Thanks for sharing.


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## Sajacobs (Aug 24, 2012)

Amazing. I would love to see the goldfish. 

It's all like you died and went to aquarium heaven.


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## mach_six (Sep 12, 2005)

I went there the 3 times I've been there and never really buy anything. For the most part, electrical items are 220V and then i never come prepared to compare prices to see if I'm getting ripped off then again I wasn't into fish like I am again all those times. Hesistant to buy plants because of customs.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

mach_six said:


> I went there the 3 times I've been there and never really buy anything. For the most part, electrical items are 220V and then i never come prepared to compare prices to see if I'm getting ripped off then again I wasn't into fish like I am again all those times. Hesistant to buy plants because of customs.


I have been there as well, and have always bought equipment (not electrical, but things like drop checkers, diffusers, etc) and never livestock.

As you mentioned, customs would confiscate all the plants without a phytosanitary certificate.


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## h4n (Jan 4, 2006)

Wow!!!!

Thanks for the pictures!!!

-Sent from my Samsung Note, a "Phablet"


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

Very cool!










Anyone know what type of rock that is, on the bottom shelf right side, with the well defined lines/crevices? Looks like a miniature mountain.


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## Art by Stef* (Jan 27, 2013)

I seen this place before...in a dream...never knew it existed!
It's the Wonka-land of aquaria!
-Stef*


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## Conrad283 (Dec 10, 2012)

Wow. Awesome pictures


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## keithy (Jun 8, 2010)

I will be broke if I were to live in HK. Great pics and thanks for sharing.


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## acitydweller (Dec 28, 2011)

America's got nothing that even touches what these photos shows... woah...

Though their method of prebagging seems a bit aggressive, this surely would trump any "online" sale i'd come across in the states. The competition surely keeps prices down as previously posted.

Each of the large cities in China has an aquatic street though stock would vary by what's available locally. The one i came across in vietnam was bleh...


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## tumbleweedz (Mar 1, 2012)

Wow, I guess I didn't know where to look in Shanghai. I loved the flower and pearl markets though.


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## devilduck (May 9, 2012)

My favorite place in the whole world. 

I've been there a many times but before I was really into aquaria. There's equally grand flower and bird market nearby too. On the weekends the streets are packed to the gills.


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## Couv (Feb 14, 2013)

I wish I would have known about this when I went to HK years ago! It looks amazing.


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## Silenced (Aug 20, 2012)

great!!!!


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## tetra10 (Aug 5, 2012)

More pictures


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## sepulvd (Mar 19, 2012)

HK is incredible. go there for a week every summer. ill be there again in august


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## lotzodomo (Aug 15, 2011)

Sigh, I go to HK every year to visit family and every time I always visit this street a few times. I come back with as much as I can, but I cry inside cause I can't bring any livestock or plants back to the states. *shakes fist*


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## LyzzaRyzz (Nov 6, 2012)

My heart is hurting....

Wait, cant you buy a bunch of plants, and with the money you save, SHIP them back to the US? 

How would someone whose not getting to HK anytime soon, [or ever] get these plants/ awesome deals? Do they have a website?

I am so enchanted by this place, i want to start saving to go!


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## Centromochlus (May 19, 2008)

LyzzaRyzz said:


> Wait, cant you buy a bunch of plants, and with the money you save, SHIP them back to the US?


You need a phytosanitary certificate and an import license in order to ship plants back from other countries.


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## lotzodomo (Aug 15, 2011)

Here's a few pictures that I took while I was there, I was too busy picking my jaw off the ground to take any more lol









It's literally two long blocks of livestock and supplies, most of which are like 1/2 the price of what you pay for back here in the states. 

I got these two lovely decorations for the tank in my apartment in HK. Both together were like $5 US....  all the plants that they leave out in the open are constantly misted to keep moist.


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## mfurufuru (Mar 20, 2012)

Wonder if Japan has anything like that?


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## In.a.Box (Dec 8, 2011)

my gf went to hk for school... she was at that place buying me plant :^^ she shipped over ton of plant to me in the U.S. she also took ton of pic of other fish store as well.


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

Art by Stef* said:


> I seen this place before...in a dream...never knew it existed!
> It's the Wonka-land of aquaria!
> -Stef*


:hihi:

no doubt!


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

mfurufuru said:


> Wonder if Japan has anything like that?


Here are some pictures (click for larger image):


The storefront:


Tanks:



Corys in one of the tanks:


More tanks:






Sorry about the glare, I wasn't really paying attention to my pictures


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## sepulvd (Mar 19, 2012)

yea thats AQUA FOREST in tokyo. very beatiful place but slightly expensive jus like anything in japan


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

sepulvd said:


> yea thats AQUA FOREST in tokyo. very beatiful place but slightly expensive jus like anything in japan


Glad you know it 

Let me see if I have any other pictures...

Edit: Guess not - I could have sworn I had some from some other shops in Tokyo as well as in Kyoto (guess I didn't take pictures; either that or I can't find them)


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## mfurufuru (Mar 20, 2012)

Gonna have to add AQUAFOREST to my list of places to visit for my next trip. Thanks


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## rowdaddy (Jan 20, 2012)

I'm moving to Hong Kong. It's decided.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2


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## sepulvd (Mar 19, 2012)

@darkblade yea aqua forest is my main place to go. there are other shops to go to in the tokyo area but i belive its know were near as nice. i have a bunch of pics ill see if i post some up tommrrow since am working a 24 hour shift today

but i suggest everyone to visit hong kong atleast once in there life time. its incredibly beatiful so much to see and do. and who doesnt want to take a pictgure with the statute of bruce lee


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## Sgtreef (Jun 6, 2004)

Hate to bring this back but could not resist.
Only thing to say is wow indeed, beautiful.
Sending to a friend that lives in HK.
How is the sending pf plants from HK to the USA?
Allowed or not?

Jeff


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Sgtreef said:


> How is the sending pf plants from HK to the USA?
> Allowed or not?
> 
> Jeff


The importation of plants from abroad will require a phytosanitary certificate, the onus of which is on the importer to obtain.

It is generally not worth the hassle.


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## kcoscia (Jul 24, 2013)

:icon_eek:


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## herns (May 6, 2008)

I actually met and spoke with a guy who sells plants on one famous online bid site and he mentioned he got his plants from Thailand. He mentioned it was not a hard process getting an application and get it cleared from USDA. The plants need to be pick up personally from USDA at the airport.


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

Oh didn't realized this thread got bumped/still active haha. Thanks for the additional pics lotzodomo and darkblade48! Where in Japan did you see those shops? I went to Tokyo and Kyoto earlier this year. I didn't really see any aquarium stores... and I didn't have enough time to go up to see the Amano gallery.... =/

I actually went back to HK at the end of 2011. I may have a few more pics to add... Turn over rate over there is pretty crazy, couple of those shops I posted were not there 11 months later.


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

I went to shops in Tokyo and Kyoto - they are generally out of the way (not in tourist locations), so that is why you may not have seen them.

The ADA gallery is quite a bits away from Tokyo; I don't feel like taking the bullet train just to go see it (as it is expensive).


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## solchitlins (Sep 11, 2013)

http://youtu.be/PADBM4_gzng


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

solchitlins said:


> http://youtu.be/PADBM4_gzng


Yah... pretty mess up. Generally that is something you would see in mainland China. I didn't see those in HK when I was there, generally speaking HK and Taiwan have much higher moral standards than the mainland.

Darkblade48 were you able to visit the sky tree aquarium?


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## cmathews95 (Jan 4, 2013)

that's so awesome. No wonder they have such great tanks. Why can't prices be that great here?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

IceDragon said:


> Darkblade48 were you able to visit the sky tree aquarium?


No, I was not aware the Skytree had an aquarium; I may check it out someday (I'm not normally in the Asakusa area).


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

It has been awhile since I've been to HK, the other weekend I had to make a visa run, HK is the cheapest option, so naturally for the few days I had, I had to take a look what was going on down in Mong Kok. For the most part it seems like the pet street is holding up. Though there does seem to be a little less shops and more restaurants. There also seems to be an increase in furry animal shops as well. Also most shops had "No photo" signs plastered everywhere this time, so I wasn't able take that many... The shops on the second floor seems more accepting to pics tho... 































































































































Bonus pics

Bird market


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## SwissCheeseHead (Dec 24, 2014)

Thanks for sharing! looks like a really awesome place!


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## AquaAurora (Jul 10, 2013)

Why are they so anti photo taking? :c


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## ichy (Apr 6, 2015)

That puts a big spin on LFS!!!


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## Kubla (Jan 5, 2014)

AquaAurora said:


> Why are they so anti photo taking? :c


I've wondered about that too. I was in Chinatown in SF a couple of weeks ago and was stopped from taking pictures of fish at a fish market and veggies at a stand. Not sure what the big secret is.


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## easternlethal (Feb 13, 2016)

I live in Hong Kong. Any one coming here let me know and I'd be happy to take you around. 

maybe I'm spoilt but there are a lot of things you can't buy here. dry ferts (because no one here knows what EI is) co2 reactors to name a few.. 

also all the shops here sell 99% of the same thing and the livestock is actually extremely weak from being bred to death and bagged all day. 

doesn't stop me from swinging by most Fridays after work on my way home tho...


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

They likely keep expensive fish like arowana. It is a kind of protection to stop people taking photo's and making it harder to target their produce.


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

Hmm, my guess would be they got too many people taking pictures and not buying. Hence why the second floor shops don't seem to mind as much. I would say this time around >90% of the shops had no photo signs. Sad times. As far as arowanas go, I think they are mostly on the second floor shops, most of the second floor shops require you to either page them at the ground floor door or ask the guard to let you in. 

I personally really like the shops that sells insects, bit more unique then what you would see in the states. 

@easternlethal - Have you noticed any changes over the years? I heard overall the street is shrinking due to rising cost of living.


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## easternlethal (Feb 13, 2016)

The only insects sold now are fish/arowanna food and I do see more restaurants and non fish related shops, but there are also quite a few new shrimp / riparium only shops on the first floor which didn't exist before. 

I really only buy plants and fish nowadays because equipment wise I can find everything on taobao at a fraction of even the prices there.

When I first got here there was a high tech looking shop selling ada right next to a local run fish shop which had been there for years both which had awesome tanks. I went into the ada shop first to ask how to set up their tank (was a newbie then) and they described their whole ada range to me with Kessil, superjet filtration etc. etc. Then I went next door and asked the same question and the grandpa there showed me a bottle of $1 fert from china.


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## Greasy (Aug 16, 2009)

Ah I see, well it's good to know that it isn't disappearing anytime soon. It is fun to walk around that area since it is also close to the flower and bird streets.

I was referring to the beetle shop, there was also a shop that had mantis and I think peacock jumping spiders. 

It seems over all prices are higher than it was 5 years ago for sure.


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## Jeff5614 (Dec 29, 2005)

easternlethal said:


> ...no one here knows what EI is...


No EI? Wow, any attempt they make at a planted tank must end in an algae coated failure. :wink2: ( sarcasm intended )


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

Yes, its an abreviated form of EIoA. Eminent invasion of algae.









1930's Goldfish market in Japan.


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## easternlethal (Feb 13, 2016)

I think that most of the tanks on fish street actually use plants with lower demands - ferns, moss, marsileas, repens, etc. and medium / low lights and sometimes I have trouble finding plants like helferis or wallichis occasionally. 

also the turnover is very high because they are always selling and replacing so they never get to the point where the substrate depletes or algae even get the chance to grow. 

One shop I know well literally uses hundreds of Amanos and ottos when setting up their display tank so much so they can actually grow buceps at the top of the tank without any bba. The owner told me they don't allow photos because they don't want to be compared with other shops online and on Facebook etc. with photoshopping and all the issues with pictures. Also there are just days when one tank or another is being revamped or repaired or for some other reason just doesn't look as good..


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## roastbird (Jul 6, 2016)

why we can't have such markets so that we do not need to buy boiled plants in summer on eBay :C


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