I may have a few hours to kill this week while on business in North Dallas around the DFW airport area or not too far from there. Anyone know of any aquarium shops that might be worth dropping in on? Don't really plan on buying anything, it's too much trouble to bring it home on the airplane, but rather than just burn time at Starbucks I though I might look around a bit. I'll have a car so I can get around the area without too much trouble.

Thanks!

I would certainly check out, ironically, Dallas North Aquarium. Also put a post on the DFWMAS forum.....it's a very busy forum so I'm sure you'll get lots of input.

Thanks, just looked up Dallas North Aquarium on the web and turns out they are only a couple miles from where I have a dinner that night at Fogo De Chao, so it's looking like a great option. I may try to find one other option if there is something close, but with my luck with flights lately I may only have an hour or so to burn, and one place could take that much with typical Dallas traffic. And I can't miss dinner, I plan on eating about half a cow...

(Sorry to the vegetarians out there, but when my office gets together for dinner, the manta is "Salad is what food eats!".)

2nd Dallas North for eye candy. Several other worthy stores out there, but if you're just looking DNA is nice.

I'm not sure where it is in relation to where you will be, but I've heard Saltwater Paradise is a really nice store. They have an online store that is a different name - extreme corals.

I had a friend who lived in Dallas for awhile and really liked that place.

here's their address:
Located at 2700 N. O'Connor Road Suite 110 in Irving, Texas, Saltwater Paradise is a "saltwater only" retail coral and fish superstore serving the DFW Metroplex.

Thanks, I'll add Saltwater Paradise to my list. And since Friday is looking like a day of solid meetings, which after an hour or two I lose interest, I may have to duck out during a break and "go to do a conference call"... With the fish that is!

Yep, it's definitely an addiction!

SW Paradise is nice also, AKA ExtremeCorals.com. See if you can get a tour of the online room. That's impressive!

There's one in Plano that's nice too, the name escapes me. I want to say Exotic Aquatics.

Have fun Lee!

Well, I was able to visit both Saltwater Paradise (ExtremeCorals.com) and Dallas North Aquarium. Flights were running a bit late, so I didn't have that much time, and both of these were on my way to dinner.

Saltwater Paradise had some interesting things, but were low on stock since they are moving in a week to a new location in I think he said Arlington. One of their big tanks was down getting ready for the move. The amount of water they have is pretty impressive, and I can only imagine all the corals they would usually have in these two really big holding tanks that are in the thousands of gallons. They were nice enough to turn off the circulation pumps so I could see what was in the one that was still up and running. Really neat, may have to come back sometime once they get moved.

Dallas North Aquarium is a real interesting place. I fell in love with a 265 gallon glass tank with an interesting cherry finish cabinet and hood. Of course the wife didn't agree to me buying it, so maybe another day. And it's not like I had a spare $3000 on me anyway... The thing I did notice that seemed a bit strange to me was some things I thought were really good bargains, and other things were extremely expensive. I guess each store has to decide where they want to make their profits, but it seemed strange to me on what they had bargains on compared to other items. Their livestock was interesting, though they didn't have too many impressive corals at the moment, but did some really nice fish. A lot of the really interesting ones were on hold for their service customers, but it was still fun to drop in and see all the fun stuff. And a lot of really nice aquariums in the store, almost all reef ready.

Maybe next time I make it down this way I'll try to hit a few more places. I'm really sorry I can't stay and go to the DFWMAS conference Next Wave (I think) that is Saturday, but I need to be home for at least a day or two this week.

Oh, and I'm at the hotel in pain, I ate WAY too much this evening at dinner. They just kept bringing out different meats, and I had to try them all, and eat two or three servings of the best ones. Then dessert was a must as well (nothing like a nice rich Creme Brulee to top of a full stomach)...