John P.

I was driving to lunch on Friday, and was happy to see Ocean Blue, a new Local Fish Store located at:

622 E. Katella Ave.
Orange, CA 92867
(714) 532-4528

Brian, the owner, is a big fan of Amano. I can't remember the last LFS I visited where the owner knew who Amano was, but I digress. Anyhow, Brian is very excited to learn from and support the local planted aquarium community, and would be pleased to host SCAPE's first meeting. I will work with him to establish some possible dates and times, and would love to hear what would work best for all of you (weekdays, weekends, times).

I discussed having SCAPE members create Ocean Blue's first planted tank, and will work with him to that end so that we're ready to plant on the first meeting date. I'm thinking something as amazing as the tanks Oliver Knott builds in German fish shops would be nice.

As far as the store is concerned, Brian is stocking a great selection of cool gear, my personal favorite aquarium can be seen if you scroll down the page. He is open to ordering us "rare" fish and inverts, and looks forward to hearing our wish lists. He had some rare characins in there that I haven't seen before in local shops. He will also extend discounts to SCAPE members, too, which I hope you all might find useful.

If you call or store by, please tell Brian that I sent you.

Below please find some low-rez-but-hopefully-useful pictures from my visit ...

















My personal favorite:


Chime in!

guppy

You beat me...haha I was trying to work something out with the owner at Window's to the Sea off of newport ave. off the 5-south. to set something up for a scape meeting, hmm

fishfry

Cool! Did he have any sundanios by chance? They are quite close to new wave too. New wave used to have a nice planted tank, they were one of the first stores I ever saw a live plant tank at before.

John P.

Me too. He seems too over his head and way too into reefs. Brian seemed more responsive.

John P.

I don't think so, but he'd order them for you.

Yep, pretty close to New Wave. Ocean Blue is much bigger, and Brian seems to be more enthusiastic about planted tanks!

turbomkt

Great find, John! Should be central enough, too. Let us know what turns up.

jeff63851

This seems to be a nice place for a SCAPE meeting. Isn't Orange County in the middle of the Los Angeles and San Diego?

Is there any SCAPE members in the LA region? It seems like most of you guys are from San Diego and Orange.

John P.

Yep, this would be a decent meetng place for San Diego and L.A.-based people.

Are weekdays or weekends preferred for you all? I would choose a weekday, around 6:00 pm, but I'm interested in what works for the majority of people.

jeff63851

I'm not sure with what day everyone can agree on, but weekends would be better for me in terms of school and transportation.

-Jeff

Lauren

Great news! My fish store in El Toro closed down last year. I haven't even purchased any fish or plants for one since until I got some platies today (that I'm not very thrilled about) I was just about to come to the conclusion that I'd have to start buying everything online or at petsmart (yuck) But I might have to start driving from Coto to go to this place.