I'm so excited! I went to Pets Inc today and it was just an amazing petstore. Is this a chain store or just a small business? All I needed was a little bottle of Excell, but I probably spent a good hour there. ALL the fish I saw looked very healthy, and there were so many different kinds....so many that I didn't even know of! I thought I knew a lot about tropical fish but it was a very humbling experience. The harder to find fish that I saw there were snakeskin gouramis, chocolate gouramis, moonlight gouramis, giant gouramis, SPARKLING gouramis, elephant nose fish, congo puffer, and so much more! I can't even remember all of them because I was looking so fast...my mom wanted to leave I do remember all the gouramis though since they are one of my favorites. I can't believe that they had sparkling gouramis. I was looking everywhere for one and I had given up on the thought of one. These were only like $2 each and so pretty! Now I'm torn between a female betta and a sparkling gourami. The only thing I do not like about the sparkling is that they only live about a year and a half...so I'm not sure which I will get. They also had a huge section of reptiles and similar animals....including CP anoles, flying geckos, soooo many kinds of snakes (anacondas!), dart frogs, monitors, giant geckos, and a bunch more that I hadn't heard of. They even had 15 different species of tarantula and scorpions. It was such a coooool store.....

oh wow! congrats Kissy! you are so lucky! i wish we had places like that around us
i have never seen a sparkling gourami....
let us know which you decide on

Decisions, Decisions... That place sounds really neat

Might you have finally found a quality pet store?? Sounds really cool Kissy. I just read something about giant gourami's a few days ago. They're so neat looking, but I think it said they can grow to around 27 inches! The picture reminded me of a lionhead goldfish.

Wow Kissy, you've landed a gold mine, huh? That all sounds so neat. A sparkling gourami? I've never seen or heard of one, but I would love to see one. What color is it? I think since you've been wanting one so long and they're only a couple bucks, you should go for it (and post pics of course! ).
Let us know what you decide on and when do you get to go back?

Thanks guys I decided that I will go with the sparkling gourami...and if Clover (the female betta...already named her!) is still there, I'll just have to get her too. I'm debating between her and an albino apple snail which they had at the new store I found too. So if she's not there I think I may get a snail instead. We'll see! I'm so happy to have found this store...only took me a year and a half

Here's a photo and profile of the little beauties: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1562

You finally hit the Jackpot on that Sparkling Gourami,huh Kissy? That place does indeed sound wonderful,for sure. One question though......Did they have any Goldies????
Let us know what you come home with!

Lol! Devs, they did have goldies, but they were the only fish in the store that didn't look very well. I only saw feeders, bubble eyes and lionheads so I think maybe I missed some more goldfish tanks in an isle or something. The sparkling gouramis weren't nearly as colorful as most of the pictures online, but I hear that is normal and they usually lighten up and "sparkle" after they relax into their home with clean water. I can't wait to go back!