Took a drive to The Pond Shop.

[thepitclub]

The DH, DKs and I took a drive on Sunday to The Pond Shop, in Milford, MI. I wanted to show DH a few ideas for building some new pond areas with landscaping. The place was okay, although nothing to write home about. The landscaping outside was nice, but the staff seemed clueless, IMHO (and I thought I was clueless). I asked one staff if they had any wakins; she said "no, but you should only put goldfish or koi in your pond anyway". I just smiled at her and said "okaaaay". Obviously the girl had no idea what a wakin was, and she seemed so confident of her silly self that I didn't want to burst her "I know everything" bubble. Another staff tried to convince me floating plants such as water lettuce "absolutely worked just as well as anacharis as an oxygenator". (I'm sure this was because they were out of anacharis and had plenty of water lettuce.) Not to mention prices were very expensive.
 Anyway, all in all, it was a beautiful day for a road trip and we had a good time. Here's just a couple pics of some of the ponds there. My camera really does not do justice to the shots.

[kennef]

I've gotten the same kind of response about Wakins from people i the pond business for 30 years. Wakins, IMHO , while being very nice fish are mainly a fringe interest in the hobby and don't get seen much in the mainstream. Not a bad thing at all, because that means you have something rare and sort of special when you raise them.  It's really thanks to the internet that Wakins have made this resurgence in popularity recently, and many pond places haven't caught up with the trend.

As to the comments about oxygenators and such... sheesh... whatever i totally agree with your assessment there....heheh

[Desertponder]

Every place around here is clueless to Wakins. We only have one nursery that does have some pond plants and supplies and they do seem to do things right.
The lady that owns the oldest pet shop here in town has told me there is no such fish as a Wakin. She carries pond koi and goldfish in the spring and I was talking to her about Wakins. She kept telling me there was no such fish or she would have heard about them. 

[Mikey]

It's so refreshing to find an honest & knowledgeable sales person......or mechanic.  I've found an honest and trustworthy mechanic but I'm still looking for those same qualities in a pond supply business 

When I was a pond newbie I went to a pond supply store in Upland, CA.  They had several books on ponds and while looking through them I thought one written by Helen Nash seemed to be the most comprehensive.  I was approached by a sales person and I told him I was building a pond and considering purchasing Helen's book.  He immediately steered me to a different book while saying it was much better.  I took his word for it and bought the other book.  It turns out this book I bought was written by the owner of that pond store and is was not nearly as comprehensive or good as Helen Nash's book.  I eventually bought Helen's book I have never since done business with that store in Upland.