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Please note:
These articles, written 2003-4, were intended not just for the benefit of local aquarists and visitors to Vancouver. Rather, they were written as part of the Travel section of Aquarticles, to show people from other cities and countries what the retail aquarium scene was like in Vancouver at that time. The articles will not necessarily be updated and things will inevitably change, so use caution if actually using the articles as a guide.

The Aquarium Stores of Vancouver Canada
by Howard Norfolk
Original to Aquarticles.com

Part XI:
Kevin's Aquatic Visions
#7, 19300 Langley ByPass, Langley.  (S.E. corner of 192 Street & Langley ByPass)   604-530-6684
Has e-mail?, but did not reply to mine.
For location go to MAP

Throughout his youth Kevin Schallié kept tropical fish, and he also successfully bred Japanese koi. His father is a marine biologist. So when he left school Kevin knew exactly what he wanted to do: own his own aquarium shop. He graduated in 2000, took some business courses at Kwantlen College, and in December 2001, shortly after his nineteenth birthday, opened "Kevin's Aquatic Visions."

   Kevin's Aquatic Visions is on the corner of a small outdoor plaza and has two floors, as the signs in the upper windows suggest.

Click on photos for enlargements, then go "Back"

Kevin's is an aquaria-only store, dealing in tropical freshwater and saltwater fish, and with a major focus on pond supplies and koi. It is situated in Langley, which is a town about 1/2 hour east of Vancouver along the Trans-Canada Highway.

   At age 20, Kevin is the youngest aquarium store owner in Vancouver!

Kevin made all the new store's shelves and fixtures himself, and still works very hard, spending up to 70 hours per week at the business. As the store has matured he has been able to acquire more and more stock, and has finally been able to hire part-time help on weekends and to give him a day off, on Tuesdays.

Let's look at the fish!

   There are 74 freshwater tanks in two rows.

Kevin has a good supply of community fish, and a few more specialised species, such as the following:

     
Florida gars $37, and piranhas

  
Firehead cichlids

  
True blue lobster $29, and moon crab $26

     
African cichlids are housed in a small side room. Kevin gets many of his Africans from local breeders and sells most of them for $8 - $15 each. Last year he tried importing some directly from Lake Malawi, one of which was this rare "Wild caught Metriaclima sp. long pelvic, male, $29.97."

Cobalt cichlid.

     
Kevin has the thoughtful idea of providing detailed information about the fish he sells. Here is a dwarf gourami, and examples of the info. for neon dwarf gouramis, and for scissor-tail rasboras. Kevin's brother designed the graphics for these labels, and Kevin writes the details himself.

The town of Langley is a farmers' market town, but since it is close to Vancouver and land is relatively cheap, it has recently developed as a commuters' satellite town as well. There are many new houses, and new shopping centres to serve them. Some of the farms have been divided into hobby farms, and many outlying homes have acreages or large gardens. Lots of these prosperous people build ponds on their properties, and in these ponds they keep koi. Kevin is pleased to supply them with these fish, and koi are what Kevin's Aquatic Visions is best known for.

Koi are mostly kept outdoors and are therefore sold in Spring and Summer only.  Kevin told me that last summer he had handled lots of large koi, which he imported himself from Malaysia. My visit was in October so naturally Kevin's stock of koi had all been sold. I intend to return in the Spring to see what he has then!

   In Spring and Summer, koi are housed in these large ponds that Kevin made himself. They hold a total of 2500 gallons of water.

   Opposite the koi ponds are shelves of pond equipment and supplies.

Kevin deals in all kinds of fish, including saltwater. The shop has a mezzanine floor that is entirely devoted to saltwater aquaria.

   A view of the front part of the store from halfway up the stairs.

   On the stairway wall is this collection of fish-related jigsaws. Kevin started with a few of his own, but since then customers have been donating more and more of these jigsaws, which are found on other walls too.

   There are 19 saltwater tanks.

  
Kevin built two saltwater "lagoons."  One is for live rock, and this one contains corals and invertebrates.

  
You can just see a cleaner shrimp in the middle of the first photo. The branched coral is a gorgonium.

   As in most good aquarium stores, the displays are constantly changing. Kevin had decided to set up this large display tank in the front window as a reef aquarium, and it was cycling at the time of my visit.

With the help of his brother, Kevin is developing a web site for his store, which can be seen at:
www.kevinsaquaticvisions.com

Kevin is not just a quiet self-contained aquarist. In fact his other great interest is just the opposite - he is the lead singer and guitarist for "Columbia," a rock band! The band has recently made some demo tapes and cds, and has been featured on a local radio station. May we wish Kevin and the band good luck, with the comforting knowledge that if he doesn't make it too big as a rock star we will still be able to see him at his Aquatic Visions.