Great shipment of new fish, including:

Sweetlips
Fairy Wrasse
Spiny Box Puffers
Firefish
Damsels
Yellow Tangs
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Flame Angelfish
Cortez Stingray
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Check out the video here.

Also, we still have a few clownfish left from last week’s shipment.  These are all tank-raised and beautiful.

Plus, we have a great stock of hermits, snails, crabs, and sea cucumbers to help keep your tank clean and healthy.

Come by the store and pick out your new tankmates before they sell out!

You can see everything on sale by downloading our sale flyer here.  Be sure to come by every week and get some great deals.

New Fish have Arrived!

Tank-bred clownfish, unique, docile, and beautiful!  See our latest SA clownfish:

SA Onyx Percula
SA Ocellaris Nano
SA Ocellaris Transformed Black
SA Clarkii
SA Bicinctus (2-Banded, pictured above)

We also received these tank-raised fish:

Valentini Puffer
Scooter Blenny (big and healthy)
Strawberry Dottyback (Sold)

Don’t worry, we didn’t forget our freshwater friends.  Check out these new arrivals:

Neon Tetras
Dinosaur Palmas Eel (Senegalese Bichir)
Fancy Male Guppies
Dragon Goby (dragon fish)
Angelfish

We also received some absolutely beautiful plants:

Amazon Sword Plant (10″+)
Dwarf Hairgrass
Baby Tears
Moss Balls
Hygrophilia
Bronze Wendtii

Mosses and ferns coming Sunday!

Finally, we also have a new batch of feeders, both Rosy Reds and Guppies.

View some of our new fish in our New Arrivals Gallery.

Come see our selection at the store.

Coral Beauties
Bicolor Angels
Rusty Angels
Eblii Angels
Flame Angels
Firefish
Banggai Cardinals
Yellow Tangs
Convict Tangs
Yellow Eye Kole Tangs
Six-Lined Wrasses
Melanurus Wrasses
Percula Clownfish
True Percula Clownfish
Green Chromis
Green Mandrin Dragonettes
Yellow Watchman Goby
Strawberry Psudochromis
Blue Bottyback Soapfish
Spotted Sweetlips
Yellow Neon Seahorses
Orange Seahorses
Arrow Crabs
Cleaner Shrimp
Sea Hares
Feather Dusters
Sally Lightfoot Crabs
Bubble Anemones
Tube Anemones
Hermit Crabs
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crabs
Margarita Snails
Turbo Snails
Nassarius Snails

Interesting thing happened at the store the other day.  We had three customers – on one day – with water quality issues in an area where we don’t normally see problems.  All three had high levels of nitrates and phosphates in their tanks.  Subsequent testing of one customer’s tapwater revealed that the source was the source, not the tank.

The very next day, this headline appears in the local paper: “Water Woes? Gallatin County Getting a Handle on Water Quality”. The article highlights several subdivisions with elevated levels of nitrates and other pollutants in the water, and mentions one set of sources as, “fertilizers, animal waste and even storm water runoff.”

Clean water is as important to your fish as clean air is to us.  We live in a place where the air is legendary for its crispness and cleanliness.  Don’t you owe it to your fish give them the same?

There are several sources of inexpensive water that you should use in your aquariums.  The water we recommend is water processed through Reverse Osmosis, also known as RO Water.  This is nearly pure, with regard to particles and contaminants.  It’s important to have small amounts (1-5ppm) of trace elements in your water; this helps maintain a stable pH, and is why we don’t suggest using distilled water.  Because of the way distilled water is made, it’s just too pure.  

RO water is available nearly everywhere.  Whether you get it from the grocery store, a water specialty store, or here at Crystal Clear Aquariums, the single best upgrade you can make to any tank is to get off city/well water and use RO water exclusively.

If you have larger tanks (55 gallons and up), you should consider installing a reverse osmosis system in your home.  It’s not just for fish – RO water is great tasting, and home drinking kits are available, along with very affordable RO processing units.

Don’t let the locals spoil your tank.  Take control of your water. If you need additional information, email us at info@ccaqua.com,  or call the store at 406-585-1151.

You can see these and more at our Fish Gallery, or come by the store and see them all in person!

What makes January one of our busiest months of the year?  To be honest, we really don’t know.  Whether it’s the “Winter Hobby” season kicking in here in Southwest Montana, or the realization of New Year’s resolutions, January is a very busy month for new aquarium systems.

Aquarium purchases fall into two main groups: new systems, and upgrades to existing aquariums.  There’s also a strong interest among our customers in “conversion” – upgrading an aquarium from freshwater to saltwater.

As many of our customers know, when it comes to getting a new system from Crystal Clear Aquariums, we’ll do whatever we can to make sure you have everything you need.  It’s not unheard of to get discounts on live rock, or animal credits; even our tank prices are low, because we know you only purchase the main system once, and we want you to get as much as possible for your money.  And, we value your repeat business as well.  Upgrades and conversions are treated the same – wherever we can extend a benefit, we’ll do it. 

Fishkeeping is a hobby that is within anyone’s reach, be it a betta fish in a five gallon aquarium, or a five hundred gallon tank full of colorful corals and fish.  If the tank is properly cycled, and the aquarist follows a few basic rules, a saltwater reef or freshwater aquarium can be easy to maintain and a wonder to behold. If you’re considering getting a new aquarium, or adding to your existing hobby, come see us, or call us a 406-585-1151