DELPHI - - Ron Logan and Aquarium World, Lafayette.

A couple of decades ago a colleague and I had a sort of competition going to have the coolest fish tank with tropical fish. As a kid my colleague had a crappy small aquarium -- eventually abandoned -- so he had some experience with aquariums but I had never had fish although my cousin had a tiny tank that always looked more like a swamp. From doing a lot of reading about the subject there seemed to be two rules that kept popping up: Start out with fresh water fish and bigger is better, tank wise!   

Somehow it was supposed to be easier to keep that magic biological balance in a big volume of water than in a smaller volume and, equally important, it allowed more fish in the tank. I don't recall the size of my colleague's initial tank but I immediately bought a 200 liter tank and he finally outdid me with a 250 liter tank purchase. We basically had the same auxiliary equipment like lighting fixtures covering the whole aquarium and sponge filters.

For unknown reasons my friend had recurring deaths in his population of fish while I only had an occasional dead fish, usually older specimens that suffered some kind of fungus attack. I recall both of us poured tons of money into plants that either just died or grew out of control. As I recall, the best plants for me were various Cryptocoryne, especially after realizing that filling your tank with rainwater is the one best thing you can do to your fish tank. I had bottom dwellers like Corydoras immediately start breeding when I changed over from tap water to rainwater.

Eventually, after 10 years or so I lost interest in the whole aquarium deal with its constant maintenance and general decline of the shop I used to frequent, my last fish were donated to another colleague and my aquarium adventure was terminated.

So, what does this rant have to do with Ron Logan? Well, since I can say with confidence that I have a good deal of experience with aquariums¹ and aquarium shops it struck me that looking closer at Aquarium World, where Ron Logan supposedly shopped, might reveal if his trip to Lafayette was even plausible. Luckily I succeeded in finding one video² on YouTube that actually is a tour of the shop. Not only does it show what fish and equipment they stocked but since it was posted around four years ago it must be very close to what he would have experienced back in 2017.

Whether it was worth the risk of being busted only Ron Logan would have known, but judging from the video it's a pretty good sized shop with a nice selection of fish and equipment. If he bought only one fish (I'm convinced that's what he said) he'd probably be into salt water aquariums, and one large, colorful specimen was likely what he purchased. The receipt should tell. Given the circumstances -- or risk -- it would surprise me a lot if that was his only purchase. Would love to one day see that receipt in evidence!

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¹ Albeit not the salt water ones.

² LINK