We had been looking for shubunkins since spring and were having a heck of a time finding any. A few pond places had tanks that were marked "comets, sarasasas and shubunkins" - they were all comets as far as I could tell. One store told us they would hold some shubunkins for us the next time they had an order come in, so we were satisfied to wait a few weeks. My husband suggested ordering them online, but the places I looked all wanted to sell them in large quantities or they wanted big money for them. And like you
@poconojoe I really prefer to look at them before buying. I like to see the conditions they've been in, if there's any dead or sick looking fish in the tank and just to pick the ones I like!
We decided to head to a place that was a bit of a drive one weekend because we knew they had a plant we were looking for. We'd been there a few times before, but it wasn't in our normal rotation. We found the plant we came for (plus a few more... not gonna lie!) and then I said to my husband "I'm just gonna wander over and peek at the fish". And sure enough, a WHOOOOOOOLE tank of beautiful shubunkins. And THEN the woman says "OH! All our fish are half price!" and my husband says "we'll take them all". We were meeting family for dinner, so we asked her to hold them for us until the next day. We paid for them just so she knew we were serious about returning so she had to count them. Not an easy task - she said "I think there's 16 but If there's more or less, we'll even it out when you come back!" Turns out she was spot on! She's been counting fish for a few years I think!
Anyway, that's my shubby baby story! We had a rough winter and spring with our pond and these lovely little fish are just what the doctor ordered! Every day we go out and count heads. We bought tiny fish food pellets for them, but they are now almost big enough to eat the medium pellets we had for the bigger fish. It's amazing how fast they grow!
