The Aquarium at Cockfields Farm
Cockfields Farm
Lees Road
Ashton under lyne
OL6 8AR
Tel: 0161 331 3322
Fax: 0161 331 3332
Email:
info@cockfields.co.uk
Opening hours
Monday-Friday 9.00am - 6.00pm
Saturdays 9.00am - 5.30pm
I visited "The Aquarium" at cockfields farm between Ashton and Oldham. Though a multipurpose building with a farm shop and a cafe it's quite nice and offers local goods. Plus it has chickens and a lama for the kids to have a look at.
The fish selection I thought was very good, from basics like WCMM and barbs to larger fish like Parrot ciclids and some huge pelcs. It has three "bays", one of Marine fish, and two of Tropical with the back of one with Goldfish. Fish health as a whole looked ok, although I spotted three dead fish and a very unhealthy looking albino tiger barb, swimming on its side, which the staff member mentioned had always looked poorly... hmm. One thing I did like was that almost all fish could be bought as young fish or at adult size, which was nice.
The selection of plants was disappointing - a small Tropica stand for plants and the staff member I was with didn't know what Anubias was. The selection of tanks was reasonable but the number of things to go into tanks, rocks, slate, substrate etc. was lacking.
As far as pumps and filters, there was a pretty typical selection of Tetra and Fluval. Sadly almost no eheim products (i have eheim filters).