excited i am what pets and friends matt stuart matt welcome thank you very much it and jenna to movie welcome jenna jenna is going to be kind enough to be sharing animals that are off screen right now throughout the shows with more parking lot than anything yes more parking lot than anything in i was actually at one point a customer myself shopping and you know looking at all the wonderful fish in interacting with all the animals that they have and learning about them and  you know it's the family has been you know yes it has been a statement of this area for quite some time and definitely one of the destinations for anyone in the area statewide and in their basement angelfish in discus and other specialty fish and sold to area pet stores in the pittsburgh area and they kept growing and growing and breeding more and more fish and then they decided to bring this on as their profession and moving it into a store spell out in mcmurray to broaden their their business and bring on even more fish and provide services for the community and they have a beautiful building but it's advanced and grown and so much more than just aquatics yes yes beyond the aquatics we have a full line of small animals we have reptiles we have birds and beyond all of those we also do pawns we build lavish and small water features or sometimes referred to as and koi ponds and even what the referred to as a pond most waterfall that's a new one for me what's upon this waterfall upon this waterfall simply is the waterfall as elaborate as a waterfall as a space will permit so there's no pull in the that they're quite quite stunning themselves and you know customer can have the joy in the sound in the visual effect of a waterfall without having to care for an additional animal such as the coil and goldfish that we put in these pond there is a lot of care for that  as i was amazed when brian toohey took me behind the scenes of the fish tanks and all of the piping and so forth that's involved in that and the air filtering and all of that it's it's amazing and you tell us a little bit about that yeah brian along with his brother ed a junior they designed and customize this entire a labyrinth filtration system and plumbing system that is all hidden behind all of our aquariums in the showroom and then they drain the water to all of our filtration systems that are in the basement of our building we have seven systems that are constantly running the water in our store through the basement through filtration and then pumping them back upstairs and it's much larger than what you actually see in the physical part of the store yes yes we have nearly as much water in the basement as we do the customers it was kind of it was kind of shocking this behind the scenes of this operation is kind of amazing how it works is quite stunning in you know even after the time i've been with the family and you know working there has it still doesn't cease to amaze me just how much we do have going on and we hope that customers can realize that our store that we do everything in beyond what is needed to make sure the most healthiest animals are leaving our premises you're the manager or one of the managers yes i am myself along with frank frank  a happy place to work yeah it's a fantastic place probably you know even just as a customer definitely a very relaxed very soothing place to be you know lots of therapy within the building it seems and i haven't been in for a while but what i recall are fish tanks lining the back on the side and it's just soothing just to see how all those fish swimming in the water and yeah color of the water and the lighting and so for this but it's pretty nice because all the fish are quite elegant especially you know and i brought some of the samples of fish and we have in our store to to show everyone today because you know this is by all means just a small small portion of all of our fish but we do have a lot of different varieties and probably the largest variety that anyone is going to see locally or even possibly nationwide and you have two types of  aquatic set ups you have the freshwater for fresh freshwater fish and then you have the salt water yes which was one of those hard to maintain you know what i really don't like to say that anyone is harder than the other because as a whole with our hobby the it all falls onto our shoulders with being consistent and being patient if you can if you can exercise those two attributes all of this everything is  easy you know a lot of the problems that we run into with our you know with our koreans and with the hobby with taking care of patients are self inflicted but if i had to be given that if i had to give an absolute answer i would say so water maybe a little bit more difficult because there is a little bit more testing involved but yet again if you're consistent and patient you'll be fine is it a more expensive operation to obtain salt water  especially in the initial set up with the equipment and the filtration the aquarium size that is typically needed for salt water it is a lot more expensive and usually have everything from the tanks to the filtration system to the oxygenation system to the to the water to the fish yeah we have every step of the way that any person that walks in source or whether it be a novice or someone has been doing this hobby for their entire lives like most of us have their work their we have there's no stone unturned that whenever they come in they will leave with everything that they need in hand that they will have to worry about the there is no extra stops on the way home and that's that's that's nice because not only are that convenient but you're getting education is what you need and how to do yes and on the education part of it you know we are you know everyone that comes a visit us at what pets and friends they see the same employees all the time they we don't have a lot of turn around and it's you know the knowledge that they see from us and you know the fact they're seeing the same employees every time they visit us you know that's one thing we try to instill that we have the best knowledge possible and that we're also the same time learning as new things are coming out well  i found something out there that i thought was so wonderful because it's another check of the market peters township and pennsylvania you were what pets and friends was awarded by page magazine as the number one aquatic retailer in the country yes a  fantastic honor makes me so proud to be part of this and at the same time proud of the to moody's in the family for all their hard work and all of the trials and tribulations they've gone through to get to this point but yes it's the aquatic pet retailer of the year and this was based off of the entire nation we were pitted against every independent pet store in the country from new york to l a miami and of course good old piers township mcmartin savannah and we were voted by all of our peers and by page magazine as well as other professionals in the industry that this was a place to go and it's an honor that we will hold true to our hearts for many many years to come as you are setting up on the air that's it's a wonderful honor and wonderful lord as we were setting up i should have done that you were setting up  right now but she actually is quite healthy and along with dorie which is a blue hippo time we have a more shuttle from hawaii that's our gil and then of course our good friend n to make themselves almost camouflage or to hide from predators so they appear to be not as healthy healthy and if you want to say advertising to any predator and they're very beautiful this is again a salt water ye have saltwater fish here and fact dorry our blue hippos hang and are more subtle they both come from hawaii and are clownfish they can actually there they're found in many many many parts of the world particularly bally fiji is where we'll find the the clown fish that we have in our store another thing is what pets and friends really prides itself on with all of our fish that we sell is that as many as we can are all captive bred or tank raised this is to ensure that we're providing the healthiest thing for our customers of fish that are eating manmade processed food as opposed to what these fish would normally find in the wild which is other smaller fish plankton shrimp and other live food that you know honestly if we were to provide that for them in a captive setting we would not be able to keep these fish for very long because the simulate that food can simulate nature right and we do our best to make his cause close as possible that we're going to go to a little break here and we're going to come back and i can't wait to hear about these because they really caught my eye when you were welcome back to healthy pets healthy owners i'm your host dr edmonson koski and we're here with matt stewart from what pets and friends and right before break we were looking at some beautiful salt water for some these cut my attention over here matt when i when you were setting up and  so so amazingly beautiful i thought they were goldfish but what do i know what are these these are glow tetras this is actually a genetically enhanced fish  that they would alter their d n a they would take the eggs and they would alter the d n a with a enzyme from jellyfish and they would get these beautiful colors now what they were doing were releasing the station to waterways or into water treatment plants and this was a way to test water whenever water chemistry became adverse or was not good the fish here would start to break globe writer in their color would change and that would be a very tangible way for anyone to just look at the waterway ok there's something wrong we can now test and find out exactly what our problem is and then of course there then of course after they did that for years they realize that this is something that could be marketed so they have you know they registered trademark the glow fish brand and now you can find these fish the glow touches that we have here glow danios as i mentioned as well as other fish that they have done that genetically so this is a first a lot of this it is freshwater fish this is actually one of our based on what we're speaking about earlier with the salt water or fresh water which was more difficult this is actually a great way for customers to have a bright fish without doing salt water is typically until this point so where fish were more bright colored fish and that's what would draw customers to it what do you have over here i anything and will go along also some other fantastic saltwater items inside our tank here we have a brittle a green brittle starfish and if we could see closely but he actually had lost one of his legs and he is regenerating that the starfish can lose any if not all of their appendages and regrow a new wine as it needs that's pretty cool that's different than the starfish that i'm accustomed to yes the other stuff that i recall or look more like a star and the arms are wider yes then there are several several different breeds and variations of starfish the these eyes are scavengers they will eat any type of plankton or what they call cope apology to really small live organisms that are on the sand bed in the ocean as well as found inside the core reef rock and that's what you feed them and here and tell you that in captivity they will scavenge through the live rock and sand that there are corn that we sell at our store what pets and there's also cultured that we sell that we can put into an aquarium to make sure that there is plenty for any of these items like a starfish to eat so they're kind of bottom feeders and plain yes to us to a degree they do help maintain and keep our tank biologically balanced you know everybody that we have in our tank from the sand to the rock to the water itself is part of the whole ecosystem in the set up that we have i see things that i'm familiar with here when we were when i was a kid my parents had three or four koreans there at the house and they always had the sea horses and i was fascinated by them and and of course when i got older i wanted my own fish but i couldn't keep them alive so i didn't have that's helen for whatever but these these are beautiful little mazing creatures these little guys these are kolob the sea horses these are tank rays so these guys have only known captive breeding environments which is better for their long term survival and for us being able to simulate their environment and to get them to eat the sea horses are finicky when it comes to eating food and these particular sea horses would eat mice this shrimp which is a small white shrimp that we sell at our store and this is also a really great item for a small aquarium these are very timid creatures so a small aquarium environment such as  which is going to be only a between eight gallons and twenty four gallon size environments that would be ideal for them and then we would make that into a full coral reef with all the different types of corals and enemies timid a lot of quick movement a lot of activity will cause them to revert back and no i didn't so that's where we want to have them kept in an aquarium that has very little activity and have them only with other sea horses or invertebrates like the crabs insurance and snails that are not going to be moving very quickly but that won't stress them out and what is their biggest enemy their biggest enemy would be stressed stressed the stress of of the activity around them could make them well beyond them no idea which will eventually not work out so well the stress could cause them to become ill is the bacteria and fungus an issue with these animals yeah bacteria and fungus is an issue however if you have your aquarium system set up properly with the correct amount of filtration as well as a are violet light to kill free swimming parasites and protozoa bacteria that wall so help ensure and what i always refer to to our customers is a life insurance policy for our fish and we would use these on salt water as well as our freshwater friends so something happens the insurance policy replaces the fish if it was only that perfect but definitely the goal is of course to have as much that we can put into place to this little container here well another one of our freshwater friends this is a crown tell beta crown how bad is and actually all of the bait is can be found in asia singapore and rice paddies and also ironically they can be even found in mud puddles in those countries betas are air breathers they actually have lungs just like we do and they will swim to the surface and get a breath of air and whenever that area of water has become undesirable dirty or has just lived its course the beta fish will actually flop out of the water and travel lane briefly to find a new area of water or puddles too much as a mother nature amazing yes very amazing so you have to be careful on what fish you combine because it's where their position is on the food chain yes and you and that's where myself and the rest of the staff at what pets will guide any customer no matter who you are through the entire stocking process of your korean to make sure that everybody you put in your tank is likely to live together and likely to survive and thrive he's something down on the floor there what have the we have another one of our freshwater friends and i'm actually going to we do have one other saltwater i'm going to hand off the starfish so we have another surprise for everybody but one of our freshwater friends here we have is a red belly purana and this is a prominent this is a process and of course we all know how big and bad and scary  however they are quite timid fish they are only aggressive in groups anger well if they smell blood if they do smell food they do become active but it's only if there's a group of them one prone on zone or her own will more times than not shy away and actually try to get away from us so they have a gang mentality they have a gang mentality and they can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time when there's a gang of them but on their own or even a new a small school of them say three or four they can or they will be a lot more timid in easier were mostly referred by because of its color and they also will occasionally eat small feeder fish and we do our best to try to get any of our fish eating pelleted food to make it easier for species that some legs and some have live births of course the are shark is one that lay eggs and this has won the ever shark inside of the and you know we've had this in the store for a few months now and will be hatching within the next four or five so you have to keep the water a certain temperature for that to happen normal tank parameters you know keeping a certain level of s keeping proper temperature which we know we would be in the mid seventy's for water temperature proper filtration again will make sure that the baby inside does go all the way to full term and will be able to hatch and they eat their way out of the they actually will add just like a just like a chicken they will just kind of pop out of the shell and even on our facebook page on weapons and friend's facebook page we do have a video of us hatching one of our coral banded or i'm sorry is a banded coral shark it's a little black and white shark that we like is that we have to be very interesting you're not going to see that every day no one of those things that until i was part of the what pets and friends family i never saw such a thing yeah you know of all my years of doing this and they come out ready to swim in the yes ready to go re the attack the world miniature adults yes that is pretty cool so what is it collected in the wild you know whenever the fishermen collect fish for fish or such as ours they do some will cross the shark eggs and this one is a rare one to find so this is you know another one of these specimens in our store that you're not going to see anywhere else and it makes us very pretty for it's pretty incredible i'm still amazed by the of the colors and the various colors that are in this tank from the blowfish glo fish i said blow welcome back to healthy pets healthy owners i'm your host dr insel koski and we're here with matt stewart from what pets and friends and we also have jenna to to moody off stage back there hi hi chenna den is going to be for crested cockatoo with an attitude with an attitude yes woodstock yeah shaking your head for a time woodstock is actually she's a rescue we actually took her and at our store about about six years ago now and she is a permanent resident resident there now and sadly with a lot of the larger birds like her and families don't realize what they're getting into absolutely i had a parrot and there are a lot of work  a lot of work you know a birth such as woodstock would be similar to having an eight year old child for about seventy five eighty years they demand attention and they have wants and desires and if you don't fill them they fill those wants  desires they become obsessed yes yes and you know a bird like this because of how smart they are they do have the ability to learn how to speak they can learn comedians is similar to what a dog can learn but if they are not being engaged and they don't have they don't feel part of the family or the environment they are living in they can become a little bit neurotic or even depressed where they will be because harm to themselves or maybe they pluck their feathers or cause bodily harm to obtain attention much like a child would and if we don't engage them and keep them occupied it will also sadly shorten their lifespan as would stock so we'll wait and see she she calms down a little bit and we'll get you will get him or him on it is a him well we don't know we don't know with birds with all birds we they don't have any way of really telling unless you have their brought with us a couple of our furry and also furry friends with us today and in here we have a leopard gecko and this is actually one of my personal favorites the leopard gecko here beautiful pakistani i was going to ask you where you got him from this is a pakistani leopard gecko and he is a carnivore he will eat predator was to attack him if they go after his tail which is the thickest part of his body he can actually detach his tale from his body that holds true for all of those most lizards yet most others can disconnect from their the tail usually doesn't grow back as nice as the original but you still have a till he still has a tail and he still gets to see tomorrow his ability to climb up things to it to a degree he will their hands and toes that they are out able to scale walls ceilings and get anywhere they need to be so when they're in the wild they wait for the insects to come near them and then snatch them or they actually go out and hunt them they do go out and hunt  r geckos for example are nocturnal as with most of the gecko species they will hunt night and just by the light of the moon will they travel and hunt out their food and of course if they are lucky enough that something passes there you know across their path they will take advantage of that meal that's present else your going to be searching kind of amazing what we haven't here in their cage here we have a yellow mally you're mastic see where this little guy is actually from africa he is definitely a lot more significant much more armored looking that our echo is still quite nice however they are the exact opposite of our leopard gecko who is carnivore he's completely vegetarian so he's going to be eating what we provide for him in our store is something simple like green pea green beans peas carrots dark leafy greens lettuce romaine and he will eat that and he will be also supplemented with different supplements like calcium and multi vitamins and all reptiles will be that we have in our store our s that way do they drink water they get through their fluids from food most of their fluids are obtained through their food whenever we whenever we set up their environments for home care we do have a bowl of water in there for them to serve as a abating area as well as also to help produce humidity in the aquarium and give them a more simulated environment because just like with our fish we need to chickens kind of amazing creatures because they get in between rocks and they blow themselves up so they can't be pulled out yet and you know i know that as with with all these creatures you know how they all you know every single one of them large or small you know aquatic they're they're all going to be there all amazing with what they can do and what they can handle adversity and be able to morph to whatever they need to take care of i understand chuck was make nice nice pets to sell those chuck with those with all of the piles yes they do have small trays of salmonella on them but with basic common sense care using hand sanitizer washing their hands with anti bacterial soap before and or any kind of picking at my finger the same common sense you have when you're preparing chicken for dinner exactly same kind of common sense thing is or not serving these guys for dinner this is absolutely beautiful creature and here we have a pac man frog this is an albino pac man frog and yes he did get his name from our lives our video game action man these frogs can get to be the same size as a softball and larger to the point and they are there again carnivore so they are going to be eating crickets worms and as i get larger they can eat i was so small rodents i didn't see the monitor camera able to pick up on that there's it's just too hard and i think it may be a little too difficult for the camera to see what is a on he is on a type of betting is called eco earth and is made from ground up coconut sh i had a toad underneath my patio for like seven eight years that used to come up and only when i came outside and come up with my dogs and they would come up and sit around my dog would go up to it it was kind of interesting yeah  are smart they know when it's safe yeah even even wild animals they won't show themselves unless they feel secure and safe in their environment and you barely ever see deer and they don't feel safe around humans  for children to start up with you know kids that want to have a pet something to care for themselves you know this is another very easy very simple pet hence the name hermit crab they do mostly come out at  night they are definitely open and once coming out he's not camera shy he's coming out to see what's going on pretty well and that we needed to take a break for a few minutes here so please stay tuned to healthy pets healthy owners we're here and how how they make those pets really yes entertaining i think it's amazing to sit there and watch fish and see them swim around and observe their colors and their ways about them you know you have a few things down here thinks they do have actually have a life span of three to five years and they are quite easy to care for and they just need a little bit of ole love i didn't talk or squirmy i could figure out ho for birds like woodstock could make it into their ninety's so you have to give some deep consideration when you bring a bird how might this who's going to take care of it was it once or if something happens to you yes significant significant consideration needs to be taken whenever we are selecting a bird for a pet because they are going to be with us for a very very long time and we do need to plan ahead for where they are and who's going to take care of them if something was to happen to us and you know and that's you know even with a pet such as are guinea pig or the get go we do have to think of the long term and w that animal is going to be for its whole life and make sure it's going to be properly cared for what is this well one of the last little friends are brought with us today is a black bear hamster this little guy he's a little bit squirmy but you know there's a dog here that two it's all a guy here is another one of our very popular starter pets for kids you know very very inquisitive little creatures very active you know their enclosures their cages that we build for them and put together have lots of tubes and wheels and outlooks and all kinds of activity for them to crawl through always  interested very very active little creatures and it is as with a lot of the pets and we do sell that are not fish a lot of them are nocturnal so they do most their activity at night so mom and dad may not be real excited about here in the hamster wheel at three in the morning spinning but that's the territory that these guys bring with them that you bring up a good point matt there's a lot of care involved with all of these animals and it's all all different care one animal requires this another animal requires that so how do you go about handling that well with myself and the rest of our stacked we are very very well trained and we will execute well is it actually a lot of just learning over the years being in this hobby learning and researching and educating ourselves but also learning from experience how to care for these animals but we've done all that legwork for our customers so that whenever customers come in to buy any of these animals or adopt them as their own we will be giving them the best and the most accurate knowledge possible so that whatever pet they take home will have a very long happy life span and that you're always there for someone to come back with questions and yes we're always available for additional questions always available for on site help you know we you know the pet leaving the store isn't the end of the road for us you know we're involved with much as we can for all of our customers so you have food there or you have replacement parts for pumps you have everything that is to operate you have a system at home much like with our fish all of our small animals our birds  reptiles they all we have the full line of supplies to take care of them and all of the maintenance supplies that are needed to give them that long healthy life and that's what we focus on you know not always do we know the exact country of origin of say your massey you know we do pride ourselves on knowing everything no but it does happen that something comes in that is new to our pet industry hobby and that we don't know exactly what part of south america it came from so finite details like that we may not know but we will definitely educate on exact set up exact temperatures exact will trace an exact food that the best case scenario is for animals and and applying that information and passing that on to the customer the come in and take these animals home the importance of proper temperature proper food in our industry is that you know these are these are part of our family they're not disposable you know it's it's another living creature that we're bringing on into our our life and into our everyday activity and it's not just something that all out that looks really nice i really think that's the most beautiful thing ever i'm going to go put it on the shelf yeah and whenever my friends come over hey look at this really awesome colorful thing what is it i don't know it's just it goes on the shelf is a tremendous responsibility when you take home another another life and that's what that is no matter what and it requires a lot of commitment oh yeah a lot of commitment it is you know it's one of the biggest responsibilities that you know we can bestow upon ourselves of attention so so do you hold classes at all the store we don't do any classes per se but we do even if someone did not buy an animal from os if someone does come to us for education you if on site in our store we will definitely you know educate and you know show anyone how to take care of whatever it is they have a home in even though we do not sell dogs we do have a very broad knowledge of dogs as well how to care sell take care of the food for dogs and cats yes we do sell dog and cat food and of course all their bathing supplies grooming supplies and treats your animals have certainly stimulated woke tucker up over here so is there anything new going on what pets and friends well the newest thing which we were talked about was you know being voted the best acquired retailer in the country that is the newest the newest thing we are right now getting ready for the holidays so we're going to be doing sales throughout the entire holidays and we do have some sales going on right now that you know we really want customers to come out and take a look to start getting the ideas for the holidays because first thing that the kids really seem to light up are the fish you know all the different colors and all the different sizes of fish and we do have some very large fish in our store some bush are his biggest children themselves i have we have in our greenhouse show room that are the there are the better part of two feet in length and they live for a number of years yes quite a fish as well they can live well into their fifty's and sixty's and some of the original do have a lot of the smaller species of snakes you know we will we have corn snakes and king snakes so our largest snake that we will have in this store would be a ball python which i full grown would be about five intimidating but tucker's early focused on something i need is paralyzed yeah and he's coming coming closer to walking every day but maybe i need to get him a little chaser animal might be the mighty the proverbial that basic yeah because why would you walk if you could be carried all the time exactly exactly anyway what's your favorite animal that my favorite animal you know i  did bring up the a r leopard gecko here this is probably by far of all the pets that i have had an own over my twenty eight years of experience the leopard gecko is by far my favorite but i do have a deep you know i got to tell you i think i have an issue with somebody doesn't like like and love animals and i tend to stay away from people like that people that are involved in animals are a whole separate breed of people all by themselves yes they are and  gone in there i've been nothing but amazed and amused so thank you so much remember healthy pet is a health is a happy path and so are their owners