Cold-blooded

Fish and reptile shop owner won’t sell
his critters to just anyone

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Alexander Trembley

Age: 29

Occupation: Proprietor of Aquarium Terre & Mer (4559A Wellington, terreetmer.ca)

Bio: This indomitable Verdun stud “has been playing with fish and reptiles” for as long as he can remember, his aunts and uncles reminding him that even as “a little sprat” he’d vowed to someday open a pet store, “except all the animals would be mine, I wouldn’t have to sell any of them.” At age 12, he found himself accompanying his mom to California—“where my obsession for reptiles became insane, my goodness, there were wild reptiles everywhere”—but within two years, young Alex was all on his lonesome, after his mother (“who was a little bit into the bottle”) and her new Cali love interest split up, leaving the boy to fend for himself while trying to complete high school, something he actually managed to accomplish “by doing anything I could, cutting grass, picking up dog shit in people’s backyards, any odd job where I could make a little scratch. Yeah, I went down many wrong roads at that time, but I guess I’ve managed to come out of it all without too many scratches.” These days, he’s busy running his spanking new fish and reptile store, Aquarium Terre & Mer in Verdun, having invested his entire “very limited savings” in the business, which opened this past June 3.

Something that separates Terre & Mer from other pet stores: “I won’t sell my animals to just any average Joe. If you come to my store and don’t follow what I have to say about caring for the animals, like, if you’re just going to buy this animal to end up killing it, well, there’s no way in hell I’m going to sell it to you. I love my animals and I’d rather see them here in my store until they can be sold to a customer who is ready to properly take care of them than sell them off to just anyone and maybe have them suffer.”

How often he actually refuses a potential sale: “At least once or twice a week.”

How well that usually goes over: “Look, they can go over to any of those big stores where they’ll sell to anybody. Tell them you want a great white shark that you intend to keep in your toilet and they’ll sell it to you, they don’t care. People get miffed, but I tell them politely that I love these animals and if they can’t provide for them properly, well, I’m sorry, but you just can’t leave with one. I’m always very kind at first, trying to educate them, but if somebody won’t listen to me about how to properly care for them, well, how can I sell an animal to someone like that?”

A few creatures you can purchase at Terre & Mer, should you meet the criteria: “Pretty well all aquatic fish: clown fish, lion fish, angels, sharks. And we have just about every kind of reptile too, frogs of all kinds, amphibians, lots of lizards, bearded dragons, iguanas, pythons, boas, yeah, tons and tons of snakes. And we’re just getting started over here.”

Musical preferences: The Doors, “Floyd,” Led Zeppelin.

Last book read: Marine Atlas, by Helmut Debelius and Hans A. Baensch.

Words of wisdom: “Keep it simple, keep it safe.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net