Not all people are fortunate enough to have something to be passionate about. To have a rewarding outlet that stands the test of time is something to be truly grateful for. Fish keeping is something that one can enjoy, rich or poor, in an endless number of ways. I guess you could say my passion for fish keeping was passed down from my father.
I'll never forget the awesome house I grew up in. Life was good, it was the 90's. The American economy was thriving, and so were the dozens of aquariums in my house. Some of my earliest memories were of me staring at the 55 behind the kitchen table while eating breakfast. Angel fish, cory cats, zebra danios, and neon tetra. Nothing to really turn heads on a forum like MFK. It was simple with that retro charm that's impossible to recreate today. It's something that's burned into the deep recesses of my brain.
Being around fish was just a normal part of growing up for me. When I was born, it was decided that my mother would return to work at the office and my father would stay home since he didn't quite bring home the bacon as a self employed contractor. My father took it upon himself to take his life long hobby and turn it into a serious money making operation.
"And tax free too because the old man was no sucka. Take that Uncle Sam!"
Not many kids get to hang around a commercial fish breeding business in their basement. By my mother's recollection he had 26 (twenty-six) 40 gallon breeders. That's 13 interlinked two tier steel racks and a solid line of 12" wide tanks on top. Plus the display tanks upstairs. He had a giant cast iron blower downstairs and pvc pipe plumbed throughout the house. This was the early 90's. The fish world was still largely air powered unlike today.
What better way to teach a child about life than to watch thousands of gourami eggs hatch in their bubble nests and grow into saleable fish? I got to watch my dad pull the heat-master supreme from one of his corydoras tanks and witness the female drop eggs as the temperature dropped. I remember seeing his shelf of microworm cultures and watching him hatch and feed brine shrimp to the fry. I remember helping (getting in the way) during water change day. It was All manual labor. He would suck on the end of the siphon and spit out a mouthful of water almost every time. It took just about all day to do the fish room with 5 gallon pails. But there's nothing I'd rather do than make a mess with the old man.
Once I started school things slowly wound down and my dad went back to work. Eventually we moved from the inner city of Milwaukee to somewhere less despondent in the summer of 1999. About a dozen tanks/stands and boxes of supplies made the move, but never got setup in the new house.
I graduated from high school in 2008 and moved out shortly after. When I moved into my rad bachelor pad I bought a betta fish and a bowl.. shortly after I bought a 5.5g starter kit... not too long after I went to the old man for some advice. .. and then equipment. .. and then tanks.
A repainted rack from the above picture and an original ticking time bomb 25+ year old AGA tank, currently one of 3 setup tanks in my house.
My dad fell into depression as his health declined. As his mobility got worse he lost most of his favorite things to do. Hiking, fishing, canoeing, and camping. From that point forward it only took a few trips over to my apartment, staring into my tanks before he just said "screw it I'm setting up a tank again"
He went back into the hobby with childlike enthusiasm. I remember one time he drove his truck 2 hours to get some special fancy guppies. Soon 1 tank turned into almost 10. He began breeding all kinds of fish and he gave them away for free to the LFS or sometimes traded for flakes or store credit.
I helped him get some racking and stands together and insulate the fishroom.
He always did shake his head at my "fancy junk". He was still all old school. I had to locate some stuff for him online because "petstupid doesn't have any of the good stuff"
He died of cancer in December of 2014. I broke down his 9 tanks and still have all of his fish. It was absolutely heartbreaking to ransack his fishroom and disassemble everything he worked so hard on.
I setup a memorial tank for him at my mom's store with all of his fish that outlived him.
I'm not a spiritual or religious person, but I can honestly say that fish keeping is one of the things that makes me feel close to my dad, especially when I've got fish he bred swimming in my living room. It's something dear to me that I plan on doing until I'm too old to do it. When my daughter is old enough I hope to pass this on to her
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
I'll never forget the awesome house I grew up in. Life was good, it was the 90's. The American economy was thriving, and so were the dozens of aquariums in my house. Some of my earliest memories were of me staring at the 55 behind the kitchen table while eating breakfast. Angel fish, cory cats, zebra danios, and neon tetra. Nothing to really turn heads on a forum like MFK. It was simple with that retro charm that's impossible to recreate today. It's something that's burned into the deep recesses of my brain.
Being around fish was just a normal part of growing up for me. When I was born, it was decided that my mother would return to work at the office and my father would stay home since he didn't quite bring home the bacon as a self employed contractor. My father took it upon himself to take his life long hobby and turn it into a serious money making operation.
"And tax free too because the old man was no sucka. Take that Uncle Sam!"
Not many kids get to hang around a commercial fish breeding business in their basement. By my mother's recollection he had 26 (twenty-six) 40 gallon breeders. That's 13 interlinked two tier steel racks and a solid line of 12" wide tanks on top. Plus the display tanks upstairs. He had a giant cast iron blower downstairs and pvc pipe plumbed throughout the house. This was the early 90's. The fish world was still largely air powered unlike today.
What better way to teach a child about life than to watch thousands of gourami eggs hatch in their bubble nests and grow into saleable fish? I got to watch my dad pull the heat-master supreme from one of his corydoras tanks and witness the female drop eggs as the temperature dropped. I remember seeing his shelf of microworm cultures and watching him hatch and feed brine shrimp to the fry. I remember helping (getting in the way) during water change day. It was All manual labor. He would suck on the end of the siphon and spit out a mouthful of water almost every time. It took just about all day to do the fish room with 5 gallon pails. But there's nothing I'd rather do than make a mess with the old man.
Once I started school things slowly wound down and my dad went back to work. Eventually we moved from the inner city of Milwaukee to somewhere less despondent in the summer of 1999. About a dozen tanks/stands and boxes of supplies made the move, but never got setup in the new house.
I graduated from high school in 2008 and moved out shortly after. When I moved into my rad bachelor pad I bought a betta fish and a bowl.. shortly after I bought a 5.5g starter kit... not too long after I went to the old man for some advice. .. and then equipment. .. and then tanks.
A repainted rack from the above picture and an original ticking time bomb 25+ year old AGA tank, currently one of 3 setup tanks in my house.
My dad fell into depression as his health declined. As his mobility got worse he lost most of his favorite things to do. Hiking, fishing, canoeing, and camping. From that point forward it only took a few trips over to my apartment, staring into my tanks before he just said "screw it I'm setting up a tank again"
He went back into the hobby with childlike enthusiasm. I remember one time he drove his truck 2 hours to get some special fancy guppies. Soon 1 tank turned into almost 10. He began breeding all kinds of fish and he gave them away for free to the LFS or sometimes traded for flakes or store credit.
I helped him get some racking and stands together and insulate the fishroom.
He always did shake his head at my "fancy junk". He was still all old school. I had to locate some stuff for him online because "petstupid doesn't have any of the good stuff"
He died of cancer in December of 2014. I broke down his 9 tanks and still have all of his fish. It was absolutely heartbreaking to ransack his fishroom and disassemble everything he worked so hard on.
I setup a memorial tank for him at my mom's store with all of his fish that outlived him.
I'm not a spiritual or religious person, but I can honestly say that fish keeping is one of the things that makes me feel close to my dad, especially when I've got fish he bred swimming in my living room. It's something dear to me that I plan on doing until I'm too old to do it. When my daughter is old enough I hope to pass this on to her
Sent from my SCH-R950 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
