How far fishkeeping has come

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For real though, half of the fish we keep nowadays would be impossible to keep like that.. i would dread WC days if i had my red wolf fish, moving him is flat out scary. Hes whacked me in the face, luckily not teeth end first, by jumping, bitten my fingers, and all in all gets really, really upset when you have to transfer him. It makes transferring bichirs look like acclimating a guppy.

I cant imagine taking him out twice a week. It would be rediculous.
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Back in the day, I spent hours trying to keep ahead of around 2000 gals of tanks. If I didn't have todays feeds, chemicals, supplements, foam fractionators, ozone generators, oxygen generators, chillers, evolved filtration, etc., I'd never have been able to keep up over 33000 gals with many sensitive species of multiple chemistries.
 
My first "big" tank was a 29g with a Supreme Dynamaster with the manual U tubes (there was a funny tool that came with it to block the side of the U tube to keep the siphon...instead of using your hand)...and a Silent Giant air pump to run the UGF. This was, I think, 1983-4...and was meant to divert me from filling my room with jars of bettas that I had bred...

In all honesty, the Python and a good understanding of the nitrogen cycle were the most significant additions to the aquarium hobby that I can remember. The Python changed the game in terms of the frequency and quantity of water changes that people did (I worked in an LFS ~1989).

Another huge difference between now and then was tank sizes. I remember a dude in our fish club keeping a nurse shark in a 125g... which was considered a huge tank back then. Some guys who ran a store in town ended up moving the 2' shark to a giant plywood tank that they built. The store I worked in got the first 300g tank in town, a glass monstrosity that took about a dozen of us to lift from a low to a high stand... Nobody blinked an eye at keeping oscars or green terrors or whatever in a 55g. It was a big tank.

It's also hard to fathom the impact of the internet on sourcing fish and connecting with hobbyists. It used to be that you had to join a fish club and go to meetings to hang out with fish people or get cool fish. Now, it's mostly online.

Matt


MyGiants said:
I remember the box filters run off air pumps. I can remember always replacing that white floss stuff and putting a little carbon on the bottom. Those were the kinds of filters you have besides the undergravel filter.. I think Supreme came out with the first hang on the back filter box. It used a pump that sat in the box it sat up high above it with 2-3 large U tubes that siphoned water in then the pump would pump it back.
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Aww haha I remember water changes my mom would take out her fish and into a bucket then do a 75 or something ish water change then put them back into the fish tank this was in the early 90s . Had a aunt ask me to go over her house to turn on the fish tank light then to turn it back off later that night when she would be out of town for a few days. For some reason she thought her fish needed the light more then food as she would call and say did you turn on the light?? Rather then hey did you feed them lol

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We've also come along way in aquarium lighting...I still have a few hood lights with incandescent bulbs...I haven't gotten around to L.E.D yet.
 
I used to go to the fish store in Yakima, WA, (that no longer exists, on 3rd & Nob Hill), with my grandfather in the late 50's to 1969, when he died. First thing every morning they would feed all their fish, then 2 hours later, they would go through & vacuum all the gravel, & then change out 10% of the water. That's the way they taught my grandfather to do it, except they said he could change his water & vacuum once a week, since he had well-planted tanks. This is the first I've ever heard of removing the fish to clean a tank, lol.
 
Keleborn said:
I used to go to the fish store in Yakima, WA, (that no longer exists, on 3rd & Nob Hill), with my grandfather in the late 50's to 1969, when he died. First thing every morning they would feed all their fish, then 2 hours later, they would go through & vacuum all the gravel, & then change out 10% of the water. That's the way they taught my grandfather to do it, except they said he could change his water & vacuum once a week, since he had well-planted tanks. This is the first I've ever heard of removing the fish to clean a tank, lol.
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Sounds like you found a hidden gem
 
I remember my father had a 55G on a iron stand with a 29G on the bottom, then a 45G on another iron stand. He use to change the water with the garden hose, use straight tap for water changes and I never saw him treat the new water with any type of dechlorinator or chemical. Strange, but I can't ever recall him losing a fish after he did a w/c. We also had the old school big plastic air bubble filters that were square shaped with charcoal at the bottom and white filter floos on top. Eventually he switched all the tanks to underground filters.............
 
BODYDUB said:
I remember my father had a 55G on a iron stand with a 29G on the bottom, then a 45G on another iron stand. He use to change the water with the garden hose, use straight tap for water changes and I never saw him treat the new water with any type of dechlorinator or chemical. Strange, but I can't ever recall him losing a fish after he did a w/c. We also had the old school big plastic air bubble filters that were square shaped with charcoal at the bottom and white filter floos on top. Eventually he switched all the tanks to underground filters.............
Click to expand...

A lot of people don't admit it, but with large volumes of water (150g+) and smaller water changes (like 10-20%) I think a LOT of people still do this... I always top up my tanks just with the garden hose and add prime afterwards if it's a larger water change.
 
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