# Love of the hobby



## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Let's put some positive energy back into the hobby. Too many negatives...

I start first. I used to love African cichlids; mainly the Lake Tanganyika cichlids. They have so many body shapes, behaviors, color, and variety. I love them all. I was especially proud that I wrote a journal with my breeding Kitumba frontosa and later a breeding community Tanganyika tank journal. Back then, most people will do one or two types of breeding fish in a single tank. I did an easy one with 4-5 types of fish in a single 75g. It was fun and very biotope like. However, as the Lake being explore and fish being export heavily and breeding programs setup from farms to home, there is nothing really interesting and exotic I can get my hands on. Shipping cost is another factors that I no longer want to do them. So I decide to move my interest to South America.

Because we are in BC, our water is perfect for them. I no longer have to dose constantly for my African tanks anymore. Water change is easy. And although the SA fish lacks of color, but the number of types of fish are far greater from small tetra, to geophagus to corys to plecos to stingrays... The list is just endless. And it is far more fun to setup SA biotope for me anyway. I love the driftwood look. A little bit of easy low light plants just to add a dash of green here and there. The tanning from the wood adds even more color to the water... Just imagine, part of the river in your living room. It is amazing...

I can't take all the credit. I got the idea from James; owner of Rainforest. Some people might still remember him. He has a 6 footer in the front center of the store with hundreds and thousands of cardinals tetra in there with a few exotic plecos. Sure he had some very nice wild discus in the holding tanks at the back, a few altum angels holding tanks on the other side, and many other types of fish tanks in the store. But I always found myself staring at those cardinals in that 6 footer tank. I think that is when I decided I would go from monster fish tank with only a few monster fish to monster fish tank with hundreds and thousands of smaller community fish setup. And I love it; so does most of my customers who converted and convinced that a bigger tank doesn't mean you have to put bigger fish in there. Small community fish are just as nice if not better.

Please share yours...


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

I bought my first tank in Canada from Noah's arc Metrotown back in 2003. I never serious about fish keeping and it is always on and off thing. Noah's arc than later pet habitat has limited fish selection and high price, I always got neon tetra and Harlequin Rasbora and at result I lost interest of my fish fast. 

Thing changed this year after I discover this forum and fish stores such as king ed, aquarium west, april's aquairum and island pet that I can access to with public transportation while bring fish home alive and most important at all I discover other wonderful tropical fish out there such as Galaxy rasbora, pygmy cory, Peacock goby, freshwater neon goby and pea puffer. Those will never show up in store like pet habitat or big chain store like pet smart. It is a joy when galaxy rasbora, peacock goby and freshwater neon goby grow up and color up in front your eye. I enjoyed seeing army of pygmy corys swim in school and they even dash to surface for air together! Too bad it doesn't happen often as them usually mind their own business. Ironically Harleguin Rasboras and albino corys that I have more than half year start to become eye sore at this point. lol.

The pea puffer live by itself in a 2.6 gallon tank is wonderful. It pay less attention to me now because it doesn't need to beg for food as a member here gave me bunch of ramshorn snails and I place them in the tank and breeder box inside the tank. It is still fun to see the puffer try to get the snails through the breeder box. My only problem now is that I put too many snails outside the breeder box and they start to eat my java fern and staurogyne repens once they finish all the algae in the tank. =__= 

Than there is fresh water dwarf shrimps that I am in love with. The only problem is I can't keep all the different color together without create ugly wild cherry and I don't have room for other tank. I also don't have chance to try crystal shrimps yet as well. I enjoy to see red cherries get food from the tweezer. My tetras will just run away if that happen. 

I haven't have chance to own cichlids, discus, loaches and angel fish than again I am more of small of schooling fish type of guy. I have close to 90 schooling fish in my 45 gallon. I wish they can form their own school instead mix together as whole. I guess that due to I don't have any semi aggressive fish in the tank. I don't think that lone siamese algae eater is going to do anything, I mean it can't even get to the food I drop in the tank. My galaxies, Harleguin rasboras , neon, black neon, green neon, cardinal tetra and rummy nose tetra pretty much clear up every micro pellet before they reach substrate. If there is anything on the substrate, my fat albino corys are too fat and dumb to be pushed away. I don't think it is starving as it did grow to about 3 inch now.

Than there is different plants for the tank and no more plastic decor plants. My dwarf hair grass is growing well, however my rotala wallichii is still ugly green instead pink. I guess 1 35w fluval aquialife and plant led isn't enough. I asked a friend in a big chain store to order another one for me but I dunno when it will arrive.

Than there is salt water tank that I want to own but I don't think it will happen anytime soon.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

I find myself changing things around every few years. I guess this is understandable since I set up my first fw tank back when I was 8 and my first sw tanks while still in high school, and a over decade before the Internet came online. Over the several decades of fishkeeping, I've gone from my original community tank and goldfish tank, to keeping seahorse species tanks and red tiger oscars to sw fish only tanks, to piranhas and breeding various cichlids like firemouths, red chromides (brackish Asian species), red jewels and many others. About the only time I went for more than a year without having at least one fish tank since I was eight years old was the four years I worked up in Powell River but that was when I was in charge of feeding 3.5 MILLION salmon fry/smolts for the BC Aquaculture industry. I got into coral reef tanks the day after taking Irene to watch Finding Nemo on "cheap" Tuesday at the cinema. Most EXPENSIVE movie ever, at least in my case. I've had as many as 7 freshwater tanks in our first 450 sq. ft. one bedroom basement suite to almost a 1000 gallons of sw in our present 2 bedroom ground floor suite. At present, I am "down" to my 165g reef, 93g 30" cube Rose Bubble Tip/Pulsing Xenia/Dendros sw reef, 2' fw community cube, two small fw shrimp tanks and a 180g above ground koi "pond" in my backyard and an 18" Pacific Tree Frog tadpole tank outside. My kids love the fish and tanks so much that when Felicia Skyped me from Malaysia on Thursday night, she insisted that I had to point my phone's camera at the fish tanks so she could see "her" pets. 

Yes, the tanks, spare equipment & supplies probably take up 75 percent of our limited storage space, as well as a good chunk of my disposable income, but there are far worst ways to spend my time, energy, space, and resources than on this hobby. My kids can probably name dozens of fish and coral species (at age 6 & 3), as well as help me with water changes. For a few years, I focused only on sw tanks, but am now getting back into the fw side of this addiction. I am glad I have my koi pond outside cause it provides most of the water/natural plant food for my very large garden and greenhouses. I am hoping my collection of Pacific Tree Frog tadpoles will morph into frogs and establish themselves as a sustainable colony in my neighbourhood since they are apparently threatened due to habitat loss.

For me, fish keeping is another way to help teach my kids to love nature and care about the environment and this planet we all share. 

Sorry for the essay.

Anthony


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## DBM (May 12, 2010)

This is a great thread Charles.
My interest evolved through my love of fishing. I wanted to be a aquaculturist from the time I was 13, at 14 the school made us take some testing to determine what career paths we should take and of course I got fish farmer! lol My mother had the clearest aquarium I've ever seen, had goldfish in an aquarium for 25 years, and have over 100 stitches in her arm when the tank she was carrying hit the corner of a desk - I probably get the addiction from her.

During my aquaculture career I found myself working in Quebec, Ontario, and finally here in BC. It was my calling in life, I was damn good at it and I loved it - I'd show up 2 hrs early to work not because I had to, but there's was nothing I enjoyed more! Hatchery work was where it was at for me, I did a short stint as a senior manager on the salmon farms and it wasn't for me. I left the industry because as a responsible family man I was never going to make the kind of wages needed to buy a home.

Although I love keeping tanks, breeding fish is what gets my juices flowing. In college I had a betta breeding program going with at least 200 jarred males in my room, which is tough to maintain and still keep my grades up. After graduation I went down to the states and spent $800 USD on 6 albino Oscars when they first came out, it took me 2 years of them beating the snot out of each other to finally get some offspring - I gave them away to my buddy when I moved out west. When I moved to BC I was lucky enough to aquire the last of Leng Lim's breeding stock of red bettas, IMHO I haven't seen red halmoons of that quality since and that was at least 15 years ago. 

I've worked in retail aquarium stores, been a sales rep, and owned an marine fish wholesale/transship business.
My career keeps me out of town for weeks at a time now, so maintaining a tank long term is difficult because my family isn't that interested in keeping up with the maintenance. Last time around I bred some cardinal tetras to see if I could do it, and right now while I'm home I'll play around with breeding a few other species until I'm called out of town again. In the back of my mind I always think I could probably make a meager living if I set up an ornamental fish hatchery, then my wife reminds me that having a healthy marriage is better. lol. Being an addict it'll always be in the back of my mind.


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## Gfish (Jan 28, 2014)

I started with fish when I was in high school had only a couple smaller tanks back than. For years fish were completely forgotten about in my world until two years ago at Christmas my GF son decided to buy a ten gallon tank an it was as if a light bulb had clicked on in my head an I suddenly was flooded by all these memory's of watching my fish an setting up my tanks in years passed. I shortly after the new year purchased a used 36 gallon tank. An my passion for this wonderful hobby was reborn. Now over two years later I have 3 tanks setup a 
Congo river tank, a community SA tank and a Asian almost all barbs tank. I spend almost no time anymore watching tv an instead enjoy my own national geographic's channel many of my friends call it my aquarium with only 3 tanks setup tho I think I still have a long way to go till we can call it that. 

In the future I would love to setup a SW tank an delve deeper into the world of fish with about 90% of the worlds coral dieing off or already dead it may just be the only opportunity myself and my kids have at seeing coral reefs alive and well 






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

I started fish keeping in elementary school as my dad had a love for the hobby. I always remember having tanks as a kid, and as I got older it became an obsession. 
I moved back home after college and the hobby went into overdrive for me. My fish room consisted of 14 tanks and over 2000 gallons of water. Everything from discus, Asian arowana, stingrays and exotic plecos to Africans, guppies, tetras and goldfish. 
In the yard, we built a 3000 gallon koi pond and koi remain my favorite fish today. A lot of my exotic fish were also from Rainforest pets and I got to know James quite well. It was a sad day when he decided to close up shop as I remember he was bringing fish in that no one else was back in the day. 
A couple years later I started my journey into saltwater. Working at a local shop on the weekends allowed me to purchase gear and livestock and soon I had two custom reef tanks, and a 300 gallon fowlr. 
I had these tanks for around 8 years until moving into my first place forced me to sell everything off. 
Being in a ground floor condo, I was able to get a couple tanks, and soon I had 4 tanks in a 900sf condo, including a 150 cube and 180, both fully planted with cO2. 
We were in the condo for 3 years, and decided it was time to buy a house. 
The first thing I looked for when house hunting was where I could put my tanks. 
At the time, I had a new 550 gallon sitting in the garage at my moms place, and I really wanted to integrate this tank into my new home. When the time came, there was just too much construction needed to get it into the house, so I sold the tank and got a custom 8 foot 300 gallon put into the wall. (Some compromise eh?)
The wall tank has seen a huge school of wild Angels, p-bass, Asian arowana, hundreds of tetras and rainbows, to the current tank which houses discus, wild angels, datnoids and a small Asian arowana. My other tanks include a small high tech planted tank, a 45 gallon cube grow out tank, a custom 80 gallon shallow reef and a 90 gallon open top riparium. 
One thing I noticed is that my enjoyment from the tanks has increased as the tanks became simpler. The 300 gallon tank was recently plumbed for 24 hour drip, to eliminate the need for water changes. The riparium is so fully planted with house plants that it only requires water changes once every 6 weeks or so. The reef is mainly softies so I basically just feed and change the water every two months. Even the co2 injected tank is filled with slow growing plants so I don't need to trim as often. 
This has really allowed me to enjoy the tanks instead of it becoming a part time job, like it was before. 
This spring, I've added a 1200 gallon aquaponic pond, so I've been able to get back into koi keeping. It's been a great learning experience as I have been growing lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and herbs using media beds and deep water culture techniques. 

The hobby comes in cycles and even for myself I always like to change things up. I've seen people come and go on this forum, but there's something about it that always draws people back. 




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## datfish (Sep 7, 2012)

I was first introduced to fish keeping as a child when my mom had a 30 gallon tank. I don't really remember much from that tank, but she ran it for a few years. After that fish keeping wasn't something I was exposed to until chiefwonton showed me one of his old cichlid tanks and started bringing me along to King Eds. I really wanted a fish tank so I bought a 10 gallon and rushed into things. I bought a red line torpedo barb, comet goldfish, common pleco, iridescent shark, and some other victims I can't remember. Didn't cycle the tank so they all died and I gave up. Then that Christmas I was given a 32 gallon kit that ran smoothly until the tank crashed from me only doing top ups. Again I gave up. 

Then a year later I set up my first 10 gallon on a whim and four years later I've just been buying more and more tanks. I now have nine tanks running and four empty tanks, plus a work-in-progress pond. The aquarium bug, or MTS, really bit me hard. I only had my 10 gallon running a few months before I bought the second. A few months later I found an old 5 gallon and set that up. Then I set up my 32 again. And then I bought a 45 gallon. And then I set up another 10 gallon. Then came the 45 gallon. And then the 3, 4, and 6 all came to me within a short period of time. And finally my 100 gallon came into the picture 7 or 8 months ago. From all the knowledge that came to me from my hording fish I came to the conclusion that I wanted to work at a fish store and ended up scoring one! And recently the Vancouver Aquarium accepted me as a volunteer so now my life truly does revolve around fish keeping. I keep my tanks low tech, over filtrated, and planted to keep maintenance low so that I can enjoy my fish and keep the chore of maintenance minimal. This way I get to work with fish but come home and actually enjoy mine. Although the idea of importing certain breeds of fish that aren't common in the lower mainland has crossed my mind, at this point I don't think I'd risk it. But one day I'll probably end up importing and trying my hand at being a Canadian Aquatics type lfs.

Now I'm torn between getting the much needed upgrade on my 100 gallon needs or thinking about the future and moving out. I don't know if I can just get rid of fish that I could potentially be still keeping in my 40s. 

My current stock:

3 Gallon: Halfmoon betta.

4 Gallon: Hermit crabs and a hitch hiker crab.

5 Gallon (no light/filter/heater): Native inverts.

6 Gallon: Baby marbled crayfish.

10 Gallon: White cloud mountain minnows, bristlenose pleco, unknown loach.

10 Gallon: Boraras merah, threadfin rainbowfish, sparkling gourami, neon goby, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp.

20 Gallon: Angelfish, dwarf neon rainbowfish, glass catfish, red eye red tail puffer, red tail black shark, kuhli loaches, gypsy king tiger pleco.

32 Gallon: Leopard frog pleco, odessa barbs, red line torpedo barbs, flying fox, silver flying fox, gold gourami, panda garra.

45 Gallon: Weather loaches, giant kuhli loaches.

100 Gallon: Common/Comet goldfish, koi, common pleco, european weather loach.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

This is awesome.


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## guppygeorge (Sep 6, 2010)

charles said:


> This is awesome.


Gotta agree Charles, this is an awesome thread. It's very interesting to hear the different stories of fellow "addicts". We all appear to have one thing in common.......we are all "hooked" :lol: I initially got into tropical fish when I was very young. OF course, like most of us, I can remember having goldfish from an early age.....probably 5 or 6. I got my first aquarium and tropical fish from Clark's Feed and Pet Shop in Bellingham. I was either 7 or 8 at the time. I do remember the first fish that I picked out was a beautiful male guppy with a large red and black spotted tail. I picked out a large female guppy and then some other more common fish. Can't remember exactly, but I do remember some swords, mollies, and a red-tail shark. Of course, in time I had several babies...guppies and swords that I remember. I kept an aquarium through most of my school years through high school. When I went away to University, the aquarium was shut down and I didn't get another one until after I got married. In the early sixties, I met a friend who was a bit of a fishkeeper and he introduced me to Karl Merck, a Russian gentleman who had a lfs in New West on Kingsway between 8th and 10 ave. I got to know Merck( as everyone called him) very well, and was a frequent visitor into his store. Merck was a very knowlegable fish guy and was the first person that I knew that had successfully spawned Heckels. I eventually succumbed to his "proddings" and set up a few tanks in my basement. Not sure exactly, but I believe that i had around 6 to 8 tanks.....One 33 gal. show tank and the rest 10 gal tanks for breeding......Guppies, Angels and Swords. I "dabbled" for a few years and then went through some tough times in a marriage that eventually ended up in divorce. I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderful lady whom I married. After a couple of years, I dove back in again. Of course it started with a smaller show tank "for my youngest daughter"  At this time, I was working with Bill Munro, who some of you may remember from "Bill's Tropical Fish". Bill was at the time, the top Angel breeder in the lower mainland. I also worked with Keith Turner, who was at the time a successful discus breeder. I spent a great deal of time talking to these two gentlemen, and eventually Keith convinced me to keep some discus. One of the lfs around at the time was Perky Pets in New West. ...owned by Roger who now owns Roger's Aquatics on Scott Road in Surrey. I was keeping a 135 gal. show tank of African Cichlids at the time, and most of my fish were from Perky's as Roger always brought in top quality Africans. One day, when I went in to peruse the fish at Perky's, in the front of the store was a complete discus breeding set-up . A great gentleman, and wonderful breeder, whom I later came to know through the VAKC (Killifish club) had decided to quit breeding discus and concentrate on killies. He had brought in a beautiful "starter" discus breeding set-up......The unit had a large show tank on the top shelf two cube tanks on each of the bottom two shelves....four cubes in total. I then set about "filling" my new acquisition with some quality discus. I got some beauties from Life aquarium on Kingsway and also Keith and myself order discus from different breeders in the USA, including of course, Jack Watley  I didn't have a great deal of success with spawning discus, but it did lead to my future in keeping and breeding other species of freshwater tropical fish......the first species that I really started to concentrate on was Killifish. Then "re-discovered" guppies.....that is another story.......as at one time, I had as many as 80 tanks with beautiful show quality guppies.....hence the handle, "guppygeorge" :bigsmile: 
O.K. ready to put down a few more thoughts....
I was happily going along with attempting to spawn Discus and filling my 135 with beautiful african cichlids from Roger's Perky Pets, and perusing several lfs's when I had free time. One day, I believe around 1998, whilst in Ladner checking out the lfs (can't remember the name) I saw a tankful of stunning killies. I asked the manager, Eric, what these fish were and he told me that they were Fulminatis Guanambi. They had been brought in buy a member of the VAKC ( co-incidently, the same gentleman whose discus breeding set up I had bought, Ken Turberfield.) Long story short, Eric gave me Ken's phone number.....I contacted Ken and found myself at the next meeting of the local killifish club. I met a great group of guys, saw some beautiful killies, and soon was an active member of the VAKC with several killies added to my growing aquatic collection. 
At this time, I found myself very involved in killies and the VAKC, and I found that I was getting cramped for room and tank space. The discus breeding set-up was taking up a lot of space so I decided that it was time to get rid of all of my discus.  So now I was down to several tanks of killies and still had my 135 show tank full of africans. Then in 2000, myself, along with two other members of the killifsh club , were looking around for some show quality guppies. When we couldn't find any locally, I started searching the 'net. I eventually settled on purchasing from Luke Roebuck, a top breeder in the IFGA. As I was taking the family to Disneyland that Summer, I arranged to meet Luke and pick up four pair of show quality guppies....two pair of Red Albinos and two pair of HB AOC's........ When I returned, we formed a local guppy club and became affiliated with the large American guppy club...The IFGA....this started my journey into the world of show quality guppies. I eventually set up my first room totally dedicated to tropical fish, and at the height of my serious guppy breeding, I was running 70 plus tanks...... mostly guppies with a few tanks reserved for my killies. 
When I have some more time, I will attempt to complete "my story".


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

This is a great idea Charles. Really gotta jog my memory now. 

I think I got into this hobby as I was exposed to fish keeping from when I was a toddler. My grandpa used to keep gold fish in Hong Kong and I have very clear and happy memories of hanging out at his house and feeding his fish. I had the odd fishbowl here and there during elementary school but I really didn't get a "real" fish tank until I was about 15 and it was a 33g Hagen bought from Fraser Aquarium. Prior to that I spent many days at Main Aquarium checking out their tanks but never had enough money to buy anything. Finally saved enough money and splurged on the 33g. I think like most I started with a few tetras and other common and cheap (well cheap per fish) fish to fill my tank. When I graduated from highschool and in my early university days was when I started getting into a few African cichlids. Every LFS at the time carried a huge selection, from a few places on Hastings Street like Rainforest all the way to Perky's in New West. I really enjoyed doing my monthly tours of the shops to see what was available. Probably early 90's by then. Took a long pause in the hobby after that as school and work got really busy as I was just starting my career. 

Didn't get back into it until around 2004 or 2005. Started browsing forums like Cichlid Forum and happened to meet Charles, one of their mods, at that time. Can you believe he was into African cichlids at that time!??!  I really wanted a Tropheus tank and Charles provided me with a wealth of knowledge and also a whack of Tropheus for my 90g. A tank that was huge for me at the time. Back then, IIRC, Charles' fish room was more like a fish den....couches, a few six footers...a real honest to goodness fish keepers man cave. I don't believe he was into importing fish at the time as a business yet. I kept African cichlids for quite some time after that. Had the haps/peacock tank which was great fun and super colorful. Collecting all the rare haps was actually the most fun part for me. Then I needed a slightly bigger tank and added a 135g acrylic. Great tank from Truvu even though it appeared to bow like heck. Never had any problems with it. I would say towards 2009 or so I was starting to get out of African cichlids and try my hand at South American fish. 

I remember roughly around that time there was a real craze into monster fish. I never really got into that too much, other than some peacock bass. That were neat to watch and grow but after a while they just looked like fish that you'd eat LOL. Collecting the different varieties were a lot of fun. I think around early 2010's I also tried my hand at doing some GB's and importing fish from the states. Not nearly as difficult to do as people think and it was a ton of fun getting to know the various folks on BCA and different middle of the night meets at the airport. All this was obviously pre-kids for me. Hahahaha. 

I did jump back briefly into African cichlids but quickly went back to South American and then onto discus. That's more or less where I stand today. I definitely don't take this hobby for granted as it has provided me with countless years of enjoyment. IMO there'll always be a solid group of hard core fish keepers around here. Not everyone jumps on forums. I do think that this forum can be a great resource for people starting out and hope it becomes more a repository for knowledge rather than a chat room which to me it has become over the past few years. Still lots of great folks here and lots of volunteer mods which keep it ticking to which we all owe many thanks.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Well most of you know what I'm up to now...but here's how the insanity came about. Lol
When I was about 12 we had a tank in our classroom. A guppy had babies. My friend and I got two esch . Kept them in a Petrie dish at her house. She informed me my two died. Always wondered how she knew which two were mine! Then we got to take fish home at the end of the school year. I had a black Molly, gourami, some Tera's, etc all in a fish bowl. They lasted a long time! 

I've always had fish since then..not seriously..like any other hobbyist. Buy fish. Load the tank, ammonia spike...dead. Or topping off the tanks, under gravel filters, etc. but..I had a book from my aunt in 1975. Breeding aquarium fishes book 1 by Herbert r axelrodi. Love it . Still have it. In there were discus and pics of them breeding. I was amazed. Around 1998 I acquired a group of 6 Turks from a local person .wattley Turks. Raised them..had a batch of fry that actually lived and grew a few to adult, sold some. 
Then the madness started! Joined fish forums, met discus breeders o line. Discus Hans who was still in holland, Cary strong of great lakes discus etc. rod Lewis and Robert Clough of oz. those were my mentors. learnt a lot and collected a lot Then started group orders with other Vancouver hobbyists shipping in. Imported from Hans, had to y fan a few times, did a couple South American orders with my friends and had a couple tanks of wild discus from king Ed out of the bags. Mainly only did discus for many years. 
Then started the importing from Forrest. Did that for a few years while on Dunbar and while I was selling my grooming salon and thinning out the fish section passed the Canadian rights over to Rick. He's doing a great job!
Now present in Burnaby . Still playing with fish. 
I always say if I end up old and senile just put me in a rest home with an aquarium and sit me in front. I'll be fine. Lol.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

Long story short, my dad had a fw community tank when I was young and I didn't appreciate nature as much as I do now despite him lifting me up to give a pinch of flakes. I remember seeing our neighbours tank with white sand and a nice "white" glow (Africans and actinic florescent)... Years later, many years later those memories remained and I started my own fish tank.

It went from elders showing me something, to me explaining you don't need to have a UGF and dose baking soda and epsom salt anymore.

That's one of my fondest memories.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

This is a tough one since I don't know where to start. I don't feel like writing an essay but might eventually do. Haaha!

My parents started keeping fish when I was young (4 or 5?). I remember they started keeping guppies or some types of livebearers. Then they switched to some schooling tropical fish. I don't exactly know what they had but the fish laid eggs one day. Everyone was really excited! An attempt of raising the fries failed due to the limited knowledge of the hobby. Unfortunately there wasn't such a thing called Google back in the 80's. My parents didn't know the basics of fish keeping such as tank cycling. They always had trouble with cloudy water and fish loss disputing how much they clean the tank n filter (Mom always took all the gravels and filter media out and rinse them under the tap). Most of the the fish sellers wouldn't teach you how to properly maintain a healthy aquarium. I guess that way they can get more sales!? 

My parents didnt get discouraged from all the fish loss though. They even upgraded to a big tank (with a custom made, overhang, full length acrylic filter), which took over an entire wall in the living room. Well, maybe it wasnt that big since we lived in a little 450 sq ft condo.  They had gone through many different types of fish since they got the large tank. E.g., goldfish, koi, Oscar, arowana, turtles... 

I still remember going to the morning fish market to shop for new fish with them every few months. We would wake up before sunrise and take the "14 seaters" there. (This fish market only opened for couple of hours during weekend mornings. I believe it was illegal that's why the sellers had to pack up n leave soon after sunrise). There were always tons of fish addicts there, looking for deals on all the different fish and supplies that sit in bags along the sidewalk. Everything was much cheaper than retails. Since my parents were always busy working (11-9pm, 7 days/week), this is one of the few family events that I clearly remember from my childhood. It was fun n that's where the love began.


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

I know there is memeber photo and video gallery section but what the heck. These photos are why I love this hobby.

My Fluval edge 6 gallon shrimp tank, I bought some fire red shrimps from Patrick of Canadian aquatics 2 weeks ago.










My Marina 360 pea puffer tank. It is kind messy as I just plant left over plants in the tank. I think it is a girl and a member here gave me bunch of ramshorn to feed her. The only down side is those ramshorn snails ate my plants. >_< My java fern and staurogyne repens!










My fluval 45 gallon community tank. I have close to 90 fishes inside. >_> . Cardianl tetra, green neon and galaxy I bought from April grow well. I need more light to make Rotala Wallichi pink instead green. My Albino Corys are fatty monster. lol.










Peacock gobies I bought from Aquarium west 2 weeks ago. They colored up really well in my tank, only if I can find few more.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

looks like you have all males goby; nice color on them.


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Fantastic thread. Thanks Charles!

We got into the hobby about 5 years ago when somebody gave us a 30g fish tank. Then I discovered the joys of monster fish...and it was all over for life on dry land.

Right now we have a gorgeous 13" male trimac (pure trimac, not a low grade FH) in a 125g acrylic, a temporary 90g mixed tank with tiger dats and red severums plus a female freddie (yellowjacket), a 22g long tank with some angels, a couple of clown loaches and a black ghost knife and also another 22g long tank with my little favorites, the "ping pongs" (aka albino dwarf cichlids) and a bulldog pleco.

We do have 2 nano tanks: a Fluval Chi with a red crowntail betta and a duckweed garden in the Fluval Ebi that used to be a shrimp tank, which is going to be broken down for sale.

Waiting in the wings: 300g acrylic tank, the eventual home of my new monsters! Considering another large tank, as I've always wanted a giant peaceful planted community tank with a ton of clown loaches, angels and other colourful schooling fish, but can't mix them with the predatory dats or other monsters I wanted to house in the 300g!


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

charles said:


> looks like you have all males goby; nice color on them.


Thank, but I dunno how to sexing them and I just grabbed the last 4 from Aquarium West. I wanted them when Island pet ordered them back in April but they lost them all due to DOA and I didn't know Aquarium West carry them as they weren't on the incoming fish list.

They are wonderful fish as they swim all over the tank while they aren't shy at all. My tetras would swim away and hide whenever I sit in front the tank, in contrast peacock gobies know it is feeding time and they will swim up to the feeding ring and eat even stuff inside the ring. My tetras used to swim up to feeding ring to get dry blood worm, however they no longer do it after I added a dwarf goruami last year as the gorumai just parked itself under the ring all time during feeding. (The goruami died last Dec from dropsy.) I am also not sure if the light is too strong for tetras as well.

I dunno how to feed my fishes with repashy community fish gel at this point. I use cable tie to hang the gel block, however My peacock gobies are the only fish smart enough to take bite while It takes a while for galaxies to follow. My tetras don't swim up to eat it and I can't sink the gel block because my corys will ate them all.


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

the male has a bigger head, and the eyes are almost always looking cloudy.


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

charles said:


> the male has a bigger head, and the eyes are almost always looking cloudy.


Doh.. I must have all males than as their head are about the same size and their eyes are cloudy. My sister was wondering why fish don't have eye.


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## JTang (Apr 21, 2010)

outsider said:


> I know there is memeber photo and video gallery section but what the heck. These photos are why I love this hobby.
> 
> My Fluval edge 6 gallon shrimp tank, I bought some fire red shrimps from Patrick of Canadian aquatics 2 weeks ago.
> 
> ...


Beautiful fish! I have never seen them before. Now I want to add a few to my Fluval Studio.


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## outsider (Jan 13, 2015)

JTang said:


> Beautiful fish! I have never seen them before. Now I want to add a few to my Fluval Studio.


They sure are beautiful fish. They are peaceful and samll. (about 1 inch to 2 inch.)

I didn't know they exist until Brad of Island Pet told me that it was in shipment back in April and I fell in love with them after I did research on them. Island Pet's shipments were lost due to DOA from delayed at air port. I finally found them at Aquarium West 2 weeks ago. (I bought the last 4 thou.) April might be able to get them tho.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm picking up this morning. There's a possibility they only ship males. I'll see when I get there.


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