Seamaiden
Well-Known Member
It looks like more than a few people here are not only heads, but enjoy the life aquatic as well. That's what this thread is about (I don't give a shit if you hijack it, either, I'm not really very anal that way, I'm anal in other ways).
I started my very first tank when my first son was a newborn, I wanted him to have something to watch because he had upper respiratory troubles and I had to keep him in an upright position so he could breath and sleep. A couple of goldfish and koi in a 10gal tank. From there things rapidly expanded, next thing I know I've got tanks all over the apartment. Within two years it went from goldfish to saltwater to keeping miniature reef. At that point I had to pay for my habit, so I got a job at the best aquarium shop around.
Turned out the owner was an old-timer who helped set up a few of the distributors in L.A. (a huge number of our aquarium fishes go through L.A., also known in the trade as 104th). That led to working for some wholesalers, as well as starting my own set-up and maintenance business. Once I was there, my own tanks went to shit. It was true, once you start working the trade you don't want a tank at home to have to worry about. Still though, I geeked on the fishes.
Mine started breeding on me despite my neglect (at first I thought they were bugs), Lake Tanganyikan dwarf African cichlids. Got out of the trade, couldn't get the aquarium water out of my blood: I ended up volunteering at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific and worked with the staff veterinarian (that was "ok", but he was dry and droll and had no appreciation for my little jokes). Then I was placed in the coral lab where they raise up the bamboo sharks they breed and release. GOD I loved that. I loved the 8' tall foam fractionators (a.k.a. protein skimmers). I loved the ozonizers. I would wait for the schoolchildren to arrive before I fed the baby bamboos, I loved talking with them about the sharks. I loved feeding the fish in the big tank at the entrance while people stood out front all big-eyed (the Pacific display). I bonded with the wolf eels that had to be hand-fed (they have faces, I swear to God, Google "wolf eel" and tell me that fish doesn't have a face!). I adored working the quarantine shift, where the baby Napoleon wrasse and Picasso trigger would stalk me while I fed, showing me their teeth.
Yeah, I geek out on fish pretty hard, but do you think we have an aquarium at home? No way! I met my husband on an aquarium site and there's just too much hardheadedness in this house, we can't even agree on what and how to keep a freshwater tank, so..!
What do you keep? How long have you been an aquarist? How hard do you geek out on the pretty fishes?
I started my very first tank when my first son was a newborn, I wanted him to have something to watch because he had upper respiratory troubles and I had to keep him in an upright position so he could breath and sleep. A couple of goldfish and koi in a 10gal tank. From there things rapidly expanded, next thing I know I've got tanks all over the apartment. Within two years it went from goldfish to saltwater to keeping miniature reef. At that point I had to pay for my habit, so I got a job at the best aquarium shop around.
Turned out the owner was an old-timer who helped set up a few of the distributors in L.A. (a huge number of our aquarium fishes go through L.A., also known in the trade as 104th). That led to working for some wholesalers, as well as starting my own set-up and maintenance business. Once I was there, my own tanks went to shit. It was true, once you start working the trade you don't want a tank at home to have to worry about. Still though, I geeked on the fishes.
Mine started breeding on me despite my neglect (at first I thought they were bugs), Lake Tanganyikan dwarf African cichlids. Got out of the trade, couldn't get the aquarium water out of my blood: I ended up volunteering at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific and worked with the staff veterinarian (that was "ok", but he was dry and droll and had no appreciation for my little jokes). Then I was placed in the coral lab where they raise up the bamboo sharks they breed and release. GOD I loved that. I loved the 8' tall foam fractionators (a.k.a. protein skimmers). I loved the ozonizers. I would wait for the schoolchildren to arrive before I fed the baby bamboos, I loved talking with them about the sharks. I loved feeding the fish in the big tank at the entrance while people stood out front all big-eyed (the Pacific display). I bonded with the wolf eels that had to be hand-fed (they have faces, I swear to God, Google "wolf eel" and tell me that fish doesn't have a face!). I adored working the quarantine shift, where the baby Napoleon wrasse and Picasso trigger would stalk me while I fed, showing me their teeth.
Yeah, I geek out on fish pretty hard, but do you think we have an aquarium at home? No way! I met my husband on an aquarium site and there's just too much hardheadedness in this house, we can't even agree on what and how to keep a freshwater tank, so..!
What do you keep? How long have you been an aquarist? How hard do you geek out on the pretty fishes?
If only I knew someone like you in rl...
