A love for fish(keeping)…

I was about 12 when my parents bought me my first aquarium.  I think it was a 10 gallon, but before I knew it, it morphed into a 40 gallon.

That one act of buying me an aquarium, in retrospect, has been hugely significant in my life.

I grew up in a log cabin in Harrson, Michigan, that our father added onto when I was about 6 or 7.  His addition basically doubled the size of our little cabin. But nonetheless, it was a small house to be sure.  And yet it never phased me as a kid.  Yeah, my friends had larger houses and more than one story, but our one story cabin with a small ladder accessible loft sat on about 2 acres in the country and was just fine.

Understanding that our house was small is important in imagining my first aquarium in my room.  See, I had the smallest bedroom in the house.  By today’s standards, my bedroom was a closet, or someone’s small home office. It must have been about 6′ by 8′.  I know that, because we all got waterbeds when I was young, and my full-sized waterbed, length-wise, went wall to wall.  From the side, it stopped just short of the door opening to the room, and the door was placed just a couple of inches from the wall on the opposite side. So the free floor space in the room was just wider than a door (3 feet) and ran the length of the bed (6 feet).

Having a small bedroom is something I never regretted. I think it was an efficient space, beds are floor sleeping, bedrooms are usually for just that, though kids rooms sometimes double as their playspace; but my small room, and our lifestyle in general, caused me to spend as much time playing outdoors as possible.  I’ve never regretted that, and often think about needing to make sure my own kids are spending more time outside than in, and more time on non-electronics than on on electronics (tv, video games, etc.).

Well, this is a long, segued story to set the backdrop for that first aquarium.  But my 10 gallon was soon upgraded to a 40 gallon, measuring 4 feet in length, by 1 foot in width and 1 foot in heighth.  So having described the layout of my room, my 40 gallon and my bed, left a 2 foot walkway between the tank and the bed, and the tank ran along the wall right up to the closet door opening.  But this also meant that it could lay on my bed and just stare at the fish – I did a lot of that.

My first 40 gallon led to a second 40 gallon.  My dad built a steel stand that allowed for two 40 gallons stacked on top of each other. I was in awe of that setup.

We moved to Arizona  after my freshman year of high school, and the aquariums moved with us.  Our home in Arizona meant an upgrade in bedroom size more me. Woo-hoo, more space for aquariums!

I had to set up my tanks from scratch.  This caused me to find the local mom and pop pet shop in town – we only had one such store in the town of 40,000 that we moved to – Havasu Pet Shoppe.  I must have been in there almost every day for 3 weeks after we moved, asking questions, buying fish, just trying to learn more and more.

One day, the owner asked me if I wanted a job. Accepting it, I entered the workforce for the first time.  I spent the next year working at that shop, and learning more about fish, fresh and saltwater, and about everything else, dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, products, medicines, feed, and so on.

The next year, a new family moved to the area. They had a daughter, the same age as my sister (and same name, Jody).  They opened a new pet shop in town, and soon called me asking if I would be interested in working for them – offering me a substantial raise from my current employer.  As a sophomore in high school, this experience was quite thrilling.  I accepted the job and worked for them until close to the end of my senior year of high school.

I always relished that my first job, and all my jobs through high school were at a pet shop.  While my friends were working at grocery stores or fast food restaurants, I had a job that always caused them to ask “how did you get that job?” which was usually followed by “are you hiring?”  Too many of  my fellow students had the misconception that all I did was play with the puppies all day. Not quite, try cleaning up after them.

During that time, I increased my aquarium “quiver” from 2 to 5, plus 1 for mom in the living room.  I had about 200 gallons in aquariums in my bedroom.  I always enjoyed it.  I particularly enjoyed and have always loved, sitting in the room at night, all lights off except the aquarimum lights, and just enjoying the purplish glow from them… that and the sound of the bubbling of water.

In college, I spent most of my days away from aquariums, but my (first) senior year once again had both the desire and opportunity.  I started working at an fish store, and again built up a quiver of aquariums.  Though not completely legal with dorm policy, I had about 125 gallons (about 5 aquariums) in my room on the second floor.  I quit working at the fish shop going into my (5th) senior year.  In fact, I quit working both jobs (I was also managing a small mom-and-pop video store in the evenings and weekends – so I’d been working two jobs for a while).

I kept one tank active during my last year of college, but often lamented at how busy I was and how often I forgot to feed my fish.

After graduation, I moved on to grad school and adventure after adventure, never returning to my aquarium hobby… until a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve often thought about getting an aquarium and getting back into it, but never have.  Mostly, it’s the fact that an aquarium is someone like other pets in that, the fish still need to be fed every day (two or three times is best, though most average owners probably only feed once a day).   Still, that means that if one goes away for the weekend, the fish need to be taken care of… and that’s one of the reasons I never got back into it.

But over the last couple of years, we’ve taken the kids to the poor man’s zoo often (aka the pet shop).  And that’s had me dreaming about having an aquarium.  So a few weeks ago, I bought a couple. A couple?  Yeah, well, I really just couldn’t have one.

I don’t know if any of our kids will ever get into aquariums as I did as a kid, but I do know that right now, they do enjoy looking at the fish, and helping papi whenever he’s putting his hands in the water (you know, kids playing with water).  And with their new fishing poles, they’ve been suspiciously eyeing our fish tanks.  Hmm?

I am so thankful that my parents first introduced me to this hobby 25 years ago.  It has brought me great enjoyment over the years, and I expect that there’s still some enjoyment left to be had.

I was in this hobby long before there was a web. The amazing thing now is the amount of information (with pictures and even video) available on the web, on websites such as www.aquaria.info or forums like www.ultimatebettas.com.  Back in the day, I read many books on fish keeping and subscribed to The Tropical Fish Hobbyist (TFH) magazine. Now, one can find any number of forums on fish topics and google for just about any answer they want/need.  I’ve spent several late nights reading the last couple of weeks.  It’s been fascinating to catch up on the hobby by reading other hobbyists’ questions and answers online.

I’m not so sure Melodia is as enthusiastic about aquariums.  She has wondered, who feeds the fish when we decide to go somewhere?  But she has said that she enjoys sitting near the tanks just watching the fish. I do, too.  I also enjoy the sound of the aquariums, the quiet hum of the air pump, the sound of water flowing out of the filter back into the aquarium.  It brings back good memories. One could say, the sound is nostalgic for me.