Discovering The Joy of Fishkeeping

Jump right on in. You're it, Father Fish. Uh, good morning. Good morning. Nice to see you. Nice to see you as well. All right, we're going to talk about common sense. Common sense. So are we going to talk about common sense, how it applies to fish tanks? No, well, fish tanks. Right, fish tanks. Good. It's hard to know quite where to dip your toe in the water on this one. Let's just start by saying that this tank, whichever one you have, is your tank. And you are going to run it your way. It's going to have your personality in it. It's going to speak to you. It's going to be something that is an expression of who and what you are with this tank. And that's simply inevitable. There's no option but for that to be true. Now, we can use certain guiding principles. And I guess, ultimately, that's what we're really talking about is guiding principles. And I guess it's the guiding principles that I really want to get at because I believe that's what's critical about this hobby or anything else, about life in general, for that matter. Guiding principles. Here's the ultimate question. What is your understanding of the nature of reality? In other words, how are you living in the world? What's your attitude? What's your awareness? What's your understanding? How do you relate to other people, to events, to life in general? Now, I want to get past being kind of philosophical in all this and get down to the fish tank because that's, frankly, for our purposes, where the rubber meets the roads. So let's just try to pull this down. How do you relate to your fish tank? I guess we could do it that way. Yeah. What is this fish tank for you? Is it purely an expression of your machinations, of what you do, of every single thing you do? Do you see it as an expression of your every action and that it is determined by, affected by, and in effect controlled by your actions alone or your actions predominantly? Or is your orientation to this aquarium that it is an expression of some things you've allowed to get started by putting them in there and then you become an observer? Those are two very, very, very different approaches, both of which hold enormous sway in this hobby, and each of which are in, I think in some ways, fundamental conflict with each other. So we have, if you will, a fundamental conflict in the hobby between hobbyists in terms of the way they maintain their aquarium. Now, this obviously is true. Very much so. And obviously is the source of much of our conflict. Very much so, yeah. I come down on one side of this. Many other hobbyists come down on the other side of this. So my position from the day I began doing this was to promulgate and teach my system, the system I've developed over my lifetime. Didn't start out this way, went through all of it, but have wound up adhering to. And I can justify that in a myriad of ways. I can be sanctimonious about it. I can be self-righteous and indignant about it. But that's all just so much noise. The critical thing for me is, frankly, the brand new hobbyist. The brand new hobbyist who is 90% of whom are never going to develop an in-depth understanding of this hobby as a hobby, or as a science for that matter. They're never going to go deeper than figuring out how to put plants and fish in water and keep them alive, they hope. So for the 90% who typically fail, I want to provide a life for them. I'm not trying to have a conversation with the sophisticated hobbyist who has spent 20 years developing a system that they're committed to, that works for them, that they can be phenomenally successful with. So this is not an issue of one way is better than another. Really is not. Really has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the poor little soul down there sitting in the bottom of the hole. Wants a pretty fish tank and doesn't have the first clue how to get there. And they try, and they go to the stores, and they watch some videos, and people are giving them all these instructions. And they're just too incompetent, maybe, to be able to do it. And so they fail. And they fail. And they quit. Those are the people I want to keep in the hobby. Now, why do I want to do that? Because I understand why they want to do it to begin with. At least I believe I do. Because I believe that every single person who looks at a fish tank the way I did when I was is utterly overwhelmed with the fascination of these animals living in a little environment where you can observe them, where they're behaving in a way that's natural for them. It is utterly captivating. And when it can be done in an environment that's healthy, where they're getting around doing normal things, what in the world could be more utterly amazing? And I think it's that sense of amazement, that sense of unique beauty, if you will, that is what draws every single person to an aquarium. What they do with that, then, remains to be seen. Some of them take a deep interest, learn how to do it. Over a period of years, develop an approach that works for them, and they're able then to kind of get that locked in, and they become a serious hobbyist. Very small number of people, maybe 1% of the total number of people who actually ever have a fish tank achieve that level of control and mastery of the system. I cannot say, I don't know if I can or not, I'm torn. And I guess the reason I'm torn about my own ability to do that is because I've gone for so many years now in the other direction of trying to set up tanks that sort of take care of themselves, that I'm not sure how much involvement I really have anymore in that process. And I've taught that all you need to do is create the right kind of substrate, put lots of plants in, and then some other relatively minor things, and it'll take care of itself. Well, maybe it will, I think it does. But I also think there's frankly a lot more to it than that. Having this store open now with people working with me, which is unique because the store I had before this really did not have anybody working with me who was much of a hobbyist. They were not people who kept tanks themselves. They were simply employees that I had doing jobs like cleaning and fixing and whatever. But they were not people who were committed to the hobby. And that's different now. I've got Cory here, who's the unseen voice on the other end of this, who's a serious hobbyist, and he's brought his own orientation and has made some changes, done some things like water changes that I never did to that extent. He's doing it much more frequently, and I see the value of it, particularly in terms of new people coming into the store, seeing the tanks for the first time. Not everybody likes yellow water. I love yellow water. And I do, too. Just to be clear, I do as well. But lots of new people coming in, that's not what they see. If they see yellow water, it seems old and somehow dirty. Yeah, diseased or there's something else. And I've had a crystal clear water since. I mean, those are biases not based on any understanding or even necessarily based on the quality of the tank, but merely aesthetic kinds of issues. So all of that aside, what does common sense have to do with any of this? Well, I think one of the things it has to do with is the notion that Father Fish needs to be put down hard for demanding that everybody do things his way. And that's fair. If that's what I'm doing, then yes, I need to be put down hard. But you see, that's not what I'm doing. I'm not demanding everything, everybody do things my way. I'm saying this is a way that I've developed that works for a whole lot of people who have spent years failing. And now all of a sudden, they're coming back into the hobby because they can do something simple that is effective and that gives them the nice aquarium that they always wanted. I think it's unfortunate, frankly, that the hobby has gone in the direction it has. When I was a kid coming up, everybody kept their tanks this way. There was no gravel. We didn't have gravel when I was young. We had sand. Gravel is a later adaptation that came in with the undergravel substrate, frankly. That's when it became popularized. Before that, gravel was not a big deal. Sand was, frankly, more popular. But the undergravel filter, and that's a story in itself. The undergravel filter was developed at an aquarium in Spain, sitting on the Mediterranean Sea, next to Greece. And there was a biologist there who determined that he could pull the water through the gravel, which was crushed coral in his case, because these were all saltwater tanks, and provide a level of filtration and a level of purity in the water column that was remarkable. Well, a friend of mine visited him back in the early 1960s. He got to know this biologist, and they worked together. This is John Coleman. John Coleman came back and became the head curator at Shedd Aquarium. Back when Shedd Aquarium was the only aquarium in the nation that had any sophistication at all. There was a little aquarium in D.C. Frankly, didn't amount to much, and certainly didn't have any qualified staff, particularly. But John was highly qualified, and he became absolutely committed to this undergravel filter. So that became the fundamental system for the new public aquariums as they began opening. Boston was the first, and then there were the aquariums in California and Washington State. Magnificent facilities, initially completely committed to undergravel filtration. When the Baltimore Aquarium opened in the 70s, late 70s, undergravel filtration. Now, Merle Cohen and I were on that board, and we fought that tooth and nail, but couldn't win the battle because all of the professional staff had been brought up in that system of using undergravel filters. I knew John, met him for the second time in retirement in Venice, Florida. And we spent 15 years traveling all over the state collecting. We took boat tours together, had a wonderful time. Great man, loved being with him. He remained absolutely committed to the undergravel filtration to the day of his death. He wouldn't hear of anything else. And by that time, I was doing the Venice shop and doing dirt and substrate. He did not want to hear about it. Really? Did not want to hear about it. That's funny. Undergravel or bust. So that was fascinating. But as a result, the industry then picked up on this and began developing systems for undergravel filtration, which firmed itself out in about 10 years. It became too cumbersome, but the rudiments of it have remained in place. And many people still do it today. There are lots of hobbyists who are doing undergravel filtration today. I don't really have a problem with it. It creates issues that I don't want to have to deal with. But I will say, when I visited Jeff Campbell for the first time, Jeff Campbell was a master aquarist who was breeding rare and endangered species in the 1960s. Wow. In Putney, Vermont. Wow. Where he taught literature at the Putney School. Remarkable man. Amazing man. I heard about him. Heard he had fish. I think I met him even before that because we were Unitarian ministers together in New England. And I went to visit him in his classroom and saw 25 big fish tanks surrounding his classroom. Oh, wow. It was amazing. And saw fish I had never seen before. That's where my love for the wiru was initiated. Because he was breeding wiru and selling the fry into the New York market. Just great fun. But he had undergravel filters. And he was one of the most advanced hobbyists at that point, in that time frame, in the late 60s, early 70s, one of the initial hobbyists, serious hobbyists in the home. Doing things nobody else was doing. I watched him as he broke down a tank. He broke down every tank after a year. Totally broke them down. Pulled the gravel out, washed the gravel, and pulled these trays out that had roots completely filling the undergravel trays. The roots had grown into those trays. So, as he pulled them out, all of the plants came out. Amazon sorghum, truffle, bauk were the primary plants he had. And he would put them back that way. He was amazing watching him clean a tank. There are so many wonderful stories about him. I remember one time, I went up there in the dead of winter. I had heard there was a problem. They was having a problem. There was a power outage. The power had been out for two or three days. He had an old wood stove in his classroom where he was able to burn wood. This was back when. He was burning wood, boiling water, and keeping the tank temperatures up with the boiling water from the wood stove. So, he was there literally 24 hours a day for two or three days straight out. Keeping the water temperature up. Keeping the temperature up in these tanks. That's dedication. Just amazing, amazing stuff. Jovial man. Lovely man. Wonderful person. I think we all are. I think what this hobby gives those of us who are deeply committed to it is a sense of peace and a sense of joy. I think that's true for everyone who is at peace with themselves in the hobby. I mean, I don't know anyone who is on that level as a hobbyist. Who isn't just the most wonderful person to be around. Not that I consider myself to be a wonderful person. But there is a certain joy. Albeit satirical too often and maybe a little caustic. But I do love this hobby. I love the people who are in it. And I celebrate them. And I celebrate it. And I celebrate you. For wanting to be part of this and wanting to grow in it. So just do that. Go the direction that works for you. That gives you peace and comfort. That allows you to achieve what it is you're trying to achieve. I offer this one to you. If it works for you, wonderful. If it doesn't, go in another direction. But stick it out. Hang in there. Make it work for you. You will become a better person for it. Love you all. Bye for now.