FROM A Goldfish

            TO                                 
                   A Glow-Fish !!

It's hard to believe this hobby has occupied fifty years of my life. It seems like just yesterday Grandpa Campell gave me that first goldfish bowl. Since then the learning, discovering, meeting of other fish people and the advancing of the hobby seems never to be near an end. When I was asked to write an article I decided not to write your typical "how I do this", “how I keep this” or “how I breed this particular fish", instead, I think I'll just reflect on the never ending joy of my wandering around in this hobby and the camaraderie I enjoy to this day.
Starting out as an eight-year-old boy with a goldfish bowl back in the fifties may not have seemed like the impetus to start a lifelong addiction to this hobby of ours, but it was a nudge in the right direction. With the curiosity of that age boy, and the day and age being not as odious as it is nowadays, all it took was a ride on your bike to go over to the neighborhood aquarium store. Oh, the wonders to see and the questions to ask. Thank goodness I started in a time before super stores and mass merchandisers trying to skim the profits from the Mom and Pop stores. Couldn't tell you the name of that store, but the owner, as long as he wasn't busy, always had time to answer questions and give advice to a young boy. It was there that I became obsessed with acquiring that "breeding " pair of convict cichlids. Because of my lack of funds and the family move to Pompano Beach, FL, I had to settle for a second hand 2 1/2 gallon tank from one of my dad's friends. Locating the nearest fish store, the quest was once again on. I still have the Betta book I bought along with the male and female Betta. Reading this book (more like a pamphlet) numerous times planted the idea that I too could breed these fish. Living in a mosquito heaven, these fish were soon brought into breeding condition. The books suggestion was to put the conditioned pair in a small tank with four inches of water and a clump of plants the night before the breeding was to take place. Waking up that Saturday and seeing those Bettas in the spawning embrace and the eggs falling and the male putting them up into the nest was the final hook. Hooked for life!

Fast forward ..... now with college finished and the reality check of having to support yourself and your young family firmly staring you in the face, the hobby takes a back-seat. But now the written material on the hobby is starting to receive a bigger share of your hobby time that you have available. What a concept, actually using your college taught research skills for your hobby so it was worth the nighttime branding job at the American Legion to pay for it. Still a one tanker and no expansion to be attempted any time in the near future. Reading the Aquarium and Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazines and seeing all the new equipment and the European breeders reports and pictures of all those exotic specimens, nurturing the pursuit of this aquatic hobby. Not finding a job that made use of a Biology degree, realization takes hold that earning a paycheck working at any job becomes paramount. OK, so now I'm a furniture salesman at Gimbles Department store in the Harrisburg East Mall in Harrisburg, PA. After a month of sales and getting a big commission sale stolen by another salesman, it was time to look for a new job. Well, just down the mall from Gimbles was a Docktor Pet Center with a help wanted sign in the window. New job in hand, furniture sales were now behind me. Now I was a seller of pets including the ones from the modest fish department. With the employee discount and the people looking for a good home for their aquatic charges, the hobby started to grow. Having been treated with so much patience and good advice from the Mom and Pop stores of my youth, it was now time to return this in kind. Taking care of the customers and being honest and up front with them (including sending them to the Aquarium Center, a Mom and Pop fish store run by Al and Julie Machamer, for specialty items) made the store synonymous with being the "Pet store" for all your pet needs.

At this point in time I was introduced to the organized side of the hobby. Jim Wagner, a customer and a fellow hobbyist, invited me to attend a meeting of the Susquehanna Aquarium Society, which met one Sunday afternoon a month at a local church community room. Well imagine the feeling of walking into a room of fifty people that all shared your hobby and some to an advance degree. After a while of once a month meetings and cultivating friendships with most of the members, I got lured into taking the next step and actually ran for and was elected President. That's when I discovered the indispensable nature of core members. Jim Wagner, Treasurer for life and his wife Janet, Newsletter editor for life became more than just fish friends but more like part of my family. During these years the Breeders Award Program was started and administered by myself and another pet store employee, Bill Agnew. Talk about fueling the addiction; by now I ran three Docktor Pet Centers and had a house that was not only full of all manner of beast, but also housed over 65 tanks of all shapes and sizes. Sold the deal to my wife that it was good for the kids and was research for the job. Paul Spece's show Guppies to Groupers was running and the weekly exposure to that 240-gallon aquarium finally got to me and the 135 gallon O'Dell was delivered soon after. That 1976 tank is still with me and currently houses one of my male Bearded Dragons.
Not only did this Jim Wagner guy get me into the next level of the hobby but after a Sunday dinner at his house and the subsequent retreat to the basement for the tank inspection and dart tournament; he pointed out a little 2 1/2 gal tank on the rack with a pair of Nothobranchius palmquisti. This friend was a real smooth. Now I had been introduced to killifish, the AKA and the now necessary trips to Martin's Aquarium, located in Philadelphia, and Tisa's Aquarium in Cherry Hill New Jersey. (Years later I learned that Tisa's was one of the stores that bought Rosario LaCorte’s surplus killies.) Another SAS’er was into killifish, Dr. Paul Bricknell, another friendship that lasts until today. We get together at the annual AKA Convention on Memorial Day weekends, still sharing our love for these fish.
During this ten-year period in Harrisburg, the Susquehanna Aquarium Society put on a yearly Aquarium Beautiful Show for two weeks at the state museum. Chairing this show several times would lay the groundwork for all the shows, auctions and the eventual national convention, AKA 2000, in which I would participate.

Zip forward another few years and I'm back in the Sunshine State. Now working with Asian elephants at Circus World and not making a great deal of expendable income, the focus on fish shifts to Florida natives. Many species of native killies, all for the catching are available close by. The involvement with the organized side of the hobby was a growing vacuum. In an effort to fill this void, I talked one of the local shops into letting the store be used as a meeting place for a fledgling aquarium club. That's when the realization hit home that Florida fish people weren't the same as up north. After a few months of few if any interested people, the idea was put on hold.

The demise of Circus World gave the herd a chance to relocate to Tampa's Busch Gardens. After settling in the herd, a 55-gallon fish tank was set up in the small office much to the chagrin of the Busch management. Now with the fish established it was time to find a club. Once again the search was futile. Making the weekly rounds to the local shops, I was informed that there used to be a club in the area but not any more.

Reading in FAMA that the American Cichlid Association was holding their first International Cichlid Convention in Orlando was too much to resist. The cost was minimal, since the hotel was only a mile from my parent’s house. Something's are meant to be as it was here that I ran into a guy that I had talked to many times in Tampa while making the store rounds, thus began the friendship with Al Knowles.

Fish World in Tampa was run by another good guy, Rick Gibson, who offered his store after hours to those fish regulars if they were interested in meeting as a group. Well, the original nine are now down to two, Al and myself, but the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society is now at 100 members and probably the most diverse and knowledgeable group of hobbyist around. Having regained that organized side of the hobby has really filled a void. TBAS has put on numerous fish shows (Brian Skidmore got the initiation of fire when we put on the first show at the state fair), auctions, the April Antics - a mini convention (thanks forever to Mike Jacobs), and a speakers program without comparison.

Do to the efforts of TBAS’ers, I have gotten to meet and hear some of the people you only could read about in years past. Jack Wattley, Jaap Jan (Go Noles) DeGreef, Jeff Cardwell, Randy Carey, Don Conkle and my personal favorite Rosario LaCorte to name just a few. The benefits of belonging to organized groups far outweighs any work or time that is put into the group. After ten years of ups and downs, I think the TBAS will only grow bigger and better as the years go by.

Belonging to one fish group isn't enough for a true fishaholic and when the call came to attend the start up of a possible AKA affiliate club, of course the 1 1/2 hour ride was worth it. From that meeting the Suncoast Killifish Society was born and the acquaintance and friendship was gained of Dr. Harry Specht, Leo Hoigne, Charles Nunziata and the all the others. The SKS has grown and put on the annual AKA Convention in 2000 with the help of the TBAS. And now after the publishing of the Florida Collectors Guide (Brian Skidmore, Henri DeBruyn and Mike Jacobs super as always) and Charlie Nunziata's getting us associated with the North American Native Fish Association (NANFA) it looks like a NANFA Convention is in our future.
Don't know where that goldfish bowl will lead me next but I have a feeling it will be a great time. Going from a kid with a fish, to working as a breeder at the largest ornamental fish farm in Florida (Yes, I do breed the GLOFISH, transgenic danio, but that’s a whole other ramble).

Go get involved - join a club - share your experiences - join a fish list - do something.........