This brings back a lot of memories. I remember that concrete tank from the Innes book. I also remember articles from the early years of the century. Tropical fish were a big thing when they first became available because homes back then were never air conditioned and the room temperatures would go up into the mid to upper nineties (F) during July and August. . So, goldfish or native species suffered and died during the hot summer months unless they were kept in ponds. Tropical fish could be kept indoors all year round. It was possible to heat your tank in winter for tropicals, but almost impossible to cool it in summer for goldfish. I started keeping fish in the sixties and I remember how awful the commercial fish food was. "Goldfish Food" was made of flour and water. It looked like crumbled up communion wafers. Tropical fish food consisted of the same thing, only finer, with the addition of some fish meal. My local aquarium store sold a mixture that was somewhat better. It contained dried flies, dried ant eggs, bread crumbs, and fish meal. Devoted aquarist would make their own food from beef liver and spinach pureed in a blender, or would go out and dig up anthills to get the "eggs" (actually pupae). For larger fish, you would go out at night, water the lawn, and hunt night crawlers with a flash light. They would also go out to the local ponds and net daphnia, cyclops, mosquito larvae, and tubifex worms. The fish could eat well on this stuff, but it often brought in all sorts of parasites as well. Frozen brine shrimp was a major step forward when it became available. The hobby has changed tremendously in the last fifty six years, and it still is changing.
awesome video. i really enjoyed it.. keep swimming and happy fish keeping...
Wow amazing to see how far the hobby came
This brings back a lot of memories. I remember that concrete tank from the Innes book. I also remember articles from the early years of the century. Tropical fish were a big thing when they first became available because homes back then were never air conditioned and the room temperatures would go up into the mid to upper nineties (F) during July and August. . So, goldfish or native species suffered and died during the hot summer months unless they were kept in ponds. Tropical fish could be kept indoors all year round. It was possible to heat your tank in winter for tropicals, but almost impossible to cool it in summer for goldfish.
I started keeping fish in the sixties and I remember how awful the commercial fish food was. "Goldfish Food" was made of flour and water. It looked like crumbled up communion wafers. Tropical fish food consisted of the same thing, only finer, with the addition of some fish meal. My local aquarium store sold a mixture that was somewhat better. It contained dried flies, dried ant eggs, bread crumbs, and fish meal. Devoted aquarist would make their own food from beef liver and spinach pureed in a blender, or would go out and dig up anthills to get the "eggs" (actually pupae). For larger fish, you would go out at night, water the lawn, and hunt night crawlers with a flash light. They would also go out to the local ponds and net daphnia, cyclops, mosquito larvae, and tubifex worms. The fish could eat well on this stuff, but it often brought in all sorts of parasites as well. Frozen brine shrimp was a major step forward when it became available.
The hobby has changed tremendously in the last fifty six years, and it still is changing.
thanks for sharing this comment / history
"he's been the chair of the association". lol. even fishlies are politically correct. it is totally sickening