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Calling All Old Timers

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gilpi said:
Iā€™m also tall 6ā€™2 and long arms, I still canā€™t get my head around someone managing a 120g alone. You have some left over strength there old man, I would have paid to see that! God bless you.
Click to expand...
I'm with you @gilpi I would have liked to seen that too. Like you, I'm going smaller. A 20 high is as big as it will ever get for me. I suppose I could always hire some young buck to help but they're glued to their phones.
 
I am 74. When I was a very young boy in the 1950s my dad had a small aquarium in the entryway of our house. It was likely a 5 gal. tank with a shiny metal rim and a slate bottom. I do not remember what fish were in it but I remember it looked green. That was likely fake plants and/or the background. I do remember a filter filled with fiberglass and that it was pretty nasty stuff. It was inside a green, air driven box or corner filter.

My first real aquarium was a shared one. In the 1970s 4 of us shared a house and a sound company. We had a 20 gal. communal community tank in the living room. I can not remember what species we had. My actual true dive into the hobby began in late January 2001 not long before I turned 53.

Today I have 20 tanks and I have 26 air driven filters, the most of any single filter type I use. I guess it is true when they say "what goes around comes around."
 
Guyb93 said:
Welcome to Jurassic park
:rofl:
Iā€™d love to know what the common fish were in the 70s because a lot of fish commonly sold now didnā€™t really reach the hobby till then
Was it more cold water dominated ?
Click to expand...
I think you mean "Geriatric park." Sorry, I mean no harm, I just couldn't help it.
 
Damn kids, go to bed, us grown ups have to talk. If your under 80, go to bed now.

Guyb93 said:
Welcome to Jurassic park
:rofl:
Iā€™d love to know what the common fish were in the 70s because a lot of fish commonly sold now didnā€™t really reach the hobby till then
Was it more cold water dominated ?
Click to expand...
Goldfish were nicer back then. They had normal shaped bodies with good fins and colour. Most were gold/ orange but shubunkins appeared and they were a hit due to having more colour. Fantail goldfish were the only fancy goldfish and they were slightly shorter than a common or comet goldfish but had the double tail. Black moors were also around but not really in large numbers.

White cloud mountain minnows were available but that was about it for cold water.

--------
TROPICAL FISHES.
Dwarf gouramis were much nicer back then and didn't have any health issues. The normal blue & red striped dwarf gourami was common and the tanks had males and females. Then flame red dwarf gouramis appeared followed by the cobalt blue dwarf gourami. Most other species of small/ dwarf gourami were unheard of.

Bigger gouramis included pink and green kissing gourami, pearl, and blue/ gold/ 3 spot.

Male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) were available in red or blue and just had nice fins. They were tough too, unlike today's inbred rubbish.
There were no other species of Betta available.

--------
Tetras were mainly neons, cardinals, glowlight, lemon, Beunos Aires, hockeystick, black neon and rummynose. Rosy tetras, bleeding heart, diamond and black phantoms appeared in the mid to late 80s. The black phantoms were a hit but the others were hideously expensive and only turned up in small numbers.

--------
Barbs included ruby, tiger (just normal, not green, red or any other colour), gold barbs, checkered, cherry, filament, spanner, tinfoils and a few others.

--------
Rainbowfish, gudgeons and grunters/ perch were unheard of.

--------
Catfish were mostly common Corydoras (bronze & peppered). Banjo and Raphael catfish were available. Very few eels or loaches. Electric eels, black ghost knife fish and clown loaches were available in small numbers.

More unusual Corydoras appeared in the late 80s and early 90s.

--------
Angelfish were nicely shaped but only came in silver initially. Then came black and they were a hit. Shortly after that was black veiltail angels and then gold. Then black/ gold marble angels.

Brown Discus were around and were stunning but nobody in the pet shops would tell you how to keep them, or any other fish for that matter. If you didn't know, tough.

Festivum cichlids, keyhole, blue acara and blue rams were about the only cichlids I recall from back then. In the mid 80s African Rift lake cichlids started turning up and were sold as general community fish. I remember getting a pr of lombardi (kenyii). They were about 1 inch long and I was told they were fine with all fish. They were fine for a couple of months and then matured and went nuts. They were given back to the shop.

------------------------
Saltwater consisted of mainly damselfish, (humbugs, 3 spot, neon devils, and a couple of others that shouldn't be kept because they are so aggressive. Polkadot groupers, lionfish and batfish turned up regularly but batfish never did well and need to be kept in groups in huge tanks. A few blennies appeared and a few wrasses (moon, coris). Triggerfish were big sellers for some reason, they were horrible fish and would kill everything. On rare occasions someone would bring in 1 or 2 butterfly fish, usually copperband and racoon butterflies and maybe an emperor angelfish. The butterflies & angelfish were adults and never ate well because they are specialised feeders.

There were no corals and the only shrimp were banded coral shrimp that were bought individually or in prs.

Marine tanks consisted of white sand or shells on the bottom, usually over an undergravel filter. Decorations were bleached white coral skeletons and some plastic plants.

------------------------
Aquarium plants were mainly marsh/ garden plants and died a week or two after being put in an aquarium. Things like purple waffle, lizard tongue and a bunch of other garden plants would come into the shop on Friday and either sell over the weekend or die during the following week.

About the only aquatic plants we had were Vallis, Ambulia, 3 or 4 different Hygrophila sp but only 2 did well, Ludwigia, Bacopa and common Amazon sword plants. Even the Ludwigia and Bacopa didn't do well underwater. It just rotted and fell apart after a couple of weeks.

Nobody told you they needed lots of light or fertiliser. You had the tank near a window and got a friend or relative to wire up a couple of shop fluorescent light units to go above the tank. Then hoped for the best.
 
One of the most intriguing aquarium club presentations I ever saw was by a gentleman who had worked in a large department store in the 1930s, when he was around 20, and had been in charge of the aquarium section they had. It was a rich person's hobby in the Great Depression, but there were plenty of rich people buying tanks, as he said, for their greenhouses.
He brought a box of gear from around 1935 - air pumps with big flywheels that produced a bubble every 2 or 3 seconds, lamps to light under slate bottomed tanks for heating - stuff like that.
He was active in our club into his nineties (he had founded the club in 1933), but shut down his last killie tank at around 93, not long before his death at 96. To be able to talk to someone who had that kind of overview was really a gift.
Over on the other side of the tracks where the poor people lived, my grandfather bred Bettas after World War 2, but he had a friend who became my aquarium mentor. This guy had gotten fish at the end of World War one, and was in his eighties when I was a teenager and we became friends. He had been a bell diver in Shanghai, and worked with sailors who had brought fish back from Asia in tin boxes, to sell them in Europe.
Both told me a story of the arrival of neon tetras at a local shop in the 30s, when they sold for $5 each (in 1930s money...) and aquarists were desperate to understand how to breed them.

A lot of people on this forum are walking around being generic looking older people, but the lines we carry in our heads go back to the older people we knew when we were young.... in my teens and twenties I had friends in their eighties, and was always learning from them. What I learned about fish was minor compared to what I learned about more pressing issues, but it was all useful as I've moved along here.
 
I still remember the days when me and my old dad used to keep ponds and aquariums in dad's garage (aka the refuge from mother's nagging)...and yes he did have a pond in his garage....old inspection pit, relined, filled with water, with goldfish. Another pond was beside the greehouse where dad had his other passion...giant chrysanthemums that he grew flowers to the size of a small football

No fancy pantsy dechlorinators or other chemicals....just a garden hose on the outside tap and away we went. Proper fish like plain red or plain blue Betta - none of the Joseph multicoloured dreamcoat with humungous finnage back then. Spent many hours with dad messing about with the fish and the chrysanthemums...and keeping out of mother's way.

Not much has actually changed. My aquarium doesn't use dechlorinators or any chemicals....I use bottled water and the binmen collect 5 large tubs of bottles every fortnight. Basic fish compared to many here...I spose the most exotic in my aquarium would be the Rams and the Apisto. Plain, simple, unfussy...just as my old dad used to do (if he was still around, he would have approved and probably spent hours watching and tinkering with it)
 
Going back to the 70s and before, the chlorine level in tap water was minimal and wasn't a big issue for fish. That's why people could clean a tank, add tap water and put the fish back in. They didn't use proper dechlorinators back then. The most commonly sold water conditioner in the 70s & 80s in Perth WA, was salt (sodium chloride) mixed with Methylene Blue (blue salt). It did nothing to remove chlorine but the chlorine level was low so it didn't really affect the fish as much as it does today.
 
Colin_T said:
Damn kids, go to bed, us grown ups have to talk. If your under 80, go to bed now.


Goldfish were nicer back then. They had normal shaped bodies with good fins and colour. Most were gold/ orange but shubunkins appeared and they were a hit due to having more colour. Fantail goldfish were the only fancy goldfish and they were slightly shorter than a common or comet goldfish but had the double tail. Black moors were also around but not really in large numbers.

White cloud mountain minnows were available but that was about it for cold water.

--------
TROPICAL FISHES.
Dwarf gouramis were much nicer back then and didn't have any health issues. The normal blue & red striped dwarf gourami was common and the tanks had males and females. Then flame red dwarf gouramis appeared followed by the cobalt blue dwarf gourami. Most other species of small/ dwarf gourami were unheard of.

Bigger gouramis included pink and green kissing gourami, pearl, and blue/ gold/ 3 spot.

Male Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) were available in red or blue and just had nice fins. They were tough too, unlike today's inbred rubbish.
There were no other species of Betta available.

--------
Tetras were mainly neons, cardinals, glowlight, lemon, Beunos Aires, hockeystick, black neon and rummynose. Rosy tetras, bleeding heart, diamond and black phantoms appeared in the mid to late 80s. The black phantoms were a hit but the others were hideously expensive and only turned up in small numbers.

--------
Barbs included ruby, tiger (just normal, not green, red or any other colour), gold barbs, checkered, cherry, filament, spanner, tinfoils and a few others.

--------
Rainbowfish, gudgeons and grunters/ perch were unheard of.

--------
Catfish were mostly common Corydoras (bronze & peppered). Banjo and Raphael catfish were available. Very few eels or loaches. Electric eels, black ghost knife fish and clown loaches were available in small numbers.

More unusual Corydoras appeared in the late 80s and early 90s.

--------
Angelfish were nicely shaped but only came in silver initially. Then came black and they were a hit. Shortly after that was black veiltail angels and then gold. Then black/ gold marble angels.

Brown Discus were around and were stunning but nobody in the pet shops would tell you how to keep them, or any other fish for that matter. If you didn't know, tough.

Festivum cichlids, keyhole, blue acara and blue rams were about the only cichlids I recall from back then. In the mid 80s African Rift lake cichlids started turning up and were sold as general community fish. I remember getting a pr of lombardi (kenyii). They were about 1 inch long and I was told they were fine with all fish. They were fine for a couple of months and then matured and went nuts. They were given back to the shop.

------------------------
Saltwater consisted of mainly damselfish, (humbugs, 3 spot, neon devils, and a couple of others that shouldn't be kept because they are so aggressive. Polkadot groupers, lionfish and batfish turned up regularly but batfish never did well and need to be kept in groups in huge tanks. A few blennies appeared and a few wrasses (moon, coris). Triggerfish were big sellers for some reason, they were horrible fish and would kill everything. On rare occasions someone would bring in 1 or 2 butterfly fish, usually copperband and racoon butterflies and maybe an emperor angelfish. The butterflies & angelfish were adults and never ate well because they are specialised feeders.

There were no corals and the only shrimp were banded coral shrimp that were bought individually or in prs.

Marine tanks consisted of white sand or shells on the bottom, usually over an undergravel filter. Decorations were bleached white coral skeletons and some plastic plants.

------------------------
Aquarium plants were mainly marsh/ garden plants and died a week or two after being put in an aquarium. Things like purple waffle, lizard tongue and a bunch of other garden plants would come into the shop on Friday and either sell over the weekend or die during the following week.

About the only aquatic plants we had were Vallis, Ambulia, 3 or 4 different Hygrophila sp but only 2 did well, Ludwigia, Bacopa and common Amazon sword plants. Even the Ludwigia and Bacopa didn't do well underwater. It just rotted and fell apart after a couple of weeks.

Nobody told you they needed lots of light or fertiliser. You had the tank near a window and got a friend or relative to wire up a couple of shop fluorescent light units to go above the tank. Then hoped for the best.
Click to expand...
Festivum Cichlids what happened to them they were great fish.
 
Colin_T said:
Going back to the 70s and before, the chlorine level in tap water was minimal and wasn't a big issue for fish. That's why people could clean a tank, add tap water and put the fish back in. They didn't use proper dechlorinators back then. The most commonly sold water conditioner in the 70s & 80s in Perth WA, was salt (sodium chloride) mixed with Methylene Blue (blue salt). It did nothing to remove chlorine but the chlorine level was low so it didn't really affect the fish as much as it does today.
Click to expand...
And most importantly you thought you were doing something to help your fish.
 
Colin_T said:
Going back to the 70s and before, the chlorine level in tap water was minimal and wasn't a big issue for fish. That's why people could clean a tank, add tap water and put the fish back in. They didn't use proper dechlorinators back then. The most commonly sold water conditioner in the 70s & 80s in Perth WA, was salt (sodium chloride) mixed with Methylene Blue (blue salt). It did nothing to remove chlorine but the chlorine level was low so it didn't really affect the fish as much as it does today.
Click to expand...
That may have been the Australian situation. Here, in the 1950s and into the 60s, my region was an industrial powerhouse, and levels of pollution were higher than they are now. The river near where I grew up is actually cleaner due to legislation than it was in the free for all days of anything goes (into the river). We had serious chlorine issues back then, and a serious need. There were no chloramines in use though.
One drop per 2 gallons, every top up (misguided wisdom said to never do water changes).

festivum? I've seen them around, but not like they were. When malawis came in, a lot of medium sized South American Cichlids lost their jobs. Malawis were easy to breed and most importantly, super colourful fish that liked crowding.

What I liked that you don't see was the variety of platys you could get, from close to wild form, through an incredible array of colour and size types. They are really uniform now, and not half the fun. Platys and mollies have been ruined.

A lot of fish that were hardy then are delicate now. I suspect disease transmission with fish factory farming. I had an acquaintance who was a vet, specializing in fish (he wandered off to the coast to work with farmed salmon) and his view was that we had entered a golden age for buying disease samples once the smaller fishfarms had been wiped off the map and the industry had gone industrial. He'd go to chain stores to buy sick fish for study, and in some of them he was like a kid in a candy shop.

The spread of Camallanus nematode parasites and fish tb (Mycobacter) has been 'interesting' to see, and has certainly changed a lot over the past few years.

Here's an odd one. Temperature. I find each decade, the suggested high range temperature for a lot of fish has crept up, but in spite of climate change, the wild data the original temps were based on hasn't changed to keep pace. We are keeping fish warmer and warmer and I'm not sure why.
 
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