Very old fish book I found at work

[Essjay]

Paradise fish - according to Seriously Fish, they were introduced to Europe by a French soldier in 1869. 100 were shipped but of those only 22 survived. Paradise fish were one of the first ornamental fish to be imported into Europe.

Macropodus opercularis – Paradise Fish (Macropodus chinensis, Labrus opercularis) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[elephantnose3334]

Paradise fish - according to Seriously Fish, they were introduced to Europe by a French soldier in 1869. 100 were shipped but of those only 22 survived. Paradise fish were one of the first ornamental fish to be imported into Europe.

Macropodus opercularis – Paradise Fish (Macropodus chinensis, Labrus opercularis) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

Interesting... perhaps goldfish appeared way longer before paradise fish even set foot into our hobby? Paradise fish were one of the first tropical fish to appear in the then-newly developed aquarium hobby.

 

[Essjay]

The far east would have kept goldfish and koi for centuries before tropical fish were imported to Europe.

 

[GaryE]

Lady Penn, whose family name was given to a US state, had what could well have been a paradise fish in 1665, as reported by his friend Samuel Pepys in his diaries.
"Thence home, and to see my Lady Pen — where my wife and I were shown a fine rarity: of fishes kept in a glass of water, that will live so for ever; and finely marked they are, being foreign." 28 May, 1665.

Some have suggested it was a goldfish, but finally marked, cold tolerant and able to breathe surface air (needed for a glass) makes me disagree.

 

[Innesfan]

Is the MoAPH an American or Australian source?

American. San Luis Obispo, California.

 

[Herpin Man]

I love finding cool old books.

 

[Innesfan]

The far east would have kept goldfish and koi for centuries before tropical fish were imported to Europe.

Yes. For over a thousand years in China and since the 1500s in Japan.

 

[GaryE]

My fishkeeping mentor was 86 when in 1975, and had gotten into fish in the 1920s. When he was younger, living in Hong Kong, he'd pick up 'ornamentals' and bring them in metal boxes stowed under his bunk when he headed back west. Given that during the great depression, when my grandparents flat cost $2 a month, a neon retailed at $5, a sailor may have gotten $2 a fish. If you got even 20 to survive, that was money back then. All the aquarium stores of the time were within walking distance of the docks.

I was told of early importations of Betta splendens, neons and harlequin "rasboras'. The trade, at least into Canada, grew out of that until air travel kicked it up a few gears. I believe going to Asia or South America with containers and training for bringing long numbers of fish on the long voyages was actually a job before air travel, but home breeding, and especially in North America, Florida fish farms were very important.

So different....

 

[Innesfan]

Enterprising sailors were instrumental in the early importation of many 'tropical' species as well as the rarer goldfish 'breeds.' I used to think these stories were apocryphal but more and more documentation--such as that which @GaryE has provided--has surfaced over the years to support the factuality of these events.

 

[GaryE]

My old friend had worked for a British shipping company as a bell diver, inspecting hulls in the Port of Hong Kong. He would ship back periodically (from putting together his modest storytelling) and would make some extra money with fish. He said they had large "tins" with lids that would snap down (way larger than cookie tins - I was dumb enough to ask because tin boxes were small by the time I came into the world). That makes sense to me, in a pre-plastics era.

I believe one of the stories involved getting harlequins from a sailor who brought them to Hong Kong, and taking them to England. I recall him saying they survived well, so were a fish of choice. That would suggest there was a knowledgeable trade among mariners.

Unfortunately, I only knew him from when I was 14 until his death when I was 17. At that age, I never thought to ask the questions I would love to be able to ask now. I was too busy pestering him for his great knowledge of every species of fish in his little store. He was a generous man - Mr Gortt, or possibly Gordt. He had been a friend of my grandfather, who was also a fishkeeper.

There was another local man who had imported for a department store, and had founded the Montreal club in 1933. He too talked about fish in shipping tins, first from sailors at the port, and later from Florida and dealers in New York.

In killie literature, I have seen references to fish being brought in for the first time by merchant seamen docking in Hamburg. I would have a hard time finding it now, but some were even named.

 

[Innesfan]

. He said they had large "tins" with lids that would snap down (way larger than cookie tins - I was dumb enough to ask because tin boxes were small by the time I came into the world). That makes sense to me, in a pre-plastics era.

I doubt that there's anything associated with the history of the aquarium hobby that somebody somewhere does not collect. @GaryE mentions shipping tins. Here's one. Over a century old. Photo sent to me by a collector a while back.

 

[GaryE]

I doubt that there's anything associated with the history of the aquarium hobby that somebody somewhere does not collect. @GaryE mentions shipping tins. Here's one. Over a century old. Photo sent to me by a collector a while back.

I hope we're not hijacking the thread. These aren't reminiscences, but to me, reports. I was extremely fortunate to have been one of those kids who always got along with people 60 or 70 years older than me. All the men and women I think of when I say that weren't telling old stories from rocking chairs - they were still active, sharp thinkers and the stories leaked out from explanations. One of the best friends I ever had was 40 years older than me, and became a third grandfather to my kids. You work on things with people, you listen, and you learn.

That tin box looks like a minnow pail adapted to a different function. You could fit several of those under a bunk or in a quiet place.

I asked my friend about fish mortality. He didn't see it as a huge issue, interestingly. Conditions in those pails must have been rough. To bring the thread back around, when you look at old aquarium literature, you see the toughest species. You see fish that could survive before heaters existed. It's questionable if they thrived, but they survived.

People were on it right away. My great grandfather was a baker by trade, but lived in the bottom flat of a tenement, which gave him a postage stamp backyard. He had some kind of vat set ups, and used to produce goldfish for the local shops as his sideline. Once they were in the country, breeding goldies would have been easy. Nothing is easier to breed. He must have brought them in for the winter, and made his money selling in the warm months. It's something several of the older people in the family mentioned in passing, in exactly the tone non fishkeeping relatives probably talk about us - that 'weird but fair enough' tone.

I've seen some of Charles Darwin's (dried out) pigeons he studied at the Natural History Museum in London. He really made use of the expertise of pigeon fanciers. Often working class, now forgotten people gathered great knowledge about genetics and techniques, for pigeons, dogs, canaries (once a huge hobby here), fish... All the while farmers were learning about larger or more commercial animals. We amateurs are an ancient thread running though very long histories.

 

[elephantnose3334]

I hope we're not hijacking the thread.

You're not hijacking the thread, but keep it on topic (old aquarium books).

 

[emeraldking]

I work at an op-shop in Fremantle and someone donated this rare beauty of an old fishkeeping book: Tropical Aquariums, Plants and Fishes by A. Laurence Wells to the store. I ended up buying it for a dollar because of a discount.

I prefer old aquarium books over modern ones. In most of them, there are better information to find in than modern commercial ones.

Note the black ruby tetra had a word that isn't racially acceptable anymore in its name, it was written in 1937 (revised in 1954).

Well, during that time frame such names were normal. Such names are replaced by names like "nigro" in combination with another name.

 

[Innesfan]

You're not hijacking the thread, but keep it on topic (old aquarium books).

And to reinforce that, here's a photo from a classic old book, Innes's EAF, depicting shipping tins wrapped in wicker or paper insulation in the hold of a ship. The photo was in the first edition (1935) and in every subsequent edition through the 19th. Note the vintage pumps on the upper left shelf.