A simple aquarium project
My aquarium keepining has taken a hiatus for the past four or five years. I still keep fish but the time and energy I allot for fish keeping has been kept to a minimum. I still have my aquariums and ponds. Nearly all my ponds and tanks are in the state of perfect equilibrium.
I hardly go to Cartimar or any of pet shops anymore. Unlike my friends who habitually go there every other day. Some still make the trek to Cartimar for business (their interest in fish have developed into a money-making venture) and there are some whose spending capacity has increased that now they can afford to buy a fish everyweek, or it could be possible that the fish die on them, hence the need to repopulate the tank.
I once had a petshop. More exactly I once had a fish shop. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A friend of mine and I hatched upon the idea. The shop lasted for two years or so. Although hobbyists, we were literally fish out of water. Keeping fish and going into the fish business are two different things. One is concerned with keeping the fish and satisfying one's taste, while the other is concerned with keeping and selling the fish.
It was good (not splendid but good) while it lasted. As in any business you really have to focus your attention on it. Situations change and priorities begin to rearrange themselves. And day by day we found ourselves drifting away from the business. In the end we had to give up the business and went our separate ways.
Still, lessons were learned and not forgotten, I hope.
So here I am now in the present with a surplus of aquariums, a stable population of fish, two or three types of aquatic plants, and the fish bug has bitten me again.
Yet, the lessons from my days as a tropical fish shop owner still lingers. The shadow of disappoinment continues to haunt me like a Bengal Tiger ready to pounce.
The thing is I am not even starting a business. I am just trying to make the tanks useful and possibly of some worth. Who knows down the line what this might bring.
Musing over the possibilities and cost involved I have resolved to make the following my goals:
1. Set-up and establish my fish ponds and aquariums with little input of electricity and change in water.
2. Attain equilibrium in each pond and aquarium
3. Breed fish and propagate plants
I think this is possible because it has been done. The trick is in the stocking rate, the presence of aquatic plants and the input of solar enery - sunlight. Taking these three things into the equation I believe it is possible to maintain an aquarium in equilibrium without the aid of electrical powered filters.
Konrad Lorentz did and recounted the tale in his book King Solomon's Ring (1952).
"It costs almost nothing and is indeed wonderful: cover the bottom of the glass tank with clean sand, and insert in this foundation a few stalks of water plants...As sson as the water has cleared and the plants have begun to grow, put in some little fishes"
And in my experience in keeping Planted Freshwater Aquariums, Salt Water aquariums with algae scrubbers/sea grass this is possible.
Anyway, I will find this out in a the preceding days.
I hardly go to Cartimar or any of pet shops anymore. Unlike my friends who habitually go there every other day. Some still make the trek to Cartimar for business (their interest in fish have developed into a money-making venture) and there are some whose spending capacity has increased that now they can afford to buy a fish everyweek, or it could be possible that the fish die on them, hence the need to repopulate the tank.
I once had a petshop. More exactly I once had a fish shop. It seemed like a good idea at the time. A friend of mine and I hatched upon the idea. The shop lasted for two years or so. Although hobbyists, we were literally fish out of water. Keeping fish and going into the fish business are two different things. One is concerned with keeping the fish and satisfying one's taste, while the other is concerned with keeping and selling the fish.
It was good (not splendid but good) while it lasted. As in any business you really have to focus your attention on it. Situations change and priorities begin to rearrange themselves. And day by day we found ourselves drifting away from the business. In the end we had to give up the business and went our separate ways.
Still, lessons were learned and not forgotten, I hope.
So here I am now in the present with a surplus of aquariums, a stable population of fish, two or three types of aquatic plants, and the fish bug has bitten me again.
Yet, the lessons from my days as a tropical fish shop owner still lingers. The shadow of disappoinment continues to haunt me like a Bengal Tiger ready to pounce.
The thing is I am not even starting a business. I am just trying to make the tanks useful and possibly of some worth. Who knows down the line what this might bring.
Musing over the possibilities and cost involved I have resolved to make the following my goals:
1. Set-up and establish my fish ponds and aquariums with little input of electricity and change in water.
2. Attain equilibrium in each pond and aquarium
3. Breed fish and propagate plants
I think this is possible because it has been done. The trick is in the stocking rate, the presence of aquatic plants and the input of solar enery - sunlight. Taking these three things into the equation I believe it is possible to maintain an aquarium in equilibrium without the aid of electrical powered filters.
Konrad Lorentz did and recounted the tale in his book King Solomon's Ring (1952).
"It costs almost nothing and is indeed wonderful: cover the bottom of the glass tank with clean sand, and insert in this foundation a few stalks of water plants...As sson as the water has cleared and the plants have begun to grow, put in some little fishes"
And in my experience in keeping Planted Freshwater Aquariums, Salt Water aquariums with algae scrubbers/sea grass this is possible.
Anyway, I will find this out in a the preceding days.
posted by juned at 15:32
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