Bits o' History

by Mike Hellweg
First published in The Darter, Missouri Aquarium Society
Aquarticles

Just thought MASI members might enjoy a little bit of the History of the Hobby that I recently came across. As many of you know, I collect older Aquarium Literature, and have quite an extensive collection. Just ask Angela! I'm sure she has one or two things to say about my collection, and they are probably different than what I have to say!

This comes from the January 1957 issue of the Aquarium Journal, the publication of the San Francisco Aquarium Society, Inc. The same folks that bring us the brine shrimp. It is interestingly priced at 30 cents an issue, with a subscription price of $3.00 for twelve issues. In it are 40 pages of information, photos, and ads.

There is an article about the First Marine Only Aquarium Show which was held in Florida on October 7, 1956. There is a list of some of the fish which were shown, as well as inverts and plants. It is amazing the size of some of the tanks they talk about displaying fish in. For example, a 1.5 gallon tank, which took a first place ribbon, displayed a pair of Banded Coral Shrimp, a young Bluefish, a Black Angel, (young, I hope!) AND a French Angel (also young, I hope!) Wow! And no filtration. Of course, they do mention doing large water changes with fresh sea water (easy in Florida in the 1950's). I also get the feeling, from another article, that they did not expect Marine fishes to live very long. I wonder why? Twelve months seems respectable to an Aquarist from the Steinhart Aquarium for a Butterfly Fish to live in captivity. Nowadays that kind of attitude would get a professional aquarist fired!

One of the most interesting things is the little sidebars, and there are several of these, which do everything from answer questions to provide a look at the aquatic news of the day. One of these is about a group of ichthyologists from the University of California who are trying a new method of shipping fish. It seems that the metal cans add too much to airfreight costs and they were looking for a cheaper way. They came up with shipping fish in plastic bags, loaded with oxygen, and sealed in a thick cardboard box. Sounds kind of silly to us now, but this was great news back then. Thanks to two ichthyologists named Kenneth Norris and William McFarland we now have the easy transport of fishes from all over the world.

Of interest to Rainbowfish fans is an article on the TWO distinct kinds of "bows", Melanotaenia maccullochi and M. nigrans. The author uses live plants in a ten gallon tank with a pair or a reverse trio. She lets the fry hatch in the tank with the adults, and scoops them out as she sees them. Sounds a lot like raising livebearers, doesn't it?

There is an article about seahorses from Donald Simpson of the Steinhart Aquarium. It seems they set up several marine tanks in the lobby of a movie theater as a promo for a movie about the sea. One of the tanks had several seahorses in it. The tank was pretty much ignored as too dull by most of the movie going public, that is, until the movie came out. It had a long scene of a MALE seahorse giving birth. Then someone noticed that the MALE seahorse in the lobby tank was also giving birth. This resulted in a late night phone call to the author, and a round up of most of the "ponies". He left a few in the tank with the adults at the insistence of the theater manager. It seems there was a great difficulty in raising the fry, as the previous record for the Aquarium was raising 38 out of 585. This time he raised 65 out of 150. He was keeping notes, making observations, and learning with each new try. He comes up with a list of 11 things to do to raise at least some of the fry. I like the last three things: "Pray for luck each night. And morning. And noon. You'll need it". Some encouragement, huh?

Another article called the Beginner's Corner by Albert Klee (anyone in the ACA recognize that name?) covers canned foods for fish such as tuna, shrimp, salmon, bonito and baby foods. The consensus is that the shrimp is the best. All of the others are also discussed, and much is made of cleaning up after feeding to avoid polluting the water.

Speaking of water pollution, there is an article on water pollution in the marine aquarium. Much of it is very vague by modern standards, but he does remind the reader to keep tobacco ashes and liquid refreshments out of the tank. He also mentions varnishing the metal tank frame to protect the fish (for a few months, anyway) from the dangers of corroding metals leaching into the water. We've come a long way from that. There is also something interesting about "yellowing water". The author reminds us that you can take the yellow out of the water by putting it in the dark for several days. But this doesn't remove the pollutants, so the best remedy is to throw this "conditioned water" and replace it with fresh seawater. He also seems to feel that inverts, especially anemones, are guilty of polluting the water and making it unsafe for fish. Yeah, I guess they do when they die! Also, it is mentioned that urchins and starfish just die in captivity, so there is little point in keeping them.

There is a book review on a book called "All About Guppies" by Whitney and Hahnel. It is in a second edition and comes highly recommended by the reviewer. The price? $1.75 for this 128 page book.

Then there is a review of a new product, the Miracle Water Softener Pillow, which is still available and working today!

There is a great, though short, article on keeping and breeding a species of Glassfish, Chanda Lala. This is a cousin of Chanda Ranga, the Indian Glassfish that importers seem to love to paint. This article appreciates the natural color, and goes into detail on spawning and raising the tiny fry.

Lastly comes one of my favorite parts, the letters. Questions range from breeding Cynolebias belotti to the best method to separate tubificid worms from their "debris".

The ads are great fun as well. Super Products Corp. of Philadelphia is advertising their Super Filter. It is an early UG filter. The ad copy says "You are free of the work of cleaning or changing the water or gravel in the aquarium forever."!!! Where have I heard that line before? On the next page is the Eureka Aquarium Purifier (UG with subsand perforated tubes instead of a filter plate). It says "Filtration DOES NOT Clean Gravel!" Hmmm. Controversy? There are ads for pumps, plants, live food (the prices are the same today!) , books, catalogs, fish, a couple of pet shops for sale, something called the VITA-MIN-BRICK, special made casters for your up to 30 gallon Metal Frame Aquarium Co. stand, and, the most interesting of all, a "Submergible Thermo-Heater Combination" that heats your tank from the bottom up! I thought submersible heaters didn't come along until the '80's! I guess the newer ones sealed out the water better. I don't remember seeing any in the late '60's or in the '70's at all. Anyone else remember them?

I thought you might enjoy that overview of what was going on in the hobby (through the eyes of the Aquarium Journal) over 40 years ago. Not all that is new really is. And not all you remember from the "Dark Ages" really was. The magazine is nearly 30% Marine. That hasn't changed much. But the size of the tanks sure has! Just two species of 'bows? How about that, Gary? And breeding seahorses and glassfish? And raising them. Without APR or even filtration on the tanks! Oh, and the comments from judges at a fish show (I forgot to mention that) haven't changed at all!

If you come across something like this, take the time to read a little bit. Even though the photos are in black and white, the ideas may not sound so strange. And who knows, you might even learn something new!