MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: NEW ZEALAND
Part Four: Sean Canovan

By Howard Norfolk
Aquarticles.com

Sean Canovan's friend John must have had no idea what he was starting when he gave Sean one solitary goldfish just ten years ago! That simple little goldfish sparked Sean's passion for fish - so much so that nowadays he spends nearly all his leisure and working time surrounded by them.

When I met Sean he was, naturally, pottering around in the large workshop room at the back of his detached garage in the Christchurch suburb of Hornby, New Zealand. He made the workshop into a fish room eight years ago.

All four walls of the fish room are lined with fish tanks.

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The fish room contains forty-four aquariums of all shapes and sizes from about 80 to 250 litres*, plus a large one of 1000 litres. There are sixteen more tanks of about 20 litres each, on shelves or even balancing precariously on the corners of larger tanks. Sean's tanks are all kinds of shapes and sizes. Some he made himself, and others were bought used, through the "Buy and Sell" paper. When I was there a large hexagonal tank with wooden stand was sitting in the driveway - Sean had just got it from somewhere and was wondering where he might put it.

* New Zealanders build their tanks in feet and inches, but estimate their capacity in litres.
100 litres = 22 Imperial gallons = 26 US gallons

When not working on his fish, Sean watches TV in his armchair.

There isn't much space left in the fish room unless Sean gets rid of his armchair! Yes, tucked between the rows of tanks is a comfortable armchair, together with a TV and stereo. Airy summers and cosy winters, day and night, when not looking after his aquariums Sean likes to feel at home by relaxing here, keeping his fish company and chatting to his best friend "Squeak." Squeak can also talk - he's an Eastern Rosella lorikeet, (Platycercus exemius), native to south-eastern Australia. Squeak has the run of the fish room, and even has a favourite tank in which he is allowed to bathe.

"Squeak" lives in the fish room.

Most of Sean's tanks are bare bottomed, with sponge filters powered by Hagen's "The Pump."  The fishroom does not have a general heater, and only about half the tanks are heated, by individual heaters. Sean finds that heat from these tanks and the lights warms the unheated upper tanks to about 75 degrees F.  In winter the tanks are insulated with Styrofoam panels.

Sean is a generalist - he likes one of every fish he can get his hands on….. but a pair is even better, and if that pair turns into a hundred that is better still!

Those pairs have in fact turned into hundreds all over Sean's room, and as we inspected his tanks I made notes of the fish he is currently breeding. We spotted livebearers - guppies, mollies, swordtails and platies: tetras - neon, black neon, phantom, glowlight, silver tip, black widow, x-ray, and emperor: barbs - cherry and golden: zebra danios, white clouds: various gouramis: angelfish, discus: various African cichlids: bristlenose, whiptail and sterbae catfish: various corys.....and this is only the list of fish he is breeding right now - there have been lots of others before! (Including, he told me, Hoplo cats, bumblebee gobies, and lemon tetras).

   Sean lifted this pleco out of its tank for a photo.

Sean isn't especially keen on aquatic plants, but he does have one well-planted tank, which contains a variety of community fish, including gouramis; black sharks; Texas cichlids; mollies, guppies, platies; banjo, whiptail and bristlenose catfish; coolie loaches; neon, silver tip, glow light and x-ray tetras.  He also has one salt-water tank.

   The planted tank has a great variety of fish. Small spawning tanks can be seen on the shelf above. This pennywort (Hydrocotyle leucocephala) has large leaves as it climbs out of the tank towards the window.

Right beside Sean's armchair is a large tank with his collection of large fish. These include oscars, leporinus, clown loaches, hoplo cats, convicts, and silver sharks. A kissing gourami found its way there by mistake - it jumped in from a higher tank!

   Some of Sean's collection of larger fish. They gathered in the corner to be fed.

For fish that need live food, Sean raises brine shrimp, white worms and microworms, and also collects daphnia and mosquito larvae from local ponds.

Sean's fish collection does not quite end here! At the back of the car section of his garage, resting rather precariously on a wooden shelf unit is another massive grow-out tank, which presently holds literally hundreds of white clouds, x-ray tetras and Hoplo cats.

Large grow-out tank in the garage.

We still haven't finished! By the side of Sean's front door is a beautiful little pond with a natural-looking gentle waterfall and a bridge. The pond contains water lilies, goldfish and white clouds.

   Goldfish and white clouds are kept in the beautiful little pond.

What does Sean do with all the fish he breeds? He sells them of course; to visitors, local retailers and through the Buy and Sell paper. Not that he makes any big deal of this - when I suggested to him that I add contact details to this article in order to increase his sales he didn't want me to bother. (So, Kiwis, don't bug him!). Someone told me that he sells his fish very reasonably to fellow aquarists.

What does Sean do when he's away from his fish room? Would you believe he breeds fish? - he works for none other than Gordon McKay, in the Critter Kingdom breeding/quarantine room, but it doesn't sound much like "work" to me!

....End of New Zealand series: Return to People