MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: JAMAICA
Part II: Robin Hall

By Howard Norfolk
Aquarticles.com

Robin Hall kept fish as a boy growing up on a sugar cane estate. He always knew he wanted to continue in some kind of agricultural field - but not sugar! - so he ended up studying Aquaculture at the University of the West Indies in Kingston Jamaica, where he got his Master's Degree. After university he was employed as a research scientist in a marine laboratory, helping the development of local marine aquaculture. He later worked in the field of seafood processing research, and in a shrimp hatchery.

Meanwhile, Robin's parents owned a cattle feedlot on a beautiful waterfront property on the north coast of Jamaica, near the town of Lucea ("Lucy").

Five years ago Robin's job ended when the fish hatchery went broke and closed down. This coincided with NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) making it uneconomical for his parents to raise cattle. 

So Robin's parents retired from the cattle business, and Robin moved in with them and started work as a teacher of chemistry, biology and related subjects at the Montego Bay Community College.

But Robin had some free time on his hands and wondered what else he could do. He realised that his parents' farm was an ideal place for breeding ornamental fish. On the property was a 30,000 gallon (136,000 litre) water storage tank (for watering cattle during the dry season), a barn that was once used for cattle and bee-keeping, and unused pasture fields.

I visited Robin on Christmas Eve 2003, and found that he had come a long way in the last five years:

  
The farmhouse is surrounded by a lush colourful tropical garden. At the back of the garden is a 30,000 gallon water storage tank.

CLICK ON THUMBNAILS FOR ENLARGEMENTS, THEN GO "BACK."

  
Water is pumped from the main storage tank to these smaller tanks on the barn roof. The barn is now Robin's fish breeding house.

Here is Robin Hall with a row of general breeding tanks that span the length of the fish house. Opposite these are four former cattle stalls that each contain thirty or forty tanks specialising in particular species: discus, angelfish, guppies and goldfish. There are something like a couple of hundred tanks in all.

  
The goldfish room

  
Discus, and angelfish.  Robin does not normally use heaters, so he doesn't attempt to breed discus or angelfish during the "cold" winter months, when temperatures can suddenly drop from 80F to as low as the mid 60s (27C to 18C), causing problems. (I heard Jamaican TV weathermen blaming "cold winds from Florida" - almost anywhere else they would be "warm winds"!).

A large tank in the guppy room

  
In the main room I spotted these rainbowfishes.

Swordtails are bred in a wire basket propped up on bricks in a large bucket. The young can swim through the mesh to escape the adults.

This general community tank contains specimens of fish that Robin breeds or is attempting to breed. Other fish that I noticed being bred were blue and gold gouramis, various tetras, bettas, tinfoil barbs and red-tailed sharks.

In the tropics, if you don't have enough tanks you can simply use plastic basins on the floor.

A small roofed but open area near the fish house entrance held more breeding tanks, large and small.

I have been careful to say "breeding house" and "breeding tanks" so far, because Robin's set-up doesn't end here! All the fish he breeds have to grow and live somewhere, and in the Tropics this can be done outside. On sloping ground next to the fish breeding house are several rows of large plastic tubs. These are made in the City of Kingston and come in 54" and 8' diameters (1.4m and 2.4m). Robin uses mostly the 8' ones, which cost US$105 each, delivered. In the tubs he keeps his growing fish, and also breeds larger fish such as koi, more goldfish, and pacu.

  
Some of the fish holding and growing-out tubs.

Many of the tubs contain water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes, a native floating plant), and apple snails that help clean the water and whose eggs the fish eat. The tubs have undergravel filters in their centres. Fresh water is added by gravity from water storage tanks on the fish house roof,  and the excess water overflows and is drained into a sump at a lower level.

  
Mostly angelfish

     
Blue gouramis and platies, goldfish, and swordtails

A final surprise for me was all these betta jars, on shelves on an outside shaded wall at the rear of the fish house. All the jars were full before Christmas, but stocks were now relatively low due to seasonal sales.

     
Bettas are still commonly called Siamese fighting fish in Jamaica.

The nutrient-rich water that drains from the breeding tanks and the holding ponds is not wasted. It is pumped to the top of the garden where Robin's father still satisfies his farming instincts:

  
Mr. Hall grows neat rows of basil for sale to local hotels, and also grows corn, chives, parsley, plantains and June plums.

  
Mrs. Hall is more interested in ornamental plants, as shown in this conservatory. She also has a walk-in outdoor aviary.

When Robin started breeding ornamental fish his original aim was to export fish such as angelfish and discus. But he found that marketing was difficult and complicated for a small individual producer. Jamaican fish breeders are beginning to make some attempts to form a central exporting agency, but in the meantime Robin has decided to concentrate on selling locally. He has diversified his stock, and is producing more of the cheaper fast-selling fish such as comet goldfish, barbs, guppies and swordtails. He is also using his aquaculture and scientific training and experience to breed difficult fish (such as red-tailed sharks, using hormones), and experiment with new varieties.  

One of the retailers he sells to is his own wife, who owns a pet shop in the market town of Santa Cruz, about 70 miles south of Lucea. Robin now has to divide his time between his job, his fish breeding and his wife. He said he also owns another fish farm "in the hills," but not surprisingly he hasn't been there for about six months!

At the end of my visit we had rum and coffee on the large balcony of the house. It was Christmas Eve, and Mrs. Hall also kindly gave us some special Jamaican Christmas cake that she had made herself. We looked out over the cattle pastures to the Caribbean Sea and watched a cruise ship pass by...

Robin pointed out that fishkeeping is still more of a hobby than a business to him. What with some investments and his teaching job he does not have to rely on it to produce income. A fortunate man!