KARL and RENATE BUSCHHAUS : MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES, by Howard Norfolk

You’ve heard of a hobby farm, but have you ever heard of a hobby aquarium fish store? …That is exactly what Karl and Renate Buschhaus operate in the small town of Squamish, British Columbia.

Karl grew up in North Rhine-Westphalia, in northern Germany, during the ‘50s and ‘60s. His father always kept aquariums and Karl followed his example by filling the family’s basement with fish. He bred many different species even as a schoolboy, and so successfully that he wholesaled them to local dealers. A truck came weekly to pick up Karl’s surplus fish.

Karl emigrated to Canada in the early 1970’s, and of course took up fishkeeping again, whilst working at various jobs. Once more, he, and by now his wife Renate, found themselves with a basement full of fish. Soon they were also using the back yard, where they not only bred koi and goldfish, but during the summers might have as many as ten thousand angel fish growing up in outdoor ponds prior to shipment.

Karl’s last job was as a car man for B.C. Rail. The railway wanted to cut surplus staff, so a couple of years ago Karl took advantage of a buy-out scheme, and invested the money in a storage business housed in a warehouse on the outskirts of town. Running a storage facility gives the owners lots of spare time, so Karl and Renate moved their fish keeping to the warehouse as well. They satisfied zoning regulations by pointing out that by breeding fish they were “manufacturing” them, and their business plan was to “manufacture” and sell fish only. To this day they sell hardly any dry goods or equipment – just fish which they breed themselves or get from local breeders and wholesalers, plus a limited selection of fish food and some books.

To make their store, Karl and Renate literally burrowed into their storage locker area, making a tunnel one hundred feet long but only ten or twelve feet wide. Above and around the “tunnel” are storage lockers. The tunnel is lined on both sides with fish tanks of all shapes and sizes, including some large 300 gallon wood/fibreglass tanks that Karl made himself some time ago. The space is heated to tropical temperature (a very few tanks have supplementary heaters) and is very humid – to the extent that Karl’s glasses seem to be perpetually steamed up!

Renate with giant gourami

Karl and Renate are still breeding fish, but as they get better known, the retail side is taking over. The scope of Karl and Renate’s business may change again quite soon however, since they are now looking into the possibility of moving to a much larger space and getting into large scale breeding again.

Currently bred in the store are African cichlids, livebearers, angels, danios, rainbows, and various others from time to time.

Once a week Renate drives thirty miles to Vancouver and visits every wholesaler in town looking for fish to bring back. Daughter Sylvia used to do this, but she is now working elsewhere and is not so involved with the store. Renate does not buy large quantities of common popular fish (there is another store in town that satisfies that market), but rather looks for something a little more unusual, and buys just a few of each species. Isn’t that what we would all like to do? – buy fish at wholesale, keep them for a while, and then sell them at retail?!

Osphronemus goramy

The contents of their tanks reflect their interests, and I made some notes of what they had in stock when I visited: In one tank alone they had large Exodon paradoxis (buck-toothed tetras), clown knife fish, archer fish, abramites and bristlenose plecostamus, all in the $20-$30 range. In another tank they had six species of dwarf cichlid, and in another seven species of freshwater shark. Their most expensive fish were a blue dot stingray and a banded shark, both at $200, which shared their tank with a couple of large scats. In one of the 300 gallon tanks they had full grown gold severums, tinfoil barbs, silver dollars, maroon sharks, large plecostamus, Polypterus ornatipinnis, and a gold Australian arowana. There was a large collection of different rainbow fish in a tank near the front door, and another with many different livebearers. Loaches and gouramis could also be found, and there were a few salt water tanks at the back of the room, and also a section of frogs, toads and reptiles, and some aquatic plants. Koi and goldfish were kept elsewhere, in a cooler part of the warehouse.

Naturally, as well as the breeding stock, there are a few fish that are not for sale, being regarded as personal pets. The most impressive is a nine year old giant gourami, “Sarah’s gourami,” which outgrew customer Sarah’s tank and was donated to the store a couple of years ago. Its favourite foods are strawberries and green grapes. Renate is also particularly fond of a large fire eel, and also a zebra pleco.

In another tank are four fully grown blind albino iridescent sharks. They are blind because they were born with no eyes. Renate took pity on them at the wholesaler’s since nobody else wanted them. They survive perfectly well, and can sense and find their food with no problem, perhaps in the same way as they and other fish might have to in the wild when their water becomes muddied up.

Another pet is a large water dragon, which sits on a log above a basin of water in which she likes to swim. Someone else in town has a male water dragon, which Renate wants to borrow in order to attempt breeding.

Water dragon

Karl and Renate both love fishkeeping and their store shows it. There are not many husbands and wives who equally enjoy our hobby – in fact one of my favourite ways to horrify friends’ spouses is to say “Wouldn’t another tank look good right here?”! This wouldn’t work with Karl or Renate. Their storage business is officially open until 9 p.m. every night, but Karl complains wistfully that it is sometimes hard to drag Renate away even then – “Just let me clean one more tank!” – so they are often there until 11 or 12 at night.

Update, 2004: Karl and Renate did move to a different premises, and then another, but eventually gave up breeding fish commercially.