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| ARTICLE INFORMATION: Author: Howard Norfolk Title: MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: WING CHOW Summary: Wing is a high school teacher who breeds African cichlids in every room of his house and even at school. Contact for editing purposes: email: howardnorfolk@aquarticles.com (Note: Photos have been re-sized for easy loading. Better quality photos can be provided if required). Date first published: June 20 00 Publication: Vancouver Aquatic Hobbyist Club Newsletter
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ARTICLE USE: Internet publication (club or non-profit web site): 1. Credit author and Aquarticles. 2. Link to http://www.aquarticles.com 3. Advise Aquarticles Printed publication: |
MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES: WING CHOW |
| Author’s note: This is one of a series of articles I wrote whilst editing the newsletter of an aquarium society in Vancouver, Canada. Although the aquarists depicted are from the Vancouver area, no doubt there are people with similar interests in your club. The articles are intended to give beginning and intermediate aquarists ideas and tips for the further development of their hobby, and hopefully experts will enjoy a peek into other fish rooms too! |
| Wing Chow is a man with a variety
of interests and talents. He is a high school teacher of art and photography, and is an
artist in his own right, having recently had a one-man show at a city art gallery. He
plays snooker regularly in a league, and is also a keen skier.
 108 gallon community African cichlid tank. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, as a young man in Vancouver Canada, Wing kept tropical fish, going so far as to breed angels, gouramis, livebearers and others. But he gave up the hobby for many years, until only five years ago when he bought his young son a tank for his birthday. His son did not particularly take to fish keeping, but Wing’s interest was re-kindled in a big way! He started breeding angels, other South American cichlids, and livebearers. Then just two years ago he was introduced to African cichlids. These really caught his fancy, so he traded in nearly all his South American fish and has since concentrated almost exclusively on Africans. Having been away from the hobby for twenty five years, Wing is really appreciative of the variety of fish now available compared to his earlier days. Wing breeds and raises African cichlids, and has about twenty four tanks. He gets much satisfaction from seeing his tanks fill up with fish, and enjoys taking them to trade-in to local stores with the thought that his fish will soon be gracing other people’s tanks. He likes Africans because of their variety of colouration and size, and the ease of keeping, breeding and raising them (at least the mostly Lake Malawi species he likes). Since he has other interests to compete with his time, Wing purposely makes his fish keeping as simple as possible. The water in his tanks is well filtered (see later) and he does weekly 30 per cent water changes, but other than that he does not fuss with his fish. He rarely checks the pH, let alone anything else, and adds no chemicals to his water other than Aqua Plus for de-chlorination. He even stopped adding salt when he could not see that it made much difference. His fish have not had diseases. He feeds them a variety of store bought flakes and pellets and frozen foods, and hatches brine shrimp for some fry. He avoids fish with specialist diets. Water temperature is 78-82º C, but again he is not too fussy.  Community Africans Wing does not spend much money on his hobby. Except for the heaters which he buys new for reliability, all his tanks and equipment are bought used. He gets them from some pet stores, newspaper ads., and any other source he might come across. Three 64 gallon cube tanks were actually display case props from the "X-Files" TV show, which is filmed in Vancouver. Wing converted them into aquariums! His tanks are inevitably a variety of shapes and sizes, and the lighting and filtration systems are varied and somewhat "makeshift" (his word not mine!). Wing is one of those lucky people who actually has credit at pet stores, and who gets his new fish, food and supplies "free" due to trading in the fish he raises. He considers his fish a good buy since they are locally bred, and therefore used to local water conditions. Wing does not have a spare room which he can devote to his hobby, so his many tanks are spread around the house wherever he can find space. Entering the front hall, one sees a 108 gallon community African cichlid tank, displaying a variety of adult fish, The tank is decorated with rocks and plastic plants (Africans destroy most real plants). As are all his larger tanks, it is triple filtered; with a canister and an internal filter, and also a sponge filter. Wing likes his tanks fairly full of fish and believes the fish feel safer and happier in a crowd, so good filtration and frequent partial water changes are important. The gravel has crushed coral mixed with it to keep up the pH for the Africans. Also in the front hall is a 20 gallon grow-out tank, in which a couple of batches of young fish are growing up. Wing and his family are surrounded by fish in their living room. The long fireplace has a row of large breeding tanks on its brick shelf, each with two or three pairs of different species. The window alcove contains two more large tanks, and there are more in the dining area. In between all these aquariums sits the family TV, which Wing admits he doesn’t watch much. Whilst the family is watching TV he can just avert his eyes and look at his fish instead ! – or if he tires of this he can look at the pile of aquarium books he keeps on the coffee table. The books are mostly gifts: everyone always knows what to buy Wing for his birthday!
The kitchen has a small tank on the counter, plus one for hatching brine shrimp, and the eating area contains yet another tank. Wing’s fish are mostly born in the living room. They are taken from their parents and put in the kitchen tanks to grow a little. Their date of birth is recorded and two or three distinguishable species of similar size are put together. They are later moved to grow-out tanks in the living room or hallway, and finally to the garage until ready to be taken to the pet stores. Yes, there are yet more tanks in the garage! Jumbled together with bicycles, ladders and all the usual garage stuff are another nine tanks. These contain more Africans, plus Wing’s only other fish: a breeding pair of gold severums, two long nosed gars, and an Australian arowana.  Some of the garage tanks Wing has even taken his hobby to school! In his art classroom he has a mixed community tank, a tank of piranhas, and a tank of breeding Africans (Caeruleus), which he grows out in yet another tank in his office. He is proud of the fact that some other teachers at his school have added aquariums to their classrooms, and he has also helped some neighbourhood elementary schools set them up. Wherever he sees an empty space Wing seems compelled to put a fish tank! Wing emphasises that he likes to keep his hobby simple and not too time consuming because of his other interests. But in passing, he mentioned that he might soon try breeding discus and that he is also thinking of changing one of his classroom tanks to saltwater. Having come so far in only five years, what chance do his art, snooker and skiing have in another five years’ time?! |
