How to Live to a 100---Keep a Fishroom!

[Innesfan]

There's a title for you. It's the headline of a video interview that appears in the latest Museum of Aquarium and Pet History e-newsletter. Said interview is with Victor Hritz, age 94, who owned the famed Crystal Aquarium in Manhattan for 47 years--1954-2001--and still maintains 30 aquariums and actively breeds, mostly killies.

I was a fixture at his store since childhood. He was also a wholesaler--an operation he ran out of the basement of his shop--and as a result his imports from which he stocked the shop weren't picked over. Through the years I found the most precious Nannostomus by-catch (also a few other rare characins, rasboras and barbs), sometimes just one or two individuals, sometimes several, that came in hitching a ride with hundreds of gold tets, marble hatchets, green neons etc . He'd charge me $1 a piece. When I'd go to the counter after surveying the tanks, he'd smile and say "What did you find?" He'd grab a net and we'd get to work. For several species--N. minimus, N. digrammus, N. limatus etc--I was able to build small colonies of them, a few at a time, from Victor's tanks. This was long before any of them. were imported under their own names--some still aren't. I'm so happy to know he's still with us and clearly doing so well.

When in 2001 his landlord raised the rent exorbitantly driving him out of business, it made the New York Times. Boy, do I miss him and the Crystal Aquarium experience.

https://moaph.org/videos/videos-long/interview-with-victor-hritz/

 

[Colin_T]

It's not just having a fish room that helps you live longer. Having anything to get up for helps and that includes all pets (birds, cats, dogs, fish, etc). You need a reason to live and pets give you that. You are responsible for them and they give you unconditional love in return (assuming you don't abuse them). You get up every day to feed, water and clean up after them. If you have a dog, you take it for a walk every day and that gives you both exercise and you might talk to people in the street whilst walking.

This social contact with other humans is another thing people need to live. We are social creatures and living on your own and never going outside or talking to other people sends you into a downward spiral of crazy depression and suicidal thoughts. Even if you don't go nuts you don't live as long as if you have regular social contact with others.

Having something to do occupies the mind and pets and hobbies do that. They give you respite from boredom and depression. Spending a few hours outside each day working in the garden gives you fresh air, sunlight, exercise and relaxation. Having a pet to hang out with after (including fish) gives you more things to do to occupy your time.

Variety truly is the spice of life in every aspect of living. A variety of food & drinks, hobbies, social interaction, and what you see each day all contribute to a life worth living. The more variety we get, the more we enjoy the real moments of happiness and the more we have to live for (assuming the variety is good and you're not being tortured).

 

[Lcc86]

He's looking great for 94! I aspire to still be as active (although perhaps not with that number of tanks haha).

 

[Mr Limpet]

I really miss Crystal Aquarium. So many species of fish I’d never encountered anywhere else. I bought my first Madagascar rainbows there in 1979. I can vividly remember the display tank in the window containing the largest cardinal tetras I’d ever seen.

 

[GaryE]

I've known two active into their nineties aquarists. One died at 96, a year after he had been obliged to stop keeping his killies. The other was still going at 95, the last time we met 10 years ago. Oddly, both had been in the aquarium business - one had owned a store and the other had managed the fish department of an old fashioned department store.
Both had been born into serious money and upper class privilege though, so that may also have added to their longevity.
Both had sharp minds and obvious curiosity all the way through. They were in this to learn.

A lot of our members are far from retirement in an economy that appears as though it won't make that life stage easy. But I think throwing yourself into things when you're young and accepting that you'll never know more than a fraction of what there is to know about it is essential. It starts now, if you're not already going for it. For sure, if you want a long life, genetics are crucial, as is luck. I know a few very long lived dull people, who believe only what their parents told them to believe, never took chances or thought for themselves and always look back rather than at what's around now. Maybe they were happy. I prefer the company of the thinkers, attempters, skeptics and questioners though. I don't know if it contributes to a longer life, but it leads to better things when you're alive.

I miss some of the old stores, and I don't like the closing of the mind we see now from too many people. But it was probably always there and the social media world has just made it impossible to ignore. The gentleman in the article above seems like he'd be great to talk with.

 

[Innesfan]

I thought of you, @Magnum Man, when in the video Victor talks about the time that Rosario LaCorte brought him a bunch of 'new' Emperor Tetras which proceeded to spawn for Victor right away. These fish would eventually be named after Rosario when Stanley Weitzman officially described them as Nematobrycon lacortei