If names like Innes, Sterba, Weitzman and La Corte mean something to you...

[Innesfan]

...then you know the sort of guy I am. Been in the hobby since I was a kid in the 1950s and have kept and bred just about every group of freshwater tropicals there is (plus goldfish) except Rift Cichlids and Loricarids.
And while many came and went, the genera I've never been without have been Nannostomus and Pethia (alias Puntius). I've learned a lot, and I'm happy to say I am still learning. Retired now so I have more time for the fish and to chat. So, here I am.

 

[CassCats]

Welcome

 

[Fishmanic]

Welcome to TFF
Be sure you vote in our Tank of the Month contest. Click banner at the top of the forums to view the poll.

 

[GaryE]

I did a double take when I saw one of your posts. Innes is a demi-god in my world (well, not really, but he was a man whose work I respect deeply). Getting to talk with Rosario LaCorte was a highlight of my visits to US, back when I used to go to the conventions.

Here, you'll find a few members who would add Baensch, Linke, Lamboj, Lucanus, Fuller, Mikolji and a host of other researchers and advanced aquarists, too many to list, who have added to the work started by Gordon, Innes and others. You can spend a couple of years, or a lifetime, learning what people have shared after a lot of serious hard work.

Or you can go on youtube and follow a guy who is charming. The hobby has the full spectrum.

Welcome to the forum. I'm looking forward to learning with you, and I know I'm not alone in that.

 

[Back in the fold]

Dr. William T. Innes . A hushed awe falls over the crowd . I have read and reread his masterpiece , Exotic Aquarium Fishes , many times and I have two copies which I still consult regularly . Welcome to The Great TFF Forum fellow aquarist . I started out in 1965 and there are others here with a similar long time association with this , The Greatest Hobby in The World .

 

[emeraldking]

Pleased to have you aboard...
I still have an old Innes book overhere which is my favorite...

 

[GaryE]

To me, when we old timers mention Innes (who timewise was between us and the Age of dinosaurs), it's not so much what he wrote, but how and why. He was a curious man who communicated a deep enjoyment of the hobby, as well as a scientific curiosity about fish, plants and set ups. We've learned a lot since then, but a lot of it is because of what a great communicator he was.

I like the Innes Attitude when I read people on forums. It's out there - that interest in discussing and learning as part of the fun.

For every Innes or LaCorte whose work was noticed, there have been many who stayed local but got into the hobby, and the fishkeeping communities that developed. You'll find a few of those women and men here.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I got to hear Rosario speak at the NEC weekend event a few years back. Because I do the vendor room and do some form of sponsorship I get meals tickets for the event. The hotel food is usually awful and I do not eat it, I bring my own food and I got out for some as well. So, I normally donate my meal tickets. The year when Rosario spoke I donated my tickets to his wife.

That year they had a breeder event where some very well know names were on the stage and this included Rosario. Attendees we asked to submit questions for the panel to answer. One of these was what is your favorite food for conditioning fish to spawn. There were the expected answers- black worms, bloods worms and live foods in general. But Rosario's answer surprised me the most. His got to was Tubifex. He did explain how they were collected and then how they were made safe for fish.

One of the best part of attending the weekend events, mostly sponsored by fish clubs, is they get some great speakers and one can have a chance to talk with them. I have been vey lucky to meet Ingo Seidel, Hans-Georg Evers, Eric Bodrock, Shane Linder, Julian DIgnal, Barbie Fiorentino, Ian Fuller, Mark Denaro, Stephan Tanner, Don Zilliox and a bunch more. I have also corresponded with but never met a few others. In addition, many clubs have speakers at their monthly meetings are are decent experts on various areas of our hobby.

I can not more strongly urge members here who have nver attended a weekend fish event or who do not joined to a local fish club to do so. These are the places where we can go and say we have 20 fish tanks and be asked why so few?

 

[GaryE]

One of the very reputable, well known fishkeepers I know was trying to convince me to get some Parosphromenus (licorice gouramis) a couple of weeks ago. I said I'd kept them alive well with no success breeding any, and was going to stay away from them.
Her response was classic serious fishnerd one. She asked if I'd identified why I had had trouble, and what measures I'd tried to get it to work for me. No surrender. You have to keep learning and not be defeatist!
She was right, and I ordered them (she had bought some, and wasn't the seller). They were already sold out though. That'll teach me.

 

[Innesfan]

Thank you, all, for the welcome, and for remembering. I'm relieved and gratified. In the past when I've stuck a toe in the internet forum waters on more specialized sites, I got crickets when I mentioned any of these names, which saddened me greatly. So, It's very good to be here.

Among WTI's many renaissance talents, I think he was as effective as he was because of his exceptional writing ability. "Exotics," for all of its iconic and historic virtues, is a damn good read. Additionally, when Innes praised the merits of a fish or plant it was, for me, the equivalent of The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. And those endorsements never disappointed. To this day, one of my favorite species is Nannostomus unifasciatus, of which Innes wrote, "there is a marked elegance about them," and they possess "that indefinable something known as class." That left an enduring impression, and I find it still true as I enjoy a school of 40 of them in my 75g.

 

[gwand]

Nannostomus unifasciatus, besides their charm, can serve a utilitarian function for Apistogramma sp. They inhabit the mid to upper part of the water column and I have read that they are unlikely to prey on fry. Since I am falling in love with Apistogramma sp., this has become important to me. I’m a relatively new aquarist. I also welcome you to the forum.

 

[GaryE]

We date ourselves by mentioning a writer like Innes, although the North American hobby is indebted to his work. I suspect younger aquarists would laugh at some of the suppositions there. It was 75 years ago.
He cared about the fish. He had little apparent interest in the tank. Most of the focus now is on the tank, whether people are disputing about different dirted bottoms, or filtration systems, or the readings from kits.
Innes talked about the fish first, and I took the idea that the tank was for them. They weren't for the tank, as additional decorative elements.
The cycle wasn't mentioned, or understood back then. Water changing hadn't been figured out. Classifications of fish were different. DNA was undiscovered. He wrote in another time, and we have moved to a different understanding.
What we write here will be as outdated to aquarists in 75 years from now, although it will disappear because this is the internet.

For me, that writing was a building block for my hobby. I can perfectly understand how a younger aquarist who doesn't want the "classics" could ignore Innes, Baensch or the other launch point writers. It's no different for music, or other arts. Or for science - you don't have to read Darwin to understand biology. You can go to a later starting point and do just fine.

If you're curious about how things started, then there's good stuff there. When I look at the history of the hobby before my time in it, then Innes is the best aquarium writer I've read. It's whether we care about writing or history that matters. Or fish too.

 

[Innesfan]

Nannostomus unifasciatus, besides their charm, can serve a utilitarian function for Apistogramma sp.

Yes, many Apisto fanciers find them to be ideal dithers. In some cases, these fanciers soon become Nannostomus fanciers as well and seek to keep as many of the current 17-20 species (depending on whose science you prefer) as they can secure.

And thanks for the welcome.

 

[Back in the fold]

The Innes Book is still relevant and timely . The basic information is there but not the cycling thing we all know about . The thing I got out of Exotic Aquarium Fishes was how to pronounce the Latin names and the maps that showed general locations . Dr. Innes also had a way with words that I like . He was very polite and gentlemanly , something sadly lacking in our time .

 

[CassCats]

I'm younger compared to much of this crowd, though I do recognize the names. I've got a book by Dr Axelrod somewhere in my box of books that provides a lot of insight to things. Some info nowadays is changed or added upon, but there's still stuff in them that's relevant to today's hobby and I think the younger generations can still benefit from much of the information. Old school doesn't necessarily mean obsolete


This is the one I've got