fish48
Fish Gatherer
it would be interesting to know how far back they do go
i finde the old mags- have loads of good information.
Old Fishkeeping Techniques...
- Thread starter jnms
- Start date
i finde the old mags- have loads of good information.
Well i personally dont have any experience from the olden days as im only 22, and have only started this hobby in the past 2 weeks but...........
My dad used to be an avid tropical fish keeper in the 60's and 70's and is very interested in what im doing now, but i keep getting laughed at by him "with all my chemicals and science," and he cant seem to get his head round me doing a fishless cycle, he insits adding fish now will do them no harm. Times certainly seem to have changed
My dad used to be an avid tropical fish keeper in the 60's and 70's and is very interested in what im doing now, but i keep getting laughed at by him "with all my chemicals and science," and he cant seem to get his head round me doing a fishless cycle, he insits adding fish now will do them no harm. Times certainly seem to have changed
Pscl, your dad is sort of right. If you did all the things he would do to have your first fish survive, you might be surprised how well you would do. I was likely in the hobby before him as my kids are in their 30s and 40s. What we did back when did work but it was a very difficult thing to get a new tank running properly unless you had done a few before. We learned a lot by trial and error back then. I could tell you exactly how I cycled a tank with fish in it and had almost no losses but you couldn't do it right the first time. It was too hard to do that way. Now we have the "science" to go by and I got my first fishy chemistry set only 4 years ago. Now I understand well enough how to use the kit but find that I fall back on old methods when I don't know the modern answers. I seldom lose any fish except through old age these days. That was not always true.
I'm sure my own dad would find my willingness to learn the new methods a bit strange because he knows I was successful the old way. I live in a different world than he does. He is in his 80s and in his world you learned how to do something and then you just did it over and over. In my world you learn something and then have a foundation to build new learnings on. You never finish learning, so what works today may seem a bit naive tomorrow. As several of the older folks like me have already said, the new people who come along keep us learning in two ways. They often can make some kind of breakthrough using the old information to build on and a more important contribution is that they ask questions that we never thought of. Those questions are the reason that the hobby keeps building and techniques for doing things keep improving. Without the new questions the hobby would stagnate. The old "could I do this and have that result" question should get the juices flowing in the more experienced among us. It is the way we get to move forward.
I'm sure my own dad would find my willingness to learn the new methods a bit strange because he knows I was successful the old way. I live in a different world than he does. He is in his 80s and in his world you learned how to do something and then you just did it over and over. In my world you learn something and then have a foundation to build new learnings on. You never finish learning, so what works today may seem a bit naive tomorrow. As several of the older folks like me have already said, the new people who come along keep us learning in two ways. They often can make some kind of breakthrough using the old information to build on and a more important contribution is that they ask questions that we never thought of. Those questions are the reason that the hobby keeps building and techniques for doing things keep improving. Without the new questions the hobby would stagnate. The old "could I do this and have that result" question should get the juices flowing in the more experienced among us. It is the way we get to move forward.
Corleone
Fish Herder
The internet's the best thing that happened to the hobby (or any hobby for that matter). Not just information on methods, but fish themselves. My grandfather's kept fish for decades, and saw the local fish trade go from goldfish and guppies to what it is now, and most of the way new species would show up in the shops without even a name on them. He was lucky if he knew what continent a fish he bought was from, let alone what it ate or how big it got.
He's always been ready to learn, though, so he's the old guy who still shows up at club meetings when most of the members are younger than me. He just finished his first fishless cycle with a bit of coaching. He sometimes had to resort to what he called "brute force" cycling, and just dump a load of new goldfish in as they die and wait until a batch lived for a week. Now he's got angelfish in a brand new tank and won't shut up about them (he hadn't tried to keep angelfish since the 70's, when he spent $180 on a pair and they died in the bag driving home). Never was the life of parties.
He's always been ready to learn, though, so he's the old guy who still shows up at club meetings when most of the members are younger than me. He just finished his first fishless cycle with a bit of coaching. He sometimes had to resort to what he called "brute force" cycling, and just dump a load of new goldfish in as they die and wait until a batch lived for a week. Now he's got angelfish in a brand new tank and won't shut up about them (he hadn't tried to keep angelfish since the 70's, when he spent $180 on a pair and they died in the bag driving home). Never was the life of parties.
kribensis12
I know where you live
All i was taught from my dad about fish keeping was:
Let teh water sit in milk jugs for 24 hours
Gravel vacum the tank
feed the fish
keep the ehater on
I was the first person in my close family to ever buy a powerfilter! At 15, i still have alot to learn
Let teh water sit in milk jugs for 24 hours
Gravel vacum the tank
feed the fish
keep the ehater on
I was the first person in my close family to ever buy a powerfilter! At 15, i still have alot to learn
linda1503
Fishaholic
My father in law kept a 4ft tank about 20 years ago. community fish. Every 6 months or so he would ask me to clean it for him. Everything came out, fish, gravel, ornaments, filter. Them I'd wash them all (apart from the fish lol) in warm water with a little washing up liquid, then put it all back together. Didn't know any better then!! Strangely enough I didn't lose ,many fish, just lucky I guess. Cringe when I think of it now!! 
Dave Spencer
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto.
Apologies if you have already seen it, but you may enjoy this thread. It shows how good aquarium photography can be these days.
http
/www.aquatic-photography.com/forum/s...hlight=aquasaurDave.
jourdy288
Sorry, can't help spammin, it's the OCD! Hey there
Wow, those are shots to killi for!
Apologies if you have already seen it, but you may enjoy this thread. It shows how good aquarium photography can be these days.
[URL="http
Dave.
shelaghfishface
the one and only
oh stunning, look at the mouth
Might want to watch that link. It also goes someplace else that I sometimes go. I think the forum has rules about posting links to "the competition" don't they?
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