Way Back When

[Ramius]

Re: Way Back When

Think about it.. you only see this "nose" after you get a lil too close to the tank right? and he presses it up against the tank? Thaaaaaats amoooooore *sings like an italian*

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Way Back When

I totally agree.....

[alexarae]

Re: Way Back When

You're wrong, David. On sooo many levels.
Here's to you and Ek back together to terrorize again.

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Way Back When

Would that make us terrorist?


I don't like those.

[Juan]

Re: Way Back When

Cf I remember those days also!

[alexarae]

Re: Way Back When

I remember back in the day when I thought my Pengiun HOB filter was the best thing in the world...and when I got an emperor 400...I thought I was really filtering everything out of the tank.  :wink:

[Ramius]

Re: Way Back When

I remember when I thought I murdered a sw mushroom, but turns out it was just sleeping.

[Scooby]

Re: Way Back When

For even though I had no clue what I was doing, I had far fewer deaths in those days then I do now.

Isn't that the truth!!  When I was a little girl a friend of mine had a fish tank.  I drove my dad crazy about getting me one and he finally caved in - but would only agree to buy me a 10 Gallon.  He thought I would lose interest within a month and didn't want to waste too much money.  I had the "normal" first tank.  It was decorated with every UGLY thing a little girl could find and one of EVERY fish available!!  The fish I remember most were a betta, angel, goldfish and a common pleco.  I never changed the water once, never tested anything - I did nothing but feed them the basic flakes every morning.  I have no idea how they all lived so long LoL!!  I guess I was just lucky.

[fishlady]

Re: Way Back When

i'm convinced that we were all transported here sometime during our childhood/semi adulthood from a far off galaxy that had better water, air, and just about everything else....they did it in our sleep i just know they did.
I had a hex tank that i kept all sorts of fish in and when it came time to clean it i would take the fish out of it....put them in a container. Then i would drain all the water out, clean the gravel with a good agitation method and fill the tank back up and put the fish in it. I know i used dechlorinator but i can't remember which kind...but i never lost a fish unless my ex took it out and sqished it in his hands for pure meaness because he knew i loved it.....He even took one of my little schools of tetras i had and fried them and put them on a plate and had them sitting on the table one time.....so aside from being subject to the wrath of Khan....my fish did very well for me then too....
It's strange that now we fuss and muss so much over our little friends and we still seem to loose them now and then.....
I can't explain why cichlidfan....(and yes, i read the whole post).....so hence i'm convinced we came from another planet to this very disturbed environment sometime during the night .....a long long time ago.....far far away......
And if you think about it....i must be right.....
just look at EK and you should realize that it's true........

[eklikewhoa]

Re: Way Back When

Yes, look at Ek........He's a far out dude  8)

[crudnugget]

Re: Way Back When

He even took one of my little schools of tetras i had and fried them and put them on a plate and had them sitting on the table one time...

Holy crap!!!

Unfortunately I am new to the hobby, and not that old, so I have nothing to contribute to this thread.  It's fun to hear about this stuff though.

[szidlon]

Re: Way Back When

I have couple of ideas they may be contributing factors.  When we, or at least some of us, first started out in the hobby our water quality out of the tap was probably much better than today's.  As our water sources become more polluted and bacteria laden the utility companies are forced to use more chemicals to clean it up for us and we in turn have to use more chemicals to remove their chemicals.  Many of us don't have the space to age water so our only alternative is to reverse treat what comes out of our faucets.

Another factor may be the quality of the fish that are now available to us.  With the continuous inbreeding and reluctance to cull genetically defective fry by the commercial breeders I believe it has damaged, not only the quality of the fish, but the hobby itself.  It makes me angry to see a tank full of mass produced fish, angels or any or species, for sale at LFS's blatantly displaying short gill plates, flagged fins, missing or deformed ventral fins on angel fish, bent or deformed backs, etc.

I prefer to buy my fish from local hobbyists and stores whose quality I trust or one of the many auctions in our area.

Or it could also be the alternative world fishlady mentioned, or it may be that our fish had to become self sufficient in order to survive our wild and sometimes borderline illegal lifestyles.  But now that we've sobered and/or straightened up, they have decided to leave the driving to us and we don’t know how to read the map, or fold it back up for that matter.

[Delock]

Re: Way Back When

sad on so many levels

[PhishPhreek]

Re: Way Back When

just ther other day.......
   In the 50's, I would save the baby fish from the tanks at the grocery store for a nickel each and take them home to my 5g metalframe tank with a 7.5w light, brightly colored gravel, plastic plants, treasure chest that opened with bubbles and a corner filter filled with charcol & angelhair.  I  fed them Wardley's flake food and then they overpopulated and my dad had to get me another tank, and another, and another......  :emtthumbs:

[finfan]

Re: Way Back When

cf - i read your entire post :)

loving this thread, i often think about the same things, cannot imagine keeping fish now in the way i kept them before - here's how i kept fish

- first - no internet no books no resources of anykind other than pet stores - i believe 1985 is when i first started
- never dechlorinated, never checked parameters - didn't know water had parameters, just thought water was water - no difference!!!!!
- aquarium maintenance - clean tank once ever 2 or 3 months (in between just top off with water), cleaning process - take fish out and put in bucket, take all gravel/decorations and clean with detergent (yes i said detergent), including cleaning the undergravel filter (that was the only kind i knew of, the very first tank actually did not even have any filter), put gravel/decoration back, fill up directly from tap water, put fish back in the tank
- my fish were mostly all healthy - never had any disease really - my angles, gouramis, livebearers, all bred like crazy and most of my fish would live for years
- i would catch wild fish from ditches/swamps/stagnant pools and add to the tank - didn't make a difference!
- never used any equipment - no heaters, pumps, nothing absolutely, just the undergravel filter

i would agree with szidlon - i think (1) quality of fish was much superior, and (2) quality of water was much superior