How far has the fish hobbyist come? Stories and knowledge.

Equiptment, number of species for sale, quality, food, aquariums... Many things have been improved over the years. But when it comes to knowing about fish, although there are vast quantities of information, on thousands of sites, books, magazines... There are only a handful who know what they're doing. Thanks to places like W*ll M*rt and other infamous (to the fish-people) stores out there, it's an uphill battle to spread information. And then you have those who get bad information and stand by it, even if they don't know any scientific evidence to go with it, and tell others to do the same. Most of it is because people don't treat fish like say, dogs or cats. They don't think of them as animals that enjoy being cuddled or they think they are personality-less, short-lived decorations.

But considering what the hobby started as, there have been tramendous changes, and I'm only talking negatively. Maybe one day there will be cruelty laws that apply to fish, like a minimum size for aquariums and no flushing. It's possible, if you think about how far they've come.

I had tanks in the 70s and didn't do nearly as many water changes as I do now. There was one 10g with an undergravel filter and two carbon filled canister thingies on top where the air passed through. Another tank had a internal plastic filter with an air pump and tubing that you fill with carbon and this white floss stuff that looks like ceiling insulation. My mother ended up flushing a bunch of my fancy guppies because they had too many babies and I kept adding tanks to accommodate them, plus I had one 2g tank specifically for hatching brine shrimp. She got sick of all the fish stuff that took up a whole would be bedroom and that was the end of my fishkeeping. Now that I'm 51 I still have the passion and five tanks and counting and a husband that is at his wit's end with all the fish tanks. I guess I don't ever learn....

Stasia, I can sympathize with the less than enthusiastic partner. Mine thinks I'm crazy with the 8 tanks I have set up and does not want the 50 in the garage to come inside.
When I started in the hobby in the 50s, ew thought a hang on the back filter was a definite upgrade compared to the box filters we mostly used. In those days a HOB was not a power filter. It ran using a lift tube to bring water up into the filter hanging on the back, the HOB worked much as they do today and instead of returning by spilling over the back, they had a siphon affair to return the filtered water to the tank. It allowed the whole filter to sit a little lower than a modern HOB which meant the lift didn't need to bring the water much above the edge of the tank. All heaters that were available were the kind that screwed to the back of the tank. If they got submerged they were ruined. Most of us did not use heaters, we cycled the incandescent aquarium lights to try to control tank temperatures. To most people, a 20 gallon was almost too big to believe in a home. Most kept only 5 or 10 gallon tanks with the occasional 15. Air pumps did not make vibrating type noises. They ran with a motor driving a belt that operated a piston using a flywheel effect on the other end of the belt. The piston crank was a pin mounted on the side of the flywheel. Instead of a low vibrating sound it made a very distinct pulsating sound as the piston pumped up a cylinder full of air at a time. It was sort of the noise of a miniature steam engine. All tanks were made of metal with glass inserts in them. They were like so many windows surrounding the water with metal corners on all 4 corners. The strength to hold everything together was in the metal because there was no silicone to hold the glass into the righ shape. The bottom of tanks were often slate although it was being replaced in some product lines with glass bottoms. The fish selection suffered by comparison to today but almost everything in the lfs was healthy because the lfs would quarantine for a month before selling fish. The modern testing kits did not exist and common sense told us to not change water once we got it right for our fish. This means that old tank syndrome was very common.

If you really want to go back to the dark ages of aquariums, the first goldfish was found in a rice paddy, and then later kept in a stoneware jar by the Emperor. In the USA I remember reading a reference to a magazine article concerning "The Evils of Open Flame Heaters" for cryin' out loud. Visions of kerosene lamps sitting beside the tank come to mind...
Personally, when I was a child back in the mid-60's it was two goldfish (comets) in a glass bowl that no other fish would have likely survived in. Water changes every couple days as I vaguely recall. Not too surprisingly, I remember the goldfish jumping out rather often. Then there was the morning we found one stuck to the bottom of my shoe (in the gap between the heel and the rest of the sole), the other one was found floating sometime later.
The first real aquarium was a 20 gallon slate-bottom Metaframe on a wrought-iron stand, with metal hood and incadescent light bulbs. The plastic box corner filter filled with activated charcoal and floss was eventually replaced by a Dynaflo Motor Filter, some of which still turn up occaisonally even today. It had a magnetic impeller to pump water, but there wasn't a direct link between the motor and impeller. The impeller was inside the plastic case, the motor outside, and the magnet made it turn.
Cycling? What was that? Water changes? Sure, when the entire tank was taken down, the fish temporarily housed in bowls, and the gravel (and everything else in the tank) was washed. Nothing like cleaning the tank, loading it up with new fish, then coming home after a movie to find everything dead. What could have killed them? It was fresh, clean water. Of course, back in those days you could stock a 20 long for the price of 2-3 fish today, though the dollar was worth more then too.

I have a very large acrylic aquarium but I still find those metal frame, slate bottom 10, 15, 20 and 29 gallon aquariums aesthetically pleasing. As a matter of fact, if anyone knows of any available anywhere near NW Ohio I would be interested.
The hobby was much simpler back in the '60s but the potential for success is much greater today due to the increased knowledge available and the improvements in equipment. In the past the challenge was coping with having so few good answers. Today the information base is huge, presenting another type of challenge, trying to digest it all. There are many more opportunities and choices available today. A major new source of interest for me has been live plants. It is SO exciting to be able to grow them consistently and well!
And another major change is the internet with its' communities such as this one where we can find answers and share ideas immediately rather than waiting for the next trip to the pet store or the next book we read.
Beasts