A little bit of history...

[lduncan]

Now that the dust has settled a little, I thought it might be interesting to have a discussion on the history of the reefkeeping hobby in NZ.

Who the pioneering importers and shops were. Who were the hobbists in the early days? What they were keeping, and the methods they were using.

What involvement did govt departments have? When and how did you get into the hobby, things like that.

I guess i'll start with what I know of things down here in ChCh. First Eddy Himsel, who passed away three years ago last week (hard to believe it's been that long). He owned a few shops down here, The Goldfish Bowl, The Fish Tank, and Petworld which is still operating, run by his wife and children.

I guess most people down here have heard the story of how he initially got into fish-keeping as a child living in Berlin during the War, using candles and light bulbs to heat the water in small tanks. He was a real character, I remember going into Petworld, and you'd always get a good story out of him and is ventures to overseas suppliers, the Indonesian's paranoia over other competing suppliers, tips for breeding Bangaii's, etc.

I believe he first started importing in NZ in the 70's supplying his shops as well as wholesaling to other shops in NZ, he got into breeding fish, and I believe he was one of the first to get into breeding Bangaii Cardinals when they were rediscovered and introduced into the hobby in the mid 90's.

Around about the same time (70's) Bob Ward also began importing to supply his shop Redwood Aquatics, as well as wholesaling to other shops around NZ.

More to follow later... Anyone got any corrections or anything else to share. Maybe some of the old timers? I know are lurking here

[Duke]

My father had marines back in the eigthies and when he saw my tank told me that they would all die as he could only keep one or two alive at a time with weekly water changes from the beach. I asked did you have a skimmer? A skimmer what! was the reply.

Yes this hobby has moved a lot over the years. My father finds my tank to involved or too much technology. Basily over the poor old fallas head.

[reef]

Supa dupa thread thread Layton,

Yes eddy was a character. Cant also believe it has been 3 years.

I can only go back about 12 years.

Mike For oceanic images imported for about 5 years and used to be one of the first guys who could keep acro alive for 3 weeks during the quarantine period.

We used to rush to the shops and wait around for a hour just to get some. They lasted 2 seconds once out of the bags.

when i started 12 years ago everyone used to use wetdry filters and berlin skimmers as that is all they really had at that time.

Would be great to find peopel who can go back further in Auckland, I will ask Dave at hollywoods as he has been in the game a long time.

I will later pick up later from about 10 years ago or longer(how time goes) when the hobby had the biggest change in Auckland with the German ideas i had, like everyone used to laugh about it when i told them they did not need a wetdry filter, and questioned me about the big skimmer i had.

[lduncan]

Just on the acro's, this thread was sort of inspired by a chat I had with Bob a couple of days ago, as well as a recent resurrected discussion on RC on the pioneers of Acro keeping in the States, when they first became available in the early 90's (Kurt Loos, Steve Tyree, Larry Jackson, Richard Harker etc)

Layton

[Caryl]

3 years already?

I will be very interested in this thread and a good topic Layton. Perhaps I will be able to convert it into an article for the AW

I know nothing about the history of marine keeping in NZ so will be very interested on whatever people can add.

[TM]

Hi Thought The Goldfish Bowl, The Fish Tank were not owned by him?

Goldfish bowl is now critters and rodney owned The Fish Tank which is now owned by critters to????????????

[lduncan]

Hi Thought The Goldfish Bowl, The Fish Tank were not owned by him?

Goldfish bowl is now critters and rodney owned The Fish Tank which is now owned by critters to????????????

I think this was years ago. I believe that The Fish Tank Eddy owned was in Hereford St, not the Stanmore Road one, which is now Critter Kingdom.

Also I think Eddy had a partner in crime in the early days? Not sure on that though.

Layton

[dogmatix]

One of the old school ones in auckland is rod banks he use to import for jansens way back, thats what he told me any ways

[lduncan]

One of the old school ones in auckland is rod banks he use to import for jansens way back, thats what he told me any ways

That name rings a bell. Did he have something to do with the MAF health standards and permitted list when it was first concocted?

[reef]

Steve atkins did the MAF list about 10 years ago, i am unsure who did it before that, even MAF dont know,

[reef]

Maybe someone can tell us about a guy that mowed down a whole reef one day in Fiji just to get live rock to NZ

[suphew]

I had a cold water marine tank (4 foot) in the early 80's I didn't know any one else who was doing it. had no filter no skimmer a couple of 4 fluro lights. kept a few blennies, crabs, shrimps, anenomes a live for about 6 months. failed in the end because I was too young to drive and my family got sick of driving me to collect water! I guess that makes me one of the first lol. I also had 4-5 other fresh water tanks, frogs, eels, turtles, etc, but not many fish.

[raeh1]

very interesting.

My day looks at my tank in amazement. and tells me of when he was a student importing fresh water marine stock.

Buying a breeding pair of angel fish (fresh water) for about a pound (expensive at the time) and making his student money.

50 tanks at one stage even breeding neon tetras in the 70's ""g"" maybe the 60"s.

If they lost a fish they imported they replaced it with another and Maf on there checks (if they really called it that) had no idea what was what..

.cheers ru

[Alan]

Remember the time when Rolph Jensen had his shop on a corner with a downstairs where he had his marines stashed away.

Not many pp saw them, to view was by invite I think.

The shop was so stacked with tanks and stock it was hard to move around, then he made his move just down the road to where his big shop at 3 Kings is, now we all know what has happened, a chain of shops now.

[alanmin4304]

I was a pall bearer at Eddies funeral-- we went back a ways. I also used to sell 50000 fish a year to the man that mowed the reef in Fiji. I have never kept tropical marines but tried hard to get cold water marines going in Christchurch. Made three trips to Kaikoura on different occasions and supplied a shop with 25 varieties of cold water marines after catching, treating and holding for 3 weeks. We got ripped of every time --thats life--not a shop mentioned here. I was asked by and went with Eddie to the consultitative meeting with Maf and the importers when they were looking at drafting the present regulations for importing Tropical fish. Because I was not importing at the time and my understandig of quarantine (as an environmental health officer) I was asked to chair the meeting. Interesting times and I think we came up with something all parties could live with. I miss Eduard he was a very interesting person.

The fish tank was started by Geof Pearce who gave up fish, went to varsity, did a PhD and became a leturer. Also stood for parliament as a communist candidate. He has since died also.

[lduncan]

I also used to sell 50000 fish a year to the man that mowed the reef in Fiji.

Sounds like and interesting story, any more details on that?

[Feelers]

Alanmin I'm interested in your coldwater marine background. Having been to Kaikoura and seeing the diversity of life in its rock pools I'm very keen on having as big a diversity as I can my future coldwater tank.

What livestock did you supply?

I know there are some amazing anemones there, I managed to find 11 different species most of which were very impressive/on par with the tropicals. Are there any types of corals/sponges around?

[alanmin4304]

I built a fish house and bred a lot of fish whch I grew up to a sustainable size and passed onto a friend who grew them on further. Then we sold them to our friend (still in prison in Fiji as I understand). This was in the days when we (including Eddie)used to get live tubifex to feed to our fish,and sending an import box of fish to Auckland cost $20.00. The fish tank used to buy 45lb of live tubifex twice a week and every petshop had it and every hobyist (in Christchurch) had to have it. My partner told me at Eddies funeral that he had sent 49000 fish to Auckland and that was not counting the ones I was selling round town along with the tropical plant and Elodea canadensis I was selling. Eddie was an expert at seeing an oportunity. He was buying rabbits in Christchurch and selling them in Auckland for 300%. Buying lizards for a dollar and exporting to Germany for $14.00 etc. He also had a good working knowledge of a number of European languages.

[alanmin4304]

I understand that the people selling plant to the shops are still getting about the same price as I was 25 years ago.

[alanmin4304]

Feelers--- I know nothing about IDing marine fish. We went for everthing we could catch in rock pools and off the rocks with a net. There were some great anenamies and we got some of them as well. Some of the divers would have a better idea of what is out there. I remember one of the best looking fish were little spotties as they went a great green colour. I think to be successful you would need a refrigeration unit as we found the summer temperatures were the killer. Kept baby flounder and eels as well which we got while catching tubifex worms.

[Caryl]

Feelers we set up a rockpool marine with critters from the Kaikoura coast. We caught those little red anemones, rockfish, triplefins, hermit crab, brittlestars, various other starfishes, a sea cucumber, lots of shrimps, and chitons.

[lduncan]

So what was happening around the world a little before things were getting started here?

Most would agree that Germany would be one of the countries which springs to mind, when you think of significant advances in not only the reefkeeping hobby, but aquarium in general.

In 1960 an electronics repairman by the name of Norbert Tunze, invented the powerhead. The idea came when an model train pump was brought to him for repair. The pump was made by a company called Eheim, which was started in 1949 as a model train manufacturer, nothing to do with the aquarium business. He tested his repair job on a freshwater aquarium, and saw that the fish loved it. He wrote to Eheim suggesting that they develop an aquarium pump. His idea was dismissed as non-viable (how many great inventions have had that treatment!) So he went about creating his own in his garage. He named it the Turbelle, it used 8 watt's and put out 430 L/hr He patented the forward direction of flow from a centrifugal pump.

Another German invention of around '63 was the protein skimmer. With under-gravel filters being one of the standard filtration methods used even into the 80's, it took years for the merits of this device to become accepted as one of the most efficient ways of removing waste from aquaria. Interestingly this device came from the observations of the air riser tube on his UG filter. He noticed that waste appeared to accumulate at the top of the riser, and devised a method of tubes to collect and remove this foam. His observations were submitted to the Max Planck Institute for Ethology.

It was soon after this that the first two commercial skimmers were developed. Again Norbert Tunze was in the scene, as well a guy, Erwin Sander. By the late 60's Sander had developed early ozonators.

Eugen Jäger, along with his son Wolfgang had developed the first controlled heater years earlier.

After the end of the Second World War Eugen Jäger and his son Wolfgang use their home in the German town of Stuttgart to produce igniters for vehicles running on wood distillation gas. Wolfgang Jäger has a small aquarium. The fish, however, die soon in the cold cellar flat. And, Eugen and Wolfgang start thinking about how they could heat the aquarium water. Using the glow wire of the igniters and test tubes, they develop a combined heater with controller in May 1948.

It was patented in Germany 10 years later. His company was acquired by Eheim around 4 years ago.

UV sterilizers (as we know them today) were commercially developed in the late 60's.

And perhaps one of the most important developments of the 60's which made the hobby significantly more accessible, was the development of artificial salts. Hans Weigandt's, Tropic Marin, Aquarium Systems Instant Ocean.

The 60's also saw the introduction of the all glass silicon seamed tanks.

...

[lduncan]

Over the other side of the world in Indonesia, a hobbist by the name of Lee Chin Eng was tinkering with what he called the "natural system".

His systems used air for moving water around. He cured rock, as he found that is was less likely to foul the tank water, his tanks had a thin layer of sand, and relied heavily on natural sunlight.

Merrill Cohen introduced Eng's methods to the states a American Pet Product Manufacturer Association shows in the early 60's:

He was a witty and jovial guy, fun to be around, always upbeat and "talking fish." He kept large tanks that he maintained for hotels in their open lobbies. The tanks were not heated or cooled, nor did they have artificial light. Natural light was all they needed to thrive. The tanks had only a few fish in them. Mr Eng liked to feed the fish to keep them plump, healthy and happy. He maintained that "A skinny fish is a dead fish."

I find it interesting, and a little surprising that the 60's and earlier saw the development of virtually all of the technology we rely on today to support the animals we do today, including some of the animals hobbists struggled with keeping for the 30 years up until the 90's.

[reef]

Technology has not changed that much.

For example Deltec skimmers where around in 1990s and have not changed much over the last 20 years nad only now in the USA are they raving about them. i think they are 20 years late

Just shows you the power of advertising.

[lduncan]

Just shows you the power of advertising.

Yip, that'll crop up later. Sort of started with the "natural method" and Lee Chin Eng, who were not only interested in the hobby side of things, they were also wanting to make money out of it. That mix of hobby/psedo-science/money soon found it's way to the States years later in '91, with a guy by the name of Walter Adey, and his book "Dynamic Aquaria"