A little bit of history...

[alanmin4304]

Because Eddie was German he could get on the phone and sort out a few deals in Germany. He discovered that a German company were the main buyers of fish from Brazil. He was then the first in New Zealand to import from Brazil. The prices to buy were very much related to numbers. I forget the numbers but by buying thousands of rummy nose and cardinal tetras he got them at something like 10% of the price for a few. With his usual style he came around and told me he was a gambler but he had decided he would gamble where he could control the odds. He got in that many fish that the NZ market couldn't handle it so flew to Australia and did a big deal there and exported heaps to Ausie These fish were a fraction of the cost of the same fish in Singapore because theirs were coming via the wholesaler in Germany. He also bought in a lot of equipment from Europe and was one of the first supplying some of the specialised equipment used for marines. Bob Ward of Redwood Was one of the first people seriously growing plants and Critter Kingdom were one of the first importing fish in Christchurch.

[alanmin4304]

The goldfish bowl was started by Eddie (corner Picton Ave and Riccarton Rd) The Fish tank by Geof Pearce then sold to Jan and Jane then moved further up Hereford St then to Stanmore Rd. Redwood aquatics started in a shed built originally for growing orchids I understand, at the back of his house. I understand his new location was partly financed from the export of freeze dried tubifex to the arabs. I and a friend were supplying most of the shops in town with aquariums (in those days all built from second hand glass from broken shop windows). I was selling tropical plant round town from the Adams family in Welcome Bay, Bob Ward and stuff I was growing myself. As well as 300 bunches a week of Elodea canadensis. We were selling fish to the reef smasher (Malcolm Davies) who I understand was selling to 125 outlets. I and others were selling tubifex to anyone that would buy it including Auckland and Tauranga and it was more expensive than steak.Those were the days in the big smoke.

[lduncan]

Interesting. Eddy was a real business man (you could tell from the family cars parked up at his Ferry road store ;-) )

So who was this Malcolm Davies guy? And what's the story behind the "reef smashing"?

[alanmin4304]

He was an importer and wholesaler in Auckland who sold up and went to Fiji to find fame and fortune. He was exporting marines to the USA. He was caught in a bulldozer on the reef by the powers that be who felt that was not a nice thing to be doing so they gave him a holiday at her majesties pleasure (between coups I guess). There was an importer in Christchurch whos name I have forgotten who was in it at the beginning. He lived down the Road from Eddie in West Watson Ave but got into hang gliding in a big way when it first started and gave up the fish. Someone may remember him.

[alanmin4304]

There was an old fella from Europe (Dutch I think) who built a cold water marine set up and used a refrigeration unit from an old fridge under a stainless steel plate to cool the water. It was on a thermostat that cut in a pump when it got too hot. He kept stuff realy well including a baby octupus. I remember being very impressed.Then there was old Bill Grey who had fish club meetings down the brighton zoo and he was one of the first importers. Jacky Johnson who had the pet shop in Manchester St, later became Jacquie (the trannie grannie from the west coast) and sold the shop to The man that started Willowbank (Brian Willis).

Also Bill Grey junior who had the petshop in Columbo Street and manufactured all the Betta brand air pumps and heaters and elements before combos were available. Makes you feel old don't it.

[JDM]

this is an excellent thread Layton, sorry i dont have anything to add, but im enjoying the learning.

[alanmin4304]

Theeeeen there was freddie angel who turned up at Eddies shop one day convinced he was going to sell him half a dozen baby spider monkies and was not impressed when asked "What the hell am I supposed to do with them"

And there was the guy that wanted to put a team together to go to Ausie, buy a boat and bring back 500 sulphur crested cockatoos for later export to USA. No doubt somebody else took my spot.

It has been a great journey so far.

[lduncan]

Great stuff Alan, keep them coming if you can.

Sound's like there was plenty going on down here in ChCh. Anyone know what was going on in the North Island. I think Brooklands started in the 70's? When did they get into the marine scene?

There must be some old timers up North that have some interesting stories to share?

What about govt regs on importing, what were they like in the beginning? Did they even exist?

[Mark]

I can tell you a little bit about Brooklands in the early seventies as my brother started a carpenter’s apprenticeship with Dave Garret who started Brooklands aquarium. I remember my brother working on the aquarium they built down by our local swimming pool on the coast. It was built for quarantine purposes when they imported fish and also as a public aquarium. I use to love going there and I remember them having warm and cold water marines. I think they asked for council help to keep the place running but nothing was offered so it was closed down and the quarantine part moved.

I remember my brother building lots of houses for Dave Garrett so I guess the fish side of the business was a sideline then. I think now Brooklands is run by his son Warren. I wish I could tell you more but I was only just getting interested in fish at the time. I’m sure there may be someone else around that could tell us more. How’s this I remember my first large tank being built by them 2mtrs long and made of 6mm glass. It did crack in the end they just replaced the front glass and put another cross member over the top

[alanmin4304]

Theeeen there was the pet shop around the corner from Jacqui Johnson's shop--- on the riverside between Manchester Street and the Centennial Pool. I was only a kid but I was always in the pet shops having a look. An old lady came in and wanted to buy something to kill the bumble bees that were in her aviery as she was worried they might kill the baby chinese quail that were about to hatch so she had gone in there and killed all she could find with a tennis racquet.

[alanmin4304]

I had the pleasure of inspecting that shop many years later (early 70's) when it was converted to a ladies hairdressing salon. I had been through it with the lady wanting to open as soon as possible to recoup the money outlayed. "Come back Tuesday and it will be ready" she said. I turned up Tuesday and she was busy doing a ladies hair. "When you have finished inside the toilet outside has been done up so check that out" Duly did all that ---walked outside and there were two naked ladies sun bathing on the back lawn (living in the flat upstairs) All cheerful and " Lovely weather". I nearly choked laughing because I could see the six guys upstairs in the garage behind all having a very pleasant smoko that they had not noticed.

[alanmin4304]

Quarantine for fresh water tropicals was 2 weeks then went to 6 weeks and remained there but had some other conditions added at the time the new Regs came out. Gold fish (when I did it )was 6 weeks in a fish house then 4 years for the breeding stock but you could sell the offspring. It was a total disaster.

[alanmin4304]

Theeeeen there was the young people at the local fish club (nameless) that got bored with the same old same old and said "We need some new blood in here so we can get some new ideas. We have all the positions sorted for the next elections and we only need someone to stand for President--no probs-- just a figurehead and we have the rest covered." Guess who was the only one elected.

[Feelers]

Good thread! Very interesting stuff, Layton how do you find out things like all that Eheim/Tunze history?

[alanmin4304]

Since this is about marines I will share what we learned about catching cold water marines from Kaikoura. We got our fish etc from rock pools and off the shore with a net. Packed them one to a bag with a lot of sea lettuce,a lot of air and not much water and put them in a chillie bin with freezer pacs to keep them cool. Treated them with chelated copper sulpate and quarantined them for 3 weeks. The sea water was stored about 6 weeks in black drums then put through a home made UV unit very slowly. Used to put the water in the top tanks and slowly siphon it through the light to the bottom tanks overnight. No technology like protein skimmers. All the tech stuff would certainly help today. Frequent water changes with "matured water".Fed very lightly and away we go.

.

[alanmin4304]

With the technology available today I am almost tempted to have another go but I now prefer an underwater garden with a few fish hiding in the bushes. There certainly are some interesting little marine fish out there.

[alanmin4304]

Then there was the time when we went to the meeting with the maf prior to the new import regs and were invited to the "reef smasher's quarantine facility by the two top people from Maf as an example of how it should be done. Eddie and I had a competition called "spot the non compliance" or what would you not get away with in Christchurch.

There was water all over the floor from overflowing and leaking tanks, three varieties of fish that were prohibited imports and newly bred orandas and white clouds. All of which you would be excommunicated or circumsized with a blunt knife for in Christchurch. I remember the senior Inspector standing in front of a tank of baby white clouds and going on about how good it was that this man was even breeding neons. All the guys there were importers and had agreed on the way that there would be no criticisms till we got home. Hard not to choke but a good learning experience.

[lduncan]

A little more happenings around the world, now in the 70's

Again Germany takes center stage. A member of the berlin marine aquarium club introduced a new method for running tanks. His name was Peter Wilkens, and his method later coined the Berlin Method.

Below is a picture of him on the right, along with Dietrich Stuber on the left, another member of the Berlin Aquarium Society at the time.

The berlin method introduced strong skimming, strong lighting, live rock, and for the first time calcium additions, using a mixture of calcium hydroxide and water (Kalkwasser). The also used a thin layer of sand for aesthetics.

Wilkens published a book in German called "The Saltwater Aquarium for Tropical Marine Invertebrates", which outlines his methods, but it wasn't until the 80's that it was translated into English, that was probably one of the reasons why the method wasn't widely used in the States until later.

Stuber is one of the earliest hobbyiest who pioneered the keeping of live acropora, possibly the first. He also went on to invented the calcium reactor with another hobbiest J. Gottschlich.

Of course this was in the time of the Berlin wall, with east and west Germany being separate. These advancements were all coming out of the west.

The east was a different story. Access to livestock was very limited, this drove them to develop propagation techniques for mushrooms, and anemones, as well a breeding shrimps, and some species of fish (Clownfish, Pipefish, and blenny's)

Layton

[lduncan]

Over in the States around 1974, there was the beginnings of some commercial marine fish hatcheries. Aqualife Research, a small company run by Martin Moe. He writes:

Although the technology for rearing marine tropical fish was relatively simple, especially at that time, it was a new application of a fledgling technology and it held the promise and potential for a new and lucrative industry. There was a tendency to make it appear that we were in possession of special secrets worthy of protection from industrial spies and that our problems were less significant than those of the other participants in this new endeavor. Therefore I took pains in writing my articles to document our success in rearing various species without describing the “carefully simulated pelagic environment.†In those days, a bare 75-gallon tank surrounded with black plastic sheeting, with a two bulb fluorescent fixture resting on the top of the tank and two air stones spaced centrally in the tank. Rotifers, brine shrimp, and water changes completed the picture. Actually not a whole lot has changed in 30 years.)

The other player was a company called Neptune's Nurseries, which was backed by much larger Aquarium Systems (manufacturer of IO salt mix). I believe that neon gobies were one of the first fish to be bred.

Some of the first Magazines dedicated to reefkeeping started appearing in the States, one of the most prestigious was called "The Marine Aquarist" which was published by a physisist by the name of Dr. John Miklosz (who incedentally was involved in some very interesting semiconductor research at GTE Labs):

While at GTE Laboratories, Dr. Miklosz developed an interest in marine aquariums and started publication of The Marine Aquarist, a small monthly magazine devoted to what was, at that time, a very difficult hobby. It was the The Marine Aquarist that kindled Dr. Miklosz's interest in writing and publishing.

Unfortunately, hard times fell upon GTE Laboratories, and many of the researchers working there, when the company made a decision to shift its emphasis almost entirely from basic research to applied. The hard times brought an end not only to Dr. Miklosz's career at GTE Laboratories, but to the indulgence that was The Marine Aquarist.

I've recently mangaged to aquire about 12 issues of this magazine from the mid 70's (yet to arrive) but based on the article titles, it looks like this magazine may have been much more advanced than much of the hobby writings that came out of the states even in the 90's through to now. Hopefully it will make for some interesting reading when they arrive.

Incidentally, the co-editor of the magazine was Terry Seigel, who is probably better known now as the editor of the online magazine "Advanced Aquarist".

[wasp]

Then what?

[lduncan]

I've been really busy lately, but will continue this at some point when I get a chance.

[cleadus1]

my dad had local (coldwater tanks) in the mid 80's when i was just a young'in and we had all sorts of things frm octopus to snapper and crays had no problems with tanks eithr everything went well with them and the fish lived very long healthy lives, we live in rotorua so couldnt do too many water changes and we had tanks over 6ft long, he helpd get the guys from wonderworld into saltwater years ago.

[Warren]

This topic has been cleaned. As the previous content had posts from too many people with too many very strong opinions clouding the truth and their better judgement, there is to be no further discussion on the matter. It's now a case of history and needs to be left alone.

Back to the original topic...

[chimera]

8)

[Rockerpeller]

yay! my father used to have a coldwater set-up back in the 80s when we lived in otahuhu. I still have his stand from that set-up (the only thing that wasn't sold). I remember snapper being in there at some stage but being around 5 at the time, i don't remember much about the initial set-up or how he ran it. not long after that we moved to Oz and he set-up a tropical marine, with a wet-dry filter etc but thats a different story.