Founding Father Passes

[Dr.Felix]

Yesterday, Eduard (eddy) Himsel died in his home in christchurch. One of the founding fathers of fish importing and breeding in new zealand, owner of The Goldfish Bowl (riccarton ), The Fish Tank (Hereford street) and the Petworld stores in Christchurch. His knowledge of fresh and salt water aquariums was vast and was shared with anyone who was willing to listen. He pioneered importing of tropical and marine fish into new zealand and was well known in christchurch as the supplier of LIVE tubifex worms for many years. Those who know of him will remember his unusual accent and his gregarious manner. As some of you probably know, the retail face of his business is reflected in his Ferry road store and his two mall stores, barrington and northlands. His wholesale side sold fish to other shops (and supplied his three) and he loved to supply unusual species ( there were always pantodons, elephant noses, rummy nose, pedigree discus, emperor tetras and other hard to find tropical species). He always supplied marine fish, but more recently his passions were corals and the harder to find and keep marines, platax, moorish idols, etc and he loved banggai cardinals. His spare time was spent sourcing and finding new fish, researching filter systems and methods of keeping and searching the internet for new aquarium related paraphernalia. His fishkeeping stemmed from when he was young in berlin during the war; he kept tropical fish in a small tank using whatever he could to supply heat (candles, electric light bulbs etc) - a far cry from today. He had many little secrets on breeding of difficult fish.

We can't replace Dr.Fish ( his personalised plate) and hope to continue his lifetime work and joy, the importing and breeding of tropical fish. Anybody that knows him is welcome to contact ferry road Petworld and ask for details of his funeral etc.

=== a great loss to new zealand fish keeping ===

[lduncan]

That's a real shame. Eddy was a real character. I knew he was ill, but I didn't know exactly how serious it was. My very first purchase for my marine tank was from his shop, base rock. I was just in his shop on Thursday too.

Layton