I'm a born and bred Queenslander and proud of it !(you can tell by the
sunspots on my skin) I also only drink Bundaberg Rum & xxxx Beer ;-)
I ventured into fishkeeping back in the late 60's when I bought a small tank
and goldfish for my son. This tank eventually ended up with a mixed bag of
tropicals obtained from an aquarium store that sold marine fish as well.
Seeing all those beautiful marine fish of course meant that I just had to
have a saltwater tank. So I sold my Stamp Collection and purchased a "BIG" 3
foot saltwater tank for our lounge room. This soon grew to 3.
However, keeping saltwater fishes was only in its infancy back then and the
longest time I kept a fish alive was 9 months. I just couldn't see the
purpose of buying fishes like you buy cut flowers so I converted the 3 tanks
to freshwater. I kept all the usual freshwater species until I discovered
Cichlids, first South Americans then Africans as the African boon was just
hitting Australia around the early 70's.
By the mid 70's my family and fishtanks had outgrown the house we were
living in so we moved to a bigger house with plenty of room for my Cichlids,
Catfish etc. Oh, and of course my family as well ;-) My "new" fishroom soon
expanded to contain around 50-60 aquariums. At around this time I also
discovered rainbowfish - Goyder Rivers to be exact. I also went on my first
collecting trip to the home of the Honey Blue-Eye at Tin Can Bay. If you
have never seen a Male Honey Blue-eye in full breeding colours reflecting
through tea-stained water in full sun - then you just haven't seen anything.
I soon became a member of various aquarium groups and served on the
committee of each group that I became involved in, as well as the formation
of ANGFA and the Queensland Federation. I, like it seems, half the list
members, also spent time on the other side of the retail aquarium counter -
10 years in fact!
These days I maintain 30 aquariums with a total capacity of 8000 litres and
manually do 50% water changes each week - which seems to keeps me occupied.
3 years ago I discovered the computer and so I now have another hobby. I
like to read and write about fishkeeping in general and rainbowfishes in
particular, and like sharing my experiences with anyone who wants to listen.
I currently maintain around 40 different species/varieties of rainbowfishes
& blue-eyes plus a few species of corydoras.
In closing I would like to say that during my many years as a fishkeeper I
have meet a large number of people the world over and can thoroughly
recommend ones involvement and am proud to be a member of the "International
Society of Aquarium Friends".
Sorry for the long post - just couldn't stop ;-)
Kindest regards,
Adrian.
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Adrian R. Tappin
Home of the Rainbowfish
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm
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