Reading all these intros I thought I'd better put in my word:
I am a born again aquariast (sp??) - having kept fish in my youth
(back in the 60's and early 70's). Back then I used to have a stack
of tanks with welded metal frames and the glass puttied in. Used to
breed gouramis, oscars, and some of the dwarf cichlids - and of
course livebearers (mostly as oscar food).
I remember my first all-glass tank: thoughtt it was very special. I
filled it with salt water and paddled around in the rock-pools of
and mud flats Moreton Bay, Brisbane catching what I could and keeping
it til it died. Had a moray for years which used to get out of the
tank and lie on my bedroom floor where my mother would pick it up
thinking it was a dirty sock.... I also used to keep rainbows -
which I caught in the creek just 2 blocks from our house.
Back then too, I used to keep reptiles. Skinks, dragons, snakes -
our house was full of them. I got my first poisonous snake bite when
I was about 13.
Well, when I entered the workforce, married, etc, the tanks all got
sold or given away. I worked as a veterinarian a few years in
rural practice, then I studied homeopathy and began working with
people instead of their pets. Then in 1990 I returned to the
veterinary proffession with a government job in Australia's best
address - the Northern Territory.
Great place the NT, but the job stunk, so I quit and took a job in
Papua New Guinea. Here I found my real home. We (our family had
grown to 6 by this stage) lived there in tropical paradise. The kids
grew up speaking Pidgin and seeing few white people. The locals got
to know I liked snakes and soon there were people at my gate every
day wanting to sell me gorgeous Green Pythons or Ground Boas or huge
Papua Pythons. Once again the house was full of reptiles. I made
terrariums for them from scraps of glass that I would pick up for
nothing from broken store-front windows (PNG has a very serious crime
problem).
In PNG I was Principal Veterinary Officer with the Department of
Agriculture and Livestock. This meant I was in charge of animal
quarantine - including fish. PNG has an unique fish fauna and I did
my best to try and stop the import of noxious exotic species. This
was quite a battle as corruption is the order of the day in PNG.
My time in PNG brought me into contact with some of the greatest
people I have ever known - the villagers who live a subsistence and
simple life. Like many expatriate workers in PNG, the country got
into my blood and I am singleminded in my determination to return
there. Unfortunately we had to leave due to extreme funding cuts in
the Agricultural sector. My daughter has also been very sick with
leukaemia and so we decided to stay here in Oz for a while longer.
Back in Australia now I am a student again. I am studying medicine
at the Uni of Qld, and planning my (permanent) return to PNG. My
eldest son, Kim, set up a guppy tank and the next thing we knew the
house is filling with aquariums again.
Just last month I thought - "Let's set up a native tank" - so I got
hold of a 5' tank, set it up, and bought a couple of rainbows
(trifasciata) & Neosilurus to get things going. Then Kim says -
"Why don't we go look in the creek?" Well, it's been 30 years
since I used to catch Rainbows in the waterways of outer Brisbane,
and here we are living in the INNER CITY of Brisbane and I said
- "There won't be any fish."
I was utterly wrong. The waterways of inner Brisbane are teaming
with Blue-eyes, Gudgeons, Perch, Gobies, and Native Minnows (Galaxia).
Also lots of tiny shrimp. We've stocked our tank just using a little dip net.
No Rainbows as yet, but we plan to look further afield soon. It is a
great family activity probing around the creek banks. There are
bigger fish we've seen lurking in the shadows that we can't catch
yet. May have to upgrade out equipment. The story will continue...
I subscribed to this list only a week ago and I'm delighted to find
it a sane and informative place. I'm already learning a lot here, and
hope that I can contribute a bit here and there too.
lukim yupela bihain
Greg Williamson
Brisbane, Australia
check my homepage at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gpw
and my daughter's at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gpw/nikhi.html