By Chris Merriman
It really took the introduction of the undergravel filter to get the idea of cycling started. By then, you didn't want too many fish until the gravel bed got established. The first ones I saw came as a set of green plastic tubes and elbows, with little holes drilled in the tubes. I've wondered if reviving the tube system might be a compromise for an undergravel with plants- the roots could steer away from conditions they didn't like.
A really good pet store would only sell you a few fish to start off with - usually a pair of guppies for your 10 gallon. The chain fish store was normally a 5 and 10 cent store. They had pictures of the fish next to the prices, because the staff knew nothing about fish.
Before that "The Balanced Aquarium" was in, if you were an advanced aquarist. You would put heaps of plants in the tank, with the idea that the plants would absorb the fish waste. Incandescent light was what you got, in stainless-steel hoods. Somehow, people with a green thumb could raise spectacular plants without CO² tanks! Maybe the coal furnace helped?
Other "old-time" fishy stuff:
* Stainless-steel frame tanks, or even better, the "lab" tanks with the funky spatter paintjob.
* Filter Floss - this was spun glass fibers, and you would get the darn stuff in your hands when you put it in the filter, just like a million cactus thorns. No way to rinse it- when it got dirty you just threw it away. A million whacky filter systems have come and gone- some using huge amounts of activated charcoal.
* Those antique Chinese take-home containers - instead of plastic bags, the fish store would fold up these wax-covered paper boxes with a little wire handle, with your fish inside.
* Glass Dip Tubes - for catching smaller fish. Sneak up on them, take your thumb off the stem to let the air out, and the fish would get sucked in. A great way to catch fry.
* TFH Magazine - always with the subscription page with the native guy with the huge plate in his lip reading a copy. You got a couple loose-leaf pages for your giant TFH encyclopaedia, two new species every month.
* Really Big Livebearers For Sale - the fish farms had not yet discovered good business principles, and sometimes messed up and grew fish to spectacular size. Sometimes the Mollies offered for sale were healthy and vigorous!
* Lots of fishkeepers were trying to develop their own strain of guppy, platy, molly, or swordtail. Some would sell their culls to the fish store, but most were afraid that the competition would get the jump on them, so they'd have some oscars to act as garbage cans.
* "Cichlids" meant angelfish, discus, severums, Jack Dempseys, "Ports", etc. "African Cichlids" were Kribs and Egyptian Mouthbrooders. Angelfish were very hard to breed, and discus were almost impossible. The parents of "domestic" strains were better about rearing their young.
* Killies would occasionally show up in the store, but the "secret society" of guys sending fish and eggs through the mail was active back then, too. They had little ads in the back of TFH magazine to join the "AKA".
* Corydoras were "garbagemen", and people didn't get that excited about them. Sometimes strange ones would come in that would cost a few cents more- so you could snag some sterbai, natteri, etc. The idea was that you would pay discuss prices for catfish would have made people faint, back then.
About the Author: CoupeDeFleur is the author of this article, used with permission by Chris Merriman
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