I have often thought I should have a blog, if only to try and get some order into my brain. So many thing flying around so little time to note them down. The question I guess will be if I keep up with the entries.
So where to begin...
Well I guess at the beginning. I have always had a fascination with all things fishy, keeping tropicals as a kid in Zimbabwe. We did things a bit different back then, you were playing in the big time if you had a heater and a pump in your tank, and as far as I remember tank maintenance was weekly water changes and if you were really serious you had a sponge filter. AHHH simple times! Fast forward a couple of years (yes its only a couple - well that's the official line and I am sticking with it) and I have a 800lt brood stock system that has 7 pairs of fish in it all at various stages of breeding.
My family bless them, need to be given a medal for putting up with my obsession with fish. My husband Chris is a genius in figuring out what I mean when I say "I want a thingy that does a whatchamacallit over there and it cant be anything other then upright" He just keeps quiet and gets on with it. He did put his foot down though, when I kept flooding the lounge floor with salt water, as I either have my arms up to my arm pits in the tank, or I am doing a water change, and for some reason think that I can move faster then the water can come out of the pipe, which results in a love arch of gushing water spraying him, the kids, the tv, the laptop, anything that gets in the way of my mad dash out the door. We now don't have a tank in the lounge, although to be honest there is one in the pipe work ;)
My sons, have learnt to associate the world fish shop with "if you don't whinge I will give you an ice cream on the way out" and in most cases will only put up a token protest. Ryan, my eldest is the most vocal about his dislike of going to the fish shop, but I think it more a "lets see what we can get out of mom for dragging me to Perry's". Both kids have learnt that fish will play a big role in their lives and Scott the youngest is quiet happy to spend time with me in the fish shed. However he is only 2 and I am sure that will change. At the moment he likes to catch copepods out of my culture bucket and feed them to the "ishies" I have a little step ladder in the shed that he likes to climb on and either feed the fish or try and catch them. Ryan loves his nemo's and we got a pair of Percula Clownfish. The enthusiasm has died some what as these fish are SAVAGE creatures (I am told that this is only true of my pair - go figure!) and will generally try and strip the flesh off your bones if you stick your hand in to feed them.
I have also learnt that not everyone likes to talk about fish, and some of my clients have banned me from mentioning fish in their offices, or if I do take the mickey until I shut up. Mat who runs Lincs Van Hire has become very good at the silent eye roll every time fish come up. However, the enthusiasm bubbles over when you meet up with a fellow fish keeper and in Mat's case he has a problem when Dave walks in as he also keeps marine and all work will stop while he and I catch up.
I love fish, I love watching them, I love learning about them, and I love been able to say yes I am doing something to save the reefs!
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