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