My first "real" job was in the pet fish department of a big store. I had an interest in aquarium fish and wandered into this store. There were dead fish in all the tanks (about 20 tanks) and some that shouldn't have been together. I complained to the Fish Department manager. He asked if I wanted a job.
That was a dilemma. I was attending college and should have spent my time studying. But I was wretchedly broke. My parents paid for tuition and dorm room (included dining hall). But I was determined not to ask for "spending money" every damn month (like most students did). I've never been able to ask for money.
So I took the job. Minimum wage, of course, but damn I actually had a checking account! Actual money all my own. I got right to work cleaning the dead fish out of the tanks, started changing the tank water weekly, scraped algae off the insides, unclogged filters, etc.
I should mention that the Department Manager was a dumb, drunken slob who did nothing at all. There was a woman who was Assistant Manager who seemed to be part-time. The Manager finally got fired (he drank beer in the supply room a lot) and the Assistant became Manager.
But she had noticed my improvements. When I suggested something to her, she usually agreed. And don't worry, this is actually going somewhere...
In my dorm room, I had bred cherry barbs and Siamese fighting fish in a 1/2 gallon container I made of plastic sheet I found (and aquarium cement I had to buy). Images of males...
Barbs community-breed and the eggs are on their own. The Siamese pair up. The Siamese male blows a nest of surface bubbles and pushes fertilized eggs into the bubbles. Then you have to remove both parents or they will eat the developing eggs (food is food).
So my 1st store idea was to display larger tanks of both. Customers stopped to look and the display tanks and often decided to buy stuff. Our sales increased. Manager was happy, Store was happy, I still got minimum wage. 😭
My next idea came from a magazine that discussed fish/plant balance. The idea was that plants use light energy to grow and they turn water into hydrogen and oxygen with that energy. OK, "DUH"! But they expel the unusable oxygen into the water.
Which is what the fish need. And many of the smallest fish (like guppies) can survive eating the algae and microbes that result. In other words, plants and guppies in a well-lit enclosed body of water could survive without outside sources of fish-food).
I put it to the test. I have to smile. The was a program in the store where ant department could take something from another department and fill out a "repay" form. So seeing a store employee walk off with something wasn't odd. Store security probably watched you.
So I saw this HUGE brandy snifter about 2 gallons big. Perfect display piece for the plant/guppy experiment. I set it up next to the cash register, Added a few live plants and a couple guppies. And a sign with the date of "no feeding".
It lasted a year (successfully). Then the store closed. The company that managed the fish department offerred me a job as Manager in their New Jersey flagship store, but I was still trying to finish college.
But I did get to take away several aquariums and some fish for free.
Skip ahead 20 years... 1994 and I still had 1 aquarium and some fish. Another decade and fish stores were harder to find. And had fewer options, or the fish were getting expensive. I read that "aquarium fish" were becoming rare in the wild. So I stopped trying to keep the aquarium filled with fancy ones.
I don't want to even think I owned the last cherry barb...
So here's the point today. I had small catfish and a 1" red-tailed shark (a scavenger). So I bought a pair of fancy guppies. The male was a beautiful red/black type. The females don't matter; they are all beige.
Mrs Guppie produced about a dozen live babies. I have a standard population of about a dozen nearly identical red/black males and about as many females.
I feed them out of habit and kindness, but those plant are live and probably provide all the food the guppies really need. Actually, I may really just be feeding the scavengers. 😁
So all this was just to show you the current guppies and explain why I have them!
