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Here's fishman's article, a brief history about his fish keeping experience.

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Introduction Hi fellow hobbyist, I'm CN Chan or some of my internet friends know me as fishman.        I've been at keeping tropical fishes for almost a quarter of a century. My fascination with these fishes are almost endless and the challenge to breed them and to learn about their habits continue to spur me on in pursuing this as a lifetime hobby. For those who has kept them will probably understand why I am fascinated by the diversity of the aquaria inhabitants, be it in the home or out in the seven seas. The Beginning of a Legacy          How did I get started on this lifelong journey of learning and appreciation  of these aquatic creatures? Hang on, are you comfortable in reading this on the screen? If not, I suggest that you go get yourself a cup, sit back and relax, let me explain the history of fishman and his beloved pets. It all started when I was five, I was given a pair of goldfish (found out later they were Pink Lion heads) for my birthday. My parents had an old tank, a trapezium-shape metal frame glass tank, size about 25 gallon. Naturally, the tank became the new home. Like any other five year olds, the experience with a live pet is the most fascinating. I think I had the first pair for less than 3 months, they died because of overeating and too much left  over food in the tank, as I was told then and guess who was the culprit ? All I could recall , more than 20 years later was the feeling of losing something that is alive and has been part of you, albeit only momentarily was really heart breaking. From then on I've been "hooked" and the journey of growing up with keeping fishes continues.

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My First Love : Goldfish       Before I started schooling, I had probably kept no less than 2 pairs of these gentle and gorgeous looking beauties. They too underwent the same fate as the first pair, all suffered from the "over-nutritious" diet that I personally subscribed. How was a 5 year old supposed to know that overfeeding fishes is more likely to cause death than starving them. (Note : Dear readers, bear in mind this very important advice - Do not overfeed !!! The fishes in the tank today could really benefit from 1 or 2 days of starving in a week). I guess my parents was not able to mind a hyper active kid 24 hours a day, let alone supervise the feeding of the fishes. Maybe they were perceived by the fish shop people that an ordinary air bubble box filter was sufficient to keep the tank clean and healthy. Nevertheless, they stopped meeting my demands for replacements . From the poor fish souls point of view, they would have been spared further rampant "mis-treatment" rendered to their comrades in the water, by an innocent child whose only knowledge of fish keeping then was "fishes live in water and they need lots of food to grow". (Parents heed this: please supervise the young ones and keep them properly informed). Pursuing a Legacy My interest in the gills-breathing water dwellers took a short break when I first started schooling at the age of 6. School life was a totally new encounter and there was enough activities everyday to keep my mind off fish keeping but not for long. When I was in year 2, I had some classmates who were into betta fish fighting. That stirred up my interest again and soon enough I was bottling up red/blue/green bettas in my bedroom. It's amazing how these fishes can survive in such confined spaces. In the wild, they actually lived in "padi" (rice) fields where water depth of about a foot was their preferred habitat. The long tailed variety was imported from Thailand, and they were better known as the Siamese Fighters. They were artificially raised by fish breeders and was never found in the padi fields. I had many experiences catching these local bettas which are the short tail variety and normally not as colourful. The padi fields were plenty back then but not anymore, most are converted to business development areas. That should explain for the pollution and scarcity of catching any local bettas or barbs in streams near the outskirts of the city. During my younger days, I had caught tiger barbs (Puntius Hexazona), fresh water crabs, short snout tropical gar fish (Xenentodon Cancila), spanner barbs, tropical loaches and many more tropical fishes found in the freshwater streams of Malaysia. I've caught them with my bare hands or with small nets. Unfortunately, not all survived long in the aquarium tanks due to different water conditions and diets. Today, these fishes are no where to be found in the streams which I once caught them almost 10-15 years ago. A sign of development and diminishing natural habitat for these exclusive tropical fish species found only in South East Asia. Thanks to some tropical fish breeders, most of the species are still available in many fish shops today, a bit smaller in size and less likely to be able to catch live insects on water surface. To be submerged in the cool running freshwater streams and having observed the fishes in their natural habitat is indeed an experience of a lifetime. To all fellow hobbyist, remember that keeping a fish in a tank is not as simple as spending some money on fishes and equipment. You are indirectly helping an industry in preserving a legacy, a responsibility that should be taken up by many more in ensuring there are more of these fishes raised and bred all over the world. Please feel free to email to me at lefishman@hotmail.com

M  Aquarium Supplies  WORLD PETSTORE.COM For Supplies at Discount Prices WELCOME SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP Andre's Aquarium Club Now only $9.95 Ask all your aquarium related questions! k What's New This Month ....... Fish Tip -- More Oscars Q & A - More questions and answers about Oscars - our reader's favourite fish. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - More Oscars Q & A Fish Tip -- Hole-in-head resource, Gold fish tank size and unusual coolies behaviour - Some questions and answers about goldfishes and a very active coolies. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - hole-in-head, goldfish tank size and coolies Fish Tip -- Algae suffocation, hole-in-head disease remedy and how to balance feeding less dominating tankmates - Some questions and answers about a tank with overgrown algae, hole-in-head remedy and tips on balancing the feeding of lesser tankmates. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - Algae, hole-in-head and feeding Fish Tip -- We have searched the net for some excellent fish health websites to help you diagnose fish diseases better - These are only a handful of websites that we had time to go through which we think are useful to fishcorner readers. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - Websites about fish health reviewed Fish Tip -- Cloudy water, Bala shark and Blue oscar - Some questions and answers about cloudy water, Bala shark and a "blue" oscar. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - cloudy water Fish Tip -- Goldfish sexing, non-swimming behaviour and lifespan - Some Q&A about goldfish sexing, its non-swimming stance and life-span. Excerpts from Fish Tip of The Month - Gold fish sexing Freshwater and Saltwater Members will receive a 5% discount on all orders when they mention that they are members... Gina's Aquarium Supply and marineandreef.com is owned and operated by The Aquatic Group Toll Free Phone Number: 877-878-9349 Saltwater supplies

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