Brad’s Take

I might have been six. It was Christmas Eve, Mom had settled my sister and me in the car, and gone back to “help Dad get ready,” I think was the explanation. It was dark, we were headed to Church for the annual Christmas presentation. It might have been 1957 or 1958.

Years later it was obvious – Mom and Dad scurried, playing Santa Claus in the few minutes they grabbed to drag out the gifts from their hiding places.

The superintendent of the Sunday School at Church handed out to each of us children the usual and expected Christmas bag – a plain brown paper bag, with an orange, an apple, maybe a short pound of peanuts, three or four peppermints in cello wrappers, and a couple of pieces of hard candy. Each and every bit of it, from the paper bag to the last peanut, was a treat, something we didn’t get in the usual course of things. Mom says of that time, “Things were tight. It was a problem if Dad needed shaving cream and I needed deodorant the same week.”

It was a great year for Santa plunder. I got a metal Tonka truck with big wheels that didn’t scratch the floor, and there was a 10 gallon aquarium. With gravel, an air pump and filter, a plastic plant, a light, and four orange and 2 black “popeye” Moor goldfish.

I don’t know, now, how Mom and Dad passed that fish tank off as a gift from Santa Claus. But it was a wonder, and a delight. I think almost all of the fish were there when Star Trek came on the air 10 years later, after one move and with a different tank stand.

What is there to wonder about some fish in a clear bucket? Sure, there is a light, they move, there was a bit of color and gentle sound. What was Christmas-ey about it? I still don’t know. But it was a wonder, something bright, and precious, and fragile.

I still like aquariums. After serving in the Navy, I had a 29″ aquarium and a 10″ black and white TV. When I left the Navy in 1980, and traveled in a packed Toyota to Tennessee, I recall we had a couple of Red Cap Oranda (goldfish, I had been working in a pet store) in a gallon pickle jar, changing water and putting the fish in a large goldfish bowl each night.

Back then for that fishy Christmas, we lived on a farm in Iowa. With Bantam chickens, hogs, and milk cows. Yet that aquarium and those fish brought a different aspect of nature into our home. Dad took us fishing, both then and later. There was never a confusion about whether to eat goldfish or free the bluegills, Bullhead or wall-eyed pike.

Were the goldfish an introduction to chores – feed every day to keep them alive, never overfeed ’cause that poisons the water? Were they a stimulus to young minds, a balm to overactive toddlers and yard apes? Were they pretty, as a bit of nature displayed with respect and reverence?

An aquarium today costs more dollars than my parents probably paid back 50 years ago. 20 years ago the science and technology of home aquariums had subtly advanced over the decades, introducing undergravel biologic filters that use bacteria to filter and cleanse the water, better understanding of water flow and aeration. Vastly more varieties of fish for community tanks. For those interested in a bit more vivid display, along with more demanding care, there are great salt mixes and products to make a saltwater aquarium, and saltwater fishes, available and enjoyable.

Will an aquarium today be a room decoration? Sure. A learning aid? Maybe. A fascination? That depends. A bit of wonder, come Christmas time? For many, I think the answer is yes.

When there are electronic or computer games that wrap around a family, or watching commercial TV has embroiled a home in the advertising-gimmick world of “find something *good*” means “on TV” – then the simple aquarium has a lot of competition for attention.

When you look at an electronic game, don’t think, “That is hours of entertainment”, think, “That is the result of efforts by many, many paid engineers, accountants, and generations of technology, all designed to capture my attention. What don’t they want me to pay attention to, that they devote so much time and effort to distract me?” When you look at your TV, it might be there to display DVD or Video movies. Or to access the internet or watch commercial TV. Again, the real question is “Why do I let the phalanx of advertisers marketing research scientists, communication and production engineers, producers and writers, all conspire to demand my attention to this program or that?”

Why should I settle for stories told with the sole purpose of being interrupted for three or four minutes at a time, ever seven minutes? Interrupted by carefully crafted short messages *intended* to distract me from whatever I was doing, thinking, or the story I was enjoying. Interrupted with a message carefully designed to be more memorable, more likely to direct me into some activity, than the story I had assumed I had chosen, for this regulated time interval.

Did I mention I watch movies, or read, a lot?

The aquarium is random, it is never the same moment to moment. Yet you seldom change channels. You could buy more plastic plants (in smaller tanks, and without special care, real water plants tend to decay more than grow, causing a risk to water quality), or air powered toys. Don’t put a souvenir star fish in an aquarium – the no-longer-living carcass of the starfish begins to decay, putting fish at risk. Don’t ask.

For the most part, aquarium fish are simple, unaffected by their surroundings, not needing change or entertainment. Keep the tank heater set correctly (about 78 degrees F for tropical fish), keep up with water changes and filter changes, feed appropriately twice a day (all food must be eaten within five minutes; anything after three minutes is wasted and likely to rot, causing water poisoning.) De-chlorinate water before adding, as the chlorine in the water poisons the fish and can disable the filter for a while. Don’t overpopulate the tank – figure about one inch of fish, measured from gills to beginning of tail, per gallon of aquarium. Pick compatible fish, you don’t want to watch them kill each other, if you put a rough (but colorful) fish with others that don’t do well defending themselves. When doing partial water changes, the water from the aquarium makes very good water for houseplants – wonderfully rich with micronutrients. There are good books, and kits for bowls, 10 (12) gallon tanks, and larger sets.

The visible part, the tank, is often the least expensive part of an aquarium. Expect to pay at least another fifty ($50) dollars for pump, gravel (about one pound per tank size gallon, half that if not using an undergravel filter), filter (using two filtration systems is recommended for 20 gallon and larger tanks – I like undergravel and one other), de-chlorinator, tank heater, thermometer, light, and fish food. Don’t put fish in, until the tank has been circulating and filtering the water for several days. Oh, and a friend. If possible, you really want a friend that has a tank, or has kept one. There are some severely expensive filter systems, that most home aquariums won’t need. There are also barely adequate or inadequate cheap filters that are difficult to use. Picking a spot for the aquarium away from direct sunlight (grows algae, heats the water), and away from cold drafts (may overpower the heater, set to 78 degrees fahrenheit), and away from traffic areas that might knock the tank over (bad for the fish). A cover on the aquarium slows evaporation, keeps the temp more even, and keeps energetic fish from jumping out, which can be fatal to the fish.

What happens for families living off the grid, or when the grid fails as is predicted? Goldfish and gouramis (a large family of larger tropical fish) tend to do well without “aeration”, without an aquarium pump, as they can “bite” air at the surface of their bowl or tank. Goldfish are cold blooded, and can tolerate lower temperatures with more temperature variation than tropical breeds. Without aeration, moving water so that the exchange of oxygen that happens at the surface can proceed to enrich the water environment, a shallower bowl or tank is better, and will provide for fewer fish.

Perhaps there is room for someone to work out a clockwork driven aquarium aerator, or other means to warm and circulate water in an aquarium. Maybe an exercise bike driven, large but low pressure air bladder capable of powering the modest needs of an aquarium filtration and aeration system.

Until we all go unplugged, and for those families not completely enwrapped in electronically served, merchant designed “entertainment”, an aquarium can be a rich and rewarding addition to the family. Even if I can’t recall how an aquarium in the living room was endowed with so much Christmas wonder.

UPDATE: About.com’s Freshwater Aquarium adviser writes about “Common New Aquarium Mistakes“.