Life has a way of coming full circle -- or at least helping you "rediscover" your passions. In 1961, I was 15 years old and fascinated by the Ocean. So, I began an experiment of keeping "salt-water" aquariums. Back then, aquariums were made with steel frames. I knew this wouldn't work for salt-water so had a plexiglass company make a 50 gallon aquarium for me. Salt water, contains more than just sodium chloride (table salt). It actually contains 64 elements, some in trace amounts. I located a place where I could by packaged sea salt. I also found a distributor in the Philippines that would send me fish and invertebrates from the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, including Hawaii. Later I found someone who would send fish from the Red Sea. This was a very expensive "hobby". The Clown Triggerfish below I paid $100 for. But, I had saved quite a bit of money from my paper route. (I started delivering the Washington Post newspaper in 1954.
I studied all the literature on Salt Water fish -- wasn't a lot out there. (This was before Jacques Cousteau became famous). Over the next three years I dealt with diseases, fish that wouldn't eat, fish that weren't "community" oriented, fish that ate my other fish, etc. I kept records and finally in 1964 wrote a book and displayed the book and an aquarium at our County Fair (Montgomery County, Maryland) for which I won an Award. Within a couple of days, someone with the US Department of Agriculture contacted me and ask if I would be willing to have an exhibit at the Department of Agriculture that summer for which I agreed.
I ended up going to the University of Hawaii to study Oceanography, but the US Army had other ideas. Seems as though they wanted me too. So, in 1967 it was off to the Army. Six years later and with two children I "retired" from active duty and went to work for Xerox doing what I did in the Army (Logistics and Distribution). I did have a 125 gallon aquarium in the mid and late 70's. But, it wasn't until 1984 that I finally got back to nature, fly-fishing and then wildlife photography.
Anyway, for the next couple of days I'll show you some of my aquarium photos (that date back 50 years):
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| Clown Triggerfish and Adult Emperor Angel |
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| Blue Ringed Angel with Flame Scallop, Feather Duster Worms, and Sea Anemone |
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| Powder Brown Tang and Majestic Angel |
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| Yellow Tang, Power Brown Tang, and Hippo Tang |
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| Saddleback Butterfly |
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