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aka Phish Phreek |
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Before there were Platinum Gourami,
before there were gold gourami, before there were Opeline gourami,
there were 3-spot gourami. 3 spot gourami have a spot a the base of their tail
and one in the middle of their body that are about the same size and color
as their eye. So if they have 2 spots on the left side and 2 spots on the right
side, why do I call them 3-spot gourami? Because when I was little,
I counted the eye! My earliest memories of fish were 7 gouramies
(21 spots) in a 2-gallon turtle bowl (short and fat goldfish bowl).
My Dad used to breed gouramies when I was a knee high.
I grew up on Galveston Island. I got my first 5-gallon metal frame tank when I was in Jr. High School(1959). On Saturdays, I would go to the local pet store and buy the newborn Platys, Guppies and mollies for a nickel. When my first tank was full of fish, my Dad brought home another tank. By the time hurricane Carla hit I had my own fish room, 2 - 45 gallon home made all glass breeder tanks and an assortment of metal frame tanks that my Dad had produced as if by magic. After the Hurricane, we came home to find the House and all my aquariums destroyed. After High School, I joined the Navy, where I learned a lot about applied probability and statistics. Which seemed to go hand in hand with genetics. While stationed in Florida I became involved in the crossbreeding of Persian and Siamese cats to produce a new breed known as Himalayan. I also got involved in Tropical fish again and accumulated a dozen tanks. I raised livebearers and started spawning gouramies of all kinds and Paradise fish. I attending monthly meetings of the Mobile Aquarium Society and in 1971 helped form the Pensacola Aquarium Society. When I got out of the Navy, I left cats and aquariums behind and moved back to Galveston. Once again, I started accumulating aquariums. I got up to about 2-dozen and after a couple of years, I moved to Houston for work and became a member of the Houston Aquarium Society. I was active in their breeders program, breeding catfish and Cichlids, along with livebearers and anabantids. I met a wonderful woman and we got married. We had 3 children and I only had time for a 40-gallon community tank in the living room. It moved with us to Saint Louis where it kept Sunfish caught by my children in a nearby lake. And moved back with us to Houston when we returned home. Not too long ago my children grew up and my job did not require as much travel and Yes, the insanity struck again. I picked up a 10-gallon tank at a garage sale. (It's nice to be able to isolate new fish and make sure they aren't sick before I put them in the community tank.) And a 5-gallon tank there. (It's nice to have a tank to put the little babies in until they grow up.) And a couple of 29s at a pet store that was closing (now I have a place for that pair that is always trying to spawn in the community tank.) and a 140-gallon tank from some co-workers that were moving back north. (Wow, I've always wanted a really big community tank). In June of 2001, my wife brought home a Blue vale Tail betta in a flower vase (She was a school teacher and one of her students had given it to her) not much later, I found a blue female in the local pet store and so why not, my first spawn of bettas hatched on Pear Harbor day 2001. About that time, at the local pet store, I found a red Cambodian double tail female (always my favorite) but no male. In my search for a mate, I discovered bettas on the Internet. The Betta-bug bit me. Soon thereafter, I discovered BettaHabari, our Houston IBC chapter. Even more than the fish, these really terrific people have made my fish hobby something extra special. Thank all y'all crazy betta people you make my hart sing. My first year in the IBC (2002-3), I won the Novice Breeder's Award. My second year (2003-4), I sent my Babies to most of the IBC International shows and came in 4th on the IBC top 10 breeders list. I put this web site together to share my accumulated tips & tricks with all the new breeders discovering the wonderful world of Bettas. I keep some nice "show quality" Betta breeders, play with genetics, send a few to IBC shows and enjoy my Betta Friends. But I still keep and raise an assortment of other tropical fish. I currently belong to The International Betta Congress and BettaHabari (The Houston IBC Chapter). Click on the icon above to visit us. I also belong to The Houston Aquarium Society, The American Livebearer Association, The Houston Livebearer Association, CAK - Houston area Catfish And Kool plecos, and the houstonfishbox.com an online chat board for Houston Fish Folk. I am retired now and have moved to a small home in Texas City and had to sell about half of my aquarium collection. But I converted the single car garage to a fish room and made room for the following aquariums 3 - 45 gallon breeder (18" deep) 2 - 40 gallon long 4 - 20 gallon high 4 - 15 gallon 13 - 5 & 10 gallon 21 - 1 gallon betta Jars & lots of beannie Boxes Which are filled with colorful patties and guppies, endlers, swordtails, mollies, an large assortment of ciclids, gouramies, catfish, loaches, boteas, plecos and lots of bettas. I keep a 55+ Tetra / planted tank in the living room but I will sell it soon Because, I just got a really good deal on a 175 gallon Bowfront Tank. |