All of This and Nothing
by Jeff Vander Berg
Reprint GVAC Newsletter Nov-Dec 2004
I have been in this forever. I know that "forever" is a relative term here. But
my forever is just shy of 34 years. I guess it all started around 1970. My
father worked at a local mass merchant, in the pet department, and thought that
an aquarium would be a good thing for his two year old son and the baby on the
way. There are pictures of me, barely 2 years old, attempting to catch fish with
a net in a crowded guppy tank. I guess the HUGE smile on my face was for things
to come. Both my troublemaker personality and my budding passion for the hobby
can be seen in these photos. At that time, I don't know which of those two
profiles are more prominently displayed in my personality.
Over the next twelve years or so, many fish came and went as
result of not knowing what we were doing. Remember this is mainly during the
1970's. I remember the stainless steel corners and top of the aquarium, the
incandescent lights, the lure of colored gravel over a cheap undergravel filter.
Some of you will remember losing heaters or fish left and right, as they were
certainly sub-standard compared to today's heaters. How about the gravity fed
back filter that seldom worked and it had to be packed with filter floss and
charcoal. Surely, these were a lot messier and more time consuming than the easy
to use cartridge powered back filters of today. I can remember a lot of causes
for fish massacres back then. Ich was probably the main problem for us. I assume
that some instances were due to poor quality fish. But I certainly also know it
was from all kinds of equipment failures and temperature fluctuations between
daytime with room temperature, incandescent hoods and heaters sticking causing
the temp in the aquarium to stay up. Then nighttime would come and the temp
would go down as the room would cool, the bulbs would cool and the heater would
sometimes be stuck "off". We all know what happens next.
I remember a couple of bouts with algae blooms that would make pea soup look
watered down like a "light" beverage. I can remember the smell of Ernie and Bert
in my goldfish bowl in the bedroom. They smelled! I remember having very small neons at one point and coming home with two new fish, about the size of my
thumbnail, and dropping them in the aquarium. I kid you not, they were in the
aquarium roughly five seconds and all six of my neons were gone! Those fish
turned out to be green severums, they ultimately died of ich later on.
Somehow I made it through all the turmoil, less can be said for
the fish. We are now up into the mid-1980's. I still have three aquariums, one
10 gallon and one 30 gallon. I have also just been given a used 55 gallon from
my girlfriend's pseudo parents. I spent a lot more money on music and my car, in
those days, than fish, but that would all begin to change. Aquariums didn't
attract girls back then, probably not now either for those of you who may be
misguided. Cars, crazy hair and clothes, and blaring music did! This is the time
during Valley Girl and Fast Times at Ridgemont High and The Cure, Depeche Mode,
and Psychedelic Furs. Not to mention the resurgence of Kiss and VanHalen/VanHaggar.
You get the picture. The things that influenced me getting more into this hobby
were getting my first job, cichlids dropping in price, and constantly being
grounded. The job was obviously the most important factor as now I had a lot
more disposable income, no sports at this time to divert attention either.
During this time there also tended to be a lot more fish stores in our area.
Some were beginning to sell some African cichlids. At this time, and compared to
our money now, these fish were still very expensive. Many of the zebras were
still going for around $20 per fish, but they were coming down fast. My first
African was the m. auratus, ($12.00 each, at an inch) what a bunch of mean little
suckers! I still love that fish to this day though. This fish obviously changed
the hobby for me. Another thing that heavily influenced my involvement in the
hobby was high school itself. SPORTS and CARS led to GIRLS and PARTIES that led
me to destroying cars, missing curfews and the like. I guess if we could use the
math logic if A=B and B=C then I guess, I could deduce that girls and parties
led to my budding hobby? I don't know, but heck it was all worth it!
In 1987, I began working for Tim at his place, Something Fishy.
Although I had not worked there long, as many of you know, Tim and I have been
great friends ever since. He and Tiano got me hooked up with SWMAS in Kalamazoo,
which between working in a fish shop and belonging to a club pushed me to where
I am today. New fish, namely lamprologus and julidochromis, and more aquariums
were very easily finding there way to my home. I also moved into an apartment at
this time with my now eight aquariums while going to college. But the fish once
again took the back seat to school, work, road trips, parties and bars. I lost a
few fish when we had parties at the apartment due to stupid things or stupid
people. I moved 4 times in 3 years dragging each aquarium with me. Sometimes I
was lucky and had my own bedroom and most tanks end up there and other times a
large closet would become a "fishroom". Now before I mentioned that usually
aquariums wouldn't get girls to come over, but what I didn't mention is it was
easy to split girls off at parties to view an aquarium in some other part of the
apartment. So maybe they do help with the women? I am sure my wife would say
"NO" though!
In the early to mid 1990's I once again found myself working in another fish
shop, for a bit longer this time. I also moved into a house where I would have a
"real" fishroom. Finn came into the picture at this time too and we found
ourselves going to auctions and (taking different from college types of) road
trips all over the Midwest a few times monthly. ALA and ACA conventions were
also in the norm for several years. The fish and aquariums piled up at this time
to several thousand fish and about 70 aquariums. That also was when Grand Valley
Aquarium Club came about. But most of you know what those days were like. That
was then.
In 2000, along comes marriage, kids and a rediscovered
competitive streak in me. I actually pulled the plug on the fish room in 2001
because I just didn*t have the time nor the interest. Mountain bike racing and
adventure racing became Val's and my passion when we are not chasing the kids
around. We both compete at a fairly high level, which causes there to be a lot
of time involved in running and biking. I logged 1200 off-road miles on my bike
in 2003. She and I raced a 15 hour, 93 mile adventure race this year. The fish
once again took a back seat. We are hoping to compete on a national level in
adventure racing in the next couple years.
Despite all this, in fall 2003 I started an aquarium in my two year old's bedroom. He loved the fish and plants, go figure! Since his bedroom is located next to ours I spent quite a bit of time on it and realized that is one of the few things that keeps me relaxed. Well one thing has led to another and I have 70 tanks running again! It is now fall 2004 as I write this. I just came up from my fishroom where I have had a bunch of new fish spawn, my 3 year old son Damon is drenched. He again was helping catch and move fish around. My competitive spirit says I was much better, at his age, catching fish but reality is this kid is much better than I was. I think that my hobby life has pretty much come full circle. I enjoy it once again, and much of what I enjoy about it is what I see through my son's eyes. the end