Re: [Killietalk] "Setting the hook"

["yohoho" <yohoho at insightbb_com>]

Sounds familiar.  It was 1960 or '61 and I was in college in Milton, WI, 
raising zebra fish to make a few extra bucks.  I got 11cents apiece for them 
at an LFS in Janesville, WI, and it was easy to raise 300 to 400 at a time. 
One day while dropping an order off and browsing the tanks, I saw these 
different "beauties".  I asked what they were, and the owner didn't know. 
They just came in with the last shipment.  I bought them and looked through 
the pictures in the "Dictionary of Tropical Fishes" and the "Encyclopedia of 
Tropical Fishes" and found out that I had purchased a pair of "Lyretails", 
A. australe.  I loved them then, and they are still my favorite killie.  A 
little later, I too met George Maier and visited him often.  He even came to 
Rockford, IL to our local Aquarium society meeting along with a Doctor 
Myers, and gave an overhead presentation with live killie eggs.  What a show 
that was in those days!  And it all started with a lone pair of killies in 
an LFS!!  Don't be afraid to get some out to the stores.  They may not be 
the best advocates of killies, but if a newcomer sees them and buys them, 
they well might get hooked.  Some AKA advertising in LFS and fish magazines 
is sorely needed if we are going to get the young people involved - BUT - 
They gotta find us first!!!!

Frank Carriglitto
AKA#08234, ChiKA, WAKO
* If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try
orderin' somebody else's dog around.
----- Original Message ----- > ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2005 09:33:48 -0500
> From: "Koran, David HQ02" <David_Koran at hq02.usace.army.mil>
> Subject: [Killietalk] "Setting the hook"
> To: <killietalk at aka_org>
>
> After reading a few posts about killies and LFS's I was wondering how 
> people
> today get caught in the web of killies (no pun intended).  Also (chicken 
> and
> egg -like) where (if at all) did the AKA come into this and how did the
> addiction get hammered home (AKA F&E Listing, Aqua-Bid, LFS, local fish
> auction, etc.).
>
> Back in the "Bronze Age" (you know, when you had your news delivered on 
> stone
> tablets)(~1969) I obtained my first tank and a general aquarium book that
> covered lots of different fish.  It had a 4 page section with some photos 
> but
> most color renderings of killies where the British author said the fish 
> were
> indeed beautiful but extremely difficult to breed and raise and said that 
> few
> people kept these unusual fish.  It was just the challenge my twisted 
> logic
> needed and I started to look for these fish in the stores in my 
> neighborhood.
> I had a very good LFS a few streets up from my northern Chicago apartment 
> and
> about a month after getting the book some killies appeared in their tanks 
> and
> I quickly snatched up a pair of chocolate australes.  The store had a 3 
> day
> guarantee and like most of us know, the male quickly killed the female in 
> my
> crowded tank and the shop replaced the female since at the time I thought 
> she
> simply died.  Rewind the tape and bingo, female #2 gone also.  When I got
> back to the store they no longer had anymore australe but suggested I 
> visit
> this old German guy in Lincoln Park whose pet shop specialized in killies.
>
> About a week later I made the pilgrimage that probably changed my life (we
> won't get into that now) and George Maier (for those of you too new to the
> hobby, George was the AKA's "Mr. Killifish" and wrote a regular column in 
> the
> AKA's regular publications, "The Beginner's Page" until his death and was
> responsible for so many people getting into killies) gave me the hour plus
> intro to killies and I left the store with a pair of killies, a wealth of 
> new
> knowledge and an application to join the AKA).
>
> About 6 months later I moved to Cincinnati, moved a few tanks of fish, 
> lost
> my killies and didn't join the AKA just yet.  Almost 2 years later it took
> seeing killies again in our new "favorite" LFS to rekindle the interest.
> This time the breeder who supplied the shop with fish was from Louisville 
> and
> dropped off fish only when he visited relatives in the Cincinnati area. 
> Since
> I quickly found out there was no bottomless supply of the fish and it was
> then that I sent in the application George had supplied me a couple of 
> years
> before.
>
> So it took a book that mentioned killies in a challenging way to spark an
> interest, a chance encounter at my local LFS to find killies as well as a
> second encounter to establish an appetite for killies and some helpful 
> store
> personnel in that initial LFS not worried about their bottom line to send 
> me
> to a specialist (Mr. Maier) to make the connection to the AKA.  What is
> flabbergasting about all of this is that in the next 30 years I have found
> few if any LFS's that might have operated this way or knowledgeable LFS 
> staff
> to explain killie care or even willing to handle killies in the first 
> place.
> So back to my question, if you are new to killies in the last 5-8 years, 
> how
> did we snag you?
>
> Dave Koran

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