Introducing Myself

[Scott_sg]

Hello to everyone,

After reading the forum for a long time i have finally signed up, and so with some gentle nudging from Selena, Kenny and now Jianyang, here i am.

So a big thanks to them, and Selena an extra thankyou to you.
As I have some free time this morning I thought i would share a little information about me and introduce myself. Forgive me if i mess up with forum technicalities, for a person that works in IT i am quite useless with all this.

This will probably be a little long, but i am sure there are some people curious about me.

Well about me briefly, I am a Singapore Permanent Resident and have been now for five years. My marriage here did not work out so I have been a single parent to a little boy of four for a long time now, and now am just a normal guy looking after my boy with a steady girlfriend, trying to create as much of a normal family environment as possible for my boy.

So in relation to the above, the fish have been as much a therapy for both of us. As anyone who keeps fish knows, they are the ultimate escape from day to day problems we all encounter and great way to recharge. I also imagine that they are much cheaper than therapists and more effective. Anyway they help me keep reasonably sane.

I was born and grew up in Sydney and spent time both there and in the UK growing up. I have lived in Sydney, Cairns, Townsville, London, Edinburgh, a number of other places at times, and now Singapore. I was also fortunate to have travelled a great deal over the years.

I studied Biomedical Science at James Cook, Physics at James Cook, Electrical Engineering with Monash and Mathematics and Statistics with London. I think i am addicted to studying. I will probably complete my Phd in math/physics, most likely Theoretical Biology when my boy goes to "big" school. So in some ways I am quite a nerd. But I did work between School and University, well if you call holding a rifle work.

Currently I am self employed and mainly do consulting work in IT these days. It keeps me out of trouble and lets me balance work and family, and I cant ever say I have been the corporate type, I have been there and done that and don't want to do it again.

Ok now the boring stuff is out of the way, on with the fish. I have been keeping and breeding fish now for 23 years. And like many, my first experience of killifish was looking at spectacular photographs in my books as a kid.

As it happened I think about 1983, I would always go to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney with my dad. For anyone who has been around farms, show days are a very big thing. In Singapore there are not many farms so to explain, it is really when the farmers all get together to display livestock and produce, auctions and so on. If you like animals they are fun.

Anyway at the time the old Sydney Aquarium Society Building was at the showgrounds, so in we went and there were lots of spectacular fish on show. But then I came across a section of small tanks, almost full of plants and inside some of the most amazing fish i have ever seen. Of course they were the killifish from my books. Nearly all Amphyosemion sp. or similar, but all incredible.

In all the years since then and all the fish i have seen around the world, i don't think i have seen a more wonderful sight of fish. I think many will agree the first sight of killifish properly set up is something not to be forgotten. Unfortunately too many have a first experience more of either some scrappy unknown fish in a local shop, or more likely some very over priced male A. australe.

Like many others I was lucky enough to get a pair of A. australe a few years later, and then trading for whatever I could get hold of. Which at the time was not much. As some of you will know Australia has very strict quarantine laws, and of course there were not so many species in the hobby back then.

This was also in the days before internet, so it was even harder to get to know people and trade, unless you were in a major city. The internet has been very good for killifish keepers. These days we are spoilt for choice, twenty years ago if you wanted annual fish you were generally limited to what were known as Argentine Pearl Fish Cynolebias sp. and something like N. guentheri Zanzibar would of been priceless.

So over the years i have kept killifish on and off and now i have more room and a more stable lifestyle I have been making a few purchases as I am sure some of you here in Singapore have noticed. It was really a question of having some time and the opportunity to do something i really enjoy. I had been thinking about it for a number of years so i finally decided to make some purchases.

Others spend their money on clothes, clubbing, cars, concerts, handphones and so on. So by comparison I think Killifish is not a bad price for the ongoing pleasure you can get. And it does not leave me with a bad headache in the morning. So I have bought a small number of species to try, of course i will be surprised if I can establish them all. But there is some logic in the purchases.

1. I am fundamentally lazy, I just don't have the patience to be making brine shrimp and culturing worms for three fry for example. In this case economy of scale makes things much easier.

2. Like i mentioned i am also taking into account that things will not all go to plan. And if they do that is even better, since I can easily buy extra tanks for a few dollars now. Old timers will know just how much cheaper equipment is now.

3. The advantage of killifish is that i can take my time setting things up. Over the next couple of months i can take my time and setup some racks and get things organised.

4. I am planning to do some research into the fish, and given my background it is hard to not take some scientific interest in them. But i can update you all later in this regard.

5. A great number of these fish are facing very uncertain futures in the wild and for some it is too late already. So I think Killifish is a great way to actually do some good. It really is an area where even the average person can make a difference. Of course i would like to think that the fish will be fine in the wild, but this is far from a perfect world, so if it is a choice of having them in aquaria, compared to lost forever, i think that is an easy choice.

6. Just to keep me sane!

I hope I have not bored everyone with this, but it has been interesting for me to think back over things and I know I have received a few emails from curious Singaporeans. Who is the local guy buying the fish?? "Kepo" I think is the local word for being curious.

I generally stay away from forums and clubs and things, I normally try and avoid all responsibility, but i will try and make an effort to get more involved. And i do have a few questions myself occasionally, so hopefully you will be hearing more from me.

So thanks again and nice to meet you all.

regards,
Scott.

[keehoe]

Welcome, Scott. It is hard to find serious killi keeper that have the capacity to provide home for many species of killi in Singapore.

[timebomb]

That was a very interesting write-up about yourself, Scott. I don't find it boring at all. In fact, I'll be delighted if more new forum users do the same with their first post.

Welcome to the forum. Welcome to Singapore too.

I think I know what you mean about being lazy. I'm just as lazy too but like you, I want to keep many species of Killies. I would strongly suggest you think carefully before putting up your rack. You do not want to end up with more fish than you can handle. Having many species is fun but it can be a lot of work. I think you should do what I did. I have about 7 species of Killies and I keep them all in heavily planted tanks. I don't use bare tanks to house the adults. For fry, I use small trays. Using planted tanks to house Killies cut down on the maintenance work. Most of my tanks are about 2 feet in length and in most of them, there are just a few adult Killies. I don't have to change water often as the fishload is pretty light. For those tanks that house annuals, I leave the breeding bowl inside for about a month before collecting the peat. For those with non-annuals, I do not collect eggs but let the fish breed naturally.

It so happens I'm tied up with a lot of work recently. In a few days, when I have more time, I'll post some pictures to show you my setup.

Loh K L

[zmzfam]

A great welcome to our little forum.

I'm sure those people who nudged you and the rest here will make your stay worthwhile.

[dageti]

So in relation to the above, the fish have been as much a therapy for both of us. As anyone who keeps fish knows, they are the ultimate escape from day to day problems we all encounter and great way to recharge. I also imagine that they are much cheaper than therapists and more effective. Anyway they help me keep reasonably sane.

oh man, how true. I am a newcomer myself here, but that really resonated with me.

francesco

[hobbit6003]

Hi Scott,

Finally, you've arrived here at killies.com, welcome!

Haha, I think I beg to differ from your views that fish keeping is a therapuetic hobby.

For me, since both human and fish pathology and medicine are my passion and interest, I cannot help it but am always on the look out for pathological signs and symptoms on fishes. It has become a daily routine for me to keep vigilant stakeout in my little fishroom. This can sometimes be detrimental to marrital bliss, actually.

Well, I think the trick to maintain the therapeutic effect of fishkeeping,is hence not to over-commit to too many species and tanks.

With Nothos and knowing that you've gotten quite a number of species, you may want to draw up a timetable and plan your wetting dates properly. This will enable you to take care of frys better and hecne help you to reduce fry mortality.

I see no point in hatching out more frys than you can take care off, and loosing them as quickly as they've hatched.

Cheers,

Kenny