Interesting I'm being tested suddenly for experience....
Well, here it is. I've had any number of indoor fish tanks for probably 30 years, actually. I've had outdoor ponds for 10 years...probably 11...always with koi...actually, the first year was goldfish, but then I saw koi and I was hooked.
Since I've had ponds, I no longer have indoor tanks as it's just too much work to have both. I am considering again having one indoor tank to bring some of the outdoor fish in for breeding or hospital tank purposes. Undecided on that of yet. But I will have another 4,000 gal pond this spring come hell or high water....my main pond is just too overstocked.
In terms of aquaculture, I spent 5 years working at a university with an aquaculture program that was essentially researching the protection/care of domestic freshwater species of fish, shellfish and plants. My job was to keep everything alive and assist the researchers in any way they needed. Dealing with illnesses was the most fun, and I often had to contact other aquaculture programs around the country to see what they knew about specific parasites, bacterias and other diseases we had spotted.
Oh, and I also spent all of highschool and my first year of college working at a aquarium shop for tropicals. This included the interesting task of going to customers apartments (in manhattan) to clean and maintain their fresh and marine tanks. (I can't tell you the things I saw in people's homes!) Totally forgot about this, too....I guess because it was a very long, long, looooooooong time ago. But fish have been a hobby for me since I was a very young child.
Actually, animals in general have been a big interest for me since I was a tot. I've pretty much owned most any type of animal over my life, rats (gotten from the college animal research lab), gerbils, hamsters, chickens, any variety of reptile, turtles, cats, rabbits, had a african gray parrot (ex-hubby got her in the settlement), I hand-tamed and sold a variety of parrots (but particularly conures), cared for a number of pigeons that were hurt or sick (my favorite was missing a foot, but kept coming back even after I released him), and lots of dogs over the years (my 160 pound English Mastiff, Riley, died last year of cancer). We're thinking a Schnauzer next...
Hope that helps. After all this time, I have plenty to learn and love the fact that I can be on sites such as this one and get a new shred of info to add to my brain files. There's something new or different I haven't heard about nearly every day...that's why I love pond keeping.
What can you tell us about your 41 years with fish, doc. Perhaps we can all contribute here was our experiences have been with fish?
