- What inspired you to start the store?
It started kind of as a hobby—me and my dad were doing tank sales, so we would buy aquarium tanks and flip them. One time we bought a big collection of fish from somebody, and things have transpired from there to make it what it is today. We switched over to full retail in 2020 when COVID happened. I’ve always been interested in it. My dad used to have books that were encyclopedias of fish that I would flip through all the time when I was a little kid.
2. How did you learn the skills needed to build and maintain fish tanks?
Honestly, it’s just been a lot of hard work and practice. We’ve had fish tanks our entire lives. Since I was a little kid, we’ve had 10 to 12 fish tanks in our house at all times. So it’s just been lots and lots of practice and work.
3. If someone wants a beautiful, low-maintenance aquarium, what do you recommend?
Normally when people want something that’s fun to look at and easy to take care of, I recommend freshwater community fish. There are a lot of different colors and [they have] a variety of movements. But it’s just people’s personal preference at the end of the day, so we’re flexible about when people want something different. There are definitely levels to the difficulty of upkeep as well. Saltwater tends to be more difficult, but if people want to get into that there are easy ways to do it.
4. What is the most unusual fish or creature you’ve been asked to put inside an aquarium?
There’s definitely been some weird, aggressive fish that people have requested. There’s one called the Water Cow Goby that we’ve gotten. [A full-grown Water Cow Goby is a predatory fish that can reach up to 20 inches long.] We’ve also had people get octopuses from us before and take them home. There are certain types of catfish that can get up to 6 feet in size that we can sell. Those are pretty much the largest.
5. What do you love most about helping people with fish tanks?
I think fish tanks are great because they can be for people of all ages. It normally starts with families wanting to get something for their kids because they’ve seen something like Finding Nemo, but it can be a hobby that works well for anyone. I also think the cleaning and upkeep can be really therapeutic. It’s calming to look at. I personally really enjoy setting up the fish tanks and getting creative with the different scapes in different tanks. Anyone can learn to really enjoy having one. You’re not gonna see anything besides things like sunfish, perch or carp around here [in the Texas Panhandle], so setting up a fish tank to see something from the wild that you wouldn’t be able to experience any other way is really rewarding in its own right. It’s like having your own piece of nature.
