So I went to a hole-in-the-wall aquarium store yesterday. This place has been there for 40 years (though I never knew about it until now). A little old Asian (Not sure if he’s Japanese or Korean…name makes me think Japanese, looks make me think Korean…but it doesn’t matter anyways) man about 70-80 years old runs the place. He doesn’t believe in using filters. I looked through his tanks and not one of them had an actual filter on it. What I thought were undergravel filters were in fact just tubes with an air stone inside. No undergravel filters even! Each tank had loads (about 4-5″ worth) of smaller sized gravel in it (enough to create some anerobic bacteria at the bottom), loads of plants (mainly moss/algae/duckweed), and several fish in each. He had approximately 30 fish (guppies/tetras) in one 10 gallon tank. It didn’t look like the gravel had been syphoned in AGES (probably the full 40 years), but the water itself looked crystal clear and each of the fish were doing great.
I’m just curious how this was achieved. I would have thought that maybe he just doesn’t have problems because the fish don’t last too long in there. Well, the customers that came through in the hour I was there all bought saltwater fish, and a few of the freshwater fish looked large compared to the newer smaller guys of the same species. So they’ve probably been in the tanks for a while.
Any one else ever heard of keeping fish like this in this day and age? Sure, I can understand the “what did people do before, without electricity” question, but I also don’t know how long fish in the past would last in tanks.
If you have heard of this, or even achieved this, mind teaching me how to start? I’m very intrigued. All of this goes against my belief, but I’d like to know more about this.