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| This
all started in 1978 because my landlord wouldn't
let me have a dog... ...But before I get
too ahead of myself, let me first welcome
you to my website. My name is Michael
G. Moye (more about me later) and I really
hope you enjoy your time spent here because
this is the most work I've ever put into
something I couldn't actually date. |
| I
began keeping saltwater fish back in 1978
when, living in Los Angeles, I decided I
needed a diversion from the stresses of my
job. Y'know, something that would be
waiting for me when I got home that didn't
shop. So I asked my landlord if I could
have a dog. He said that pets generally
weren't allowed (with the exception, of course,
of his wife's little banshee of a cat) but
he'd make an exception for fish since they
were quiet and wouldn't befoul his verdant
1/250 acre of front lawn. Now, I'm
not usually the spiteful sort but knowing
full well by 'fish', he meant something small
like a molly in a bowl with pink gravel,
some marbles, and a plastic diver with bubbles
coming out of his head, I came home with
a 60g showtank complete with a cabinet, hood,
UG filter, and all the decorative dead coral
skeletons I could carry. I also made
sure he was watching when I brought inside
the Instant Ocean. |
| Of
course, it wasn't as though I knew NOTHING
about saltwater fish. I knew they had
cool colors. I knew they had cool shapes.
And thanks to the nice young salesman at
the LFS, I 'knew' they weren't really any
harder to keep than freshwater fish. |
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| Needless
to say, there were quite a few casualties. (Un)fortunately,
the salesman wasn't one of them. |
| Three
things kept me from getting out of the hobby
forever at that point: One, having
always been an inveterate reader, I began
to bring home books (as opposed to more fish,
then more medication, and then more fish)
and, more importantly, I actually began to
READ them! At last, I felt like
I was getting some real information. Heck,
I even began to realize the root of my problems. It
was my LFS. So after several weeks
of searching for a good one, finally, some
fifty miles away in Fountain Valley, CA,
I found Tis Tropical Fish. Not exactly a
'L'FS but 180 degrees from the place I'd
been going to. In fact, I'd be hard
pressed to find a place with such a knowledgeable
and courteous staff today! Sadly, they're
long gone now but because of all the help
they gave me back then I consider them the
second reason I stayed in the hobby... |
| The
third was it annoyed my landlord. |
| A
lot of people (hobbyists included) thought
I was nuts to drive that far for fish or
in some cases, the very same supplies I
could purchase much closer to home. But
to tell it truth, it was all becoming much
more than about spite for me. I was actually
having success keeping many of these creatures
alive... |
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