Fishkeeping 70s Style
By Robbie Kirkup (STAMPS)

In 1975 you were not a real hobbyist unless you had a fish house or, and I saw many, had a room full of fish tanks.  This was the time before your inbred fish from commercial Asian fish farms, and rare fish could be found on our doorsteps, as good aquatic dealers would get consignments of fish in from Brazil (via Newcastle Airport) so a box of named Corydoras may hold a dozen species as well as odd tetras. Many little gems to be found just by spending a Saturday looking around the local shops. The greatest demand for these fish would be at club and open show level, and, as the aquatic dealers could never guarantee getting these fish for a future customer, aquarists needed to breed them. At Open Shows, there were a massive discussion on how do I get this or that fish! The answer was usually at an auction or join a society.
If I needed aquariums for the fishhouse, or tableaux, I would go to ‘Wadds’ on Manors Char, ask the guys not to smash up the off-cut of glass but stack it next to the skip, I would call next week collect the glass, pick up a couple of tubes of silicone and make a dozen fish tanks for nowt. Also easy to get hold of were timber packing cases (some made of hard wood) from engineering factories, where they were considered nothing more than firewood. Also readily available was free insulation material which made for cheap tableauxs & fish house construction - petrol was only 25p for a gallon of too.
I remember Brian Risbridger’s fish house in Chesterton Road, it cost him £2 per week to heat with paraffin, I tried this recently in my Koi house, a gallon lasted 36 hours but I couldn’t stand the smell, so it was back to electric!
A big open show back then would pull in 1,000 entries, and the highlight of the year was the British Aquarist Festival (BAF) at Belle Vue Zoo, Manchester, most societies would organise bus trips, and the best aquatic dealers and importers were ‘always’ there. I went for my second visit in 1976, determined to photo everything; 3 rolls of film later I had run out! Over 100 societies were present with their tableauxs and fish.
Despite Aquarist & Pondkeeper having a monopoly on the aquatic literature market, they still supported and sponsored aquatic societies, providing them with award stickers and cards. Best In show Pins and certificates free, to any society, from them on request, as were club badges.
The energy crisis changed a lot in the hobby, you would have to choose the shows you attended (usually local) and start putting insulation in the fish house to keep costs down!