HOOKED ON FISH : Pet store business is booming as Americans go for aquariums that are more sophisticated, decorative--and, some believe, therapeutic

Barbara and Cruz Rodriguez didn’t buy goldfish just for fish bowls. The aquarium enthusiasts bought them a hundred at a time to feed the sharks, octopus and eels in a six-foot-long saltwater fish tank at their Riverside home.

“It got to the point where they were eating better than we were,” said Barbara, an orthodontic assistant. So, on a recent Saturday, the couple was looking for something tamer, such as sea slugs, at Global Aquarium & Pets in Pomona, one of the largest of Southern California’s thriving tropical fish stores. “We got in a cycle of one would eat the other,” Barbara explained as she and her husband shopped for yet another 100-gallon-plus aquarium.

Medical studies showing healthy relaxation benefits and the growing popularity of aquariums as “furniture” are luring more and more people to keep tropical fish. Advances in aquarium manufacturing technology have pushed down prices and made maintenance easier, attracting many to the hobby. Aquarium manufacturers and tropical fish dealers have seen their sales boom.

Tropical fish and the aquariums and other equipment needed to display them made up nearly a third of last year’s $1.7 billion in nationwide pet store sales, and business is bubbly this year, especially in Southern California. Nationwide, pet store sales of live fish rose from $119 million in 1985 to $136 million last year, and are expected to rise further this year, according to estimates by Duluth, Minn.-based Pet Supplies Marketing magazine. The nation’s three largest aquarium makers all report that sales are up 25% to 40% from last year.

“The last three years things have started to pick up, and this year especially, things are going kind of wild,” said Jerry R. Ritzow, president of 17-year-old All-Glass Aquarium, which makes more fish tanks than any other company in the country. Weekly production at the company’s Franklin, Wis., factory is, “well over 10,000” tanks, Ritzow said, having leaped nearly 50% in the last two years.

At Pacific Aquarium & Pet Supply, a manufacturer in Sun Valley, sales of aquariums are up 40% over last year, and retailers are buying 10-gallon starter tanks at a rate of about 4,000 a month, President Mark Noyer said.

Sales are up for all models, from 10 gallons to bathtub-sized, 240-gallon giants capable of holding a living reef, manufacturers say. “When your business goes up that much, it’s usually across the board, and that’s what we’re finding,” said Harvey A. Feinberg, vice president for sales and marketing at Nobelsville, Ind.-based Perfecto Manufacturing, one of All-Glass’ two biggest rivals.

Fun and Relaxing

A lot of those aquariums end up in Southern California, considered the nation’s fastest-growing market. Tetra U.S.A., the industry leader in the $125-million-a-year tropical fish and goldfish food business, has seen a 15% increase in sales nationwide this year and a 25% jump in California, General Manager Alan Mintz said.

Southern California is the nation’s biggest market for tropical fish, representing about 15% of the national market, said Steve Lambourne, a third-generation tropical fish importer in Sylmar. “I don’t care if you’re a GM worker in the Van Nuys area or a doctor or a nationally acclaimed writer, they all have fish,” he said, adding that his imports have risen 20% in each of the past three years.

“I’ve always liked fish,” said Steve Sprung, a Covina resident and bank loan officer who is converting his 50-gallon aquarium to saltwater. “They’re fairly easy to take care of; they’re fun to watch; they’re really relaxing.”

Manufacturers and pet store owners credit such sentiments for the recent surge of popularity for tropical fish, which have floated in and out of fashion for decades. (The use of glass-sided tanks to keep fish and aquatic plants at home began in Britain in the middle of the 19th Century, while the Romans are thought to have kept pet marine fish in pools.)

Many cite the increased use of aquariums as decorative pieces. According to a study last year by Tetra U.S.A., 40% of the nation’s 6 million households with working aquariums kept them for “ornamental and decorative” reasons.

“They’re turning into pieces of furniture, instead of guppies and so forth in 10-gallon bowls,” said Craig DeWalt, president of California Aquarium Supplies in Stanton. The company’s eight-gallon executive desktop model with built-in filter is encased in oak and retails for up to $500.

“We’re selling a lot of expensive setups to people who’ve never kept fish before,” said Bruce Sergy, president of Aquarium Stock, a Los Angeles pet store.

A much publicized project at the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school in Philadelphia may have helped tropical fish sales. The 8-year-old study found that watching the silent, colorful motion reduces stress and may lower blood pressure by up to 10%, said Alan Beck, a public health biologist directing the study.

Stress levels in volunteers shown tropical fish before dental surgery were reduced as much as if they had been hypnotized, said Beck, who keeps two cats at home but no fish. “With all the publicity, it even has a placebo effect because people are sure it’ll work.”

Price Down, Investment Up

Technological improvements also have made aquariums cheaper and easier to operate. Supersealants have replaced black tar, while in a few tanks acrylic has replaced glass. “It’s not like it used to be, where it took hours upon hours upon hours to keep it looking nice,” said Chris Clevers, general manager of Lee Mar Aquarium & Pet Supplies, an aquarium maker in Vista.

“Just the run-of-the-mill filters are so much better now than they were 10 years ago,” said warehouseman Cruz Rodriguez.

Technological progress in manufacturing techniques has meant that aquarium prices actually have fallen slightly during the past 20 years, Mintz said. The average investment in a new aquarium setup, including fish, is now about $100, however, up from $50 just 10 years ago, as aficionados and novices buy larger tanks and stock them with ever more exotic fish, he said.

Prices can run much higher. Jim Van Osdel, a building contractor in Midway City, Calif., said he paid about $8,000 for his 240-gallon miniature living coral reef, complete with sea anemones. “I love the ocean, and love to be able to look down and feel I’m underwater,” he said. “I love to swim underwater.” So far he has bought just six fish for his 3-month-old aquarium.

Although tropical fish are sometimes maligned because they cannot readily be hugged, owners say they are just as attached to their pets as dog and cat owners.

“If I lose a fish, it’s very traumatic; it’s like losing one of my kids,” said Global Aquarium store owner Shirleen Damaske, who has kept fish for 14 years and whose children are 19 and 22.

AQUARIUM OWNERS There are 10 million aquariums in American households, according to a 1986 survey. People set up aquariums for a variety of reasons: 40% Ornamental or decorative 20% Leisure activity 20% Serious hobby 10% Pets 10% Unclassifiable * Unclassifiable: “Those who got tanks as gifts and don’t know what to do with them,” according to Alan Mintz, Tetra U.S.A. general manager. Source: Tetra Sales