No Fish Out of Water Here : Club Caters to Hobbyists Who Are Interested in Aquatic Life
Phil Dobson keeps 40 aquariums, 50 fishbowls and a 350-gallon pond at the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife, Cheryl.
The aquariums--ranging from 2.5 gallons to 60 gallons in capacity--contain hundreds of freshwater fish, including angelfish, guppies, killifish, gudgeons, catfish and African cichlids. The bowls house mostly bettas. And the pond--which Dobson dug in his tiny back yard--is home to a group of koi, turtles, crawdads and mosquito fish.
“I like having a slice of nature in my house,” said the out-of-work plumber, who lives on a disability pension and spends at least seven hours a day caring for his marine menagerie. “I’ve always been fascinated by biology.”
That may explain why he is founding president of California’s Organization of Aquatic Show Tropicals (COAST), Orange County’s only fish club for people with a general interest in aquatic life.
“I look at it from a hobbyist point of view,” explained Dobson, 34. “I just wanted to be able to talk to people with similar interests.”
In fact, since starting the club almost two years ago, Dobson’s field of fish-loving acquaintances has grown considerably from the group’s original four members to more than 50 today.
Although a handful of fish clubs exist in Southern California, Dobson said, COAST is one of the few that do not specialize in a specific species. While many clubs are highly esoteric in their focus and protective of their knowledge, Dobson said, his is open to anyone with even a beginning interest in the hobby.
Indeed, COAST meetings--held the first Sunday of each month at a bank in Garden Grove--resemble a fish lover’s bazaar. Members bring exotic home-bred tropical fish in plastic bags to trade or auction. Equipment such as extra tanks and air pumps frequently changes hands, and, with the help of the club’s monthly newsletter, Showfish, members trade what they consider the most valuable commodity of all: information.
“It’s a chance to learn more about the different breeds of fish,” said Steve Harvey, 23, a driver at Disneyland who lives in Anaheim, where he raises South American cichlids in five different tanks. “There’s a lot of information to be shared.”
Ronald Jackson, a 60-year-old retired air-conditioning technician from Garden Grove who owns 60 aquariums populated with killifish, said that he appreciates the club’s camaraderie. “I can lie to other people about my accomplishments,” Jackson quipped, “and we can always get together to exchange ideas.”
Recent issues of Showfish, for example, have included member-written articles on such scintillating topics as biological filters, the optimum media for microworms, spawning the Celebes rainbow, hatching brine shrimp and “ C. Paleatus: the Peppered Cory.”
To supplement their knowledge, Dobson said, club members plan frequent field trips. In a few weeks, they are scheduled to take a “backstage” tour of Cabrillo Marine Museum in San Pedro, one of the finest marine aquariums in Southern California.
Just last weekend, the club held its annual daphnia-collecting party at Huntington Central Park in Huntington Beach. To the uninitiated, it must have seemed a strange gathering indeed.
Arriving at the park in early afternoon with nets and buckets in tow, club members kneeled gingerly on the bank of a large rain pond and skimmed the water with finely meshed material attached to long poles.
“You got a bunch of ‘em!” one man exclaimed after helping a friend empty the contents of his net into a bucket and then the contents of the bucket into a water-filled plastic bag.
The contents of the bag, held aloft by its owner, looked like nothing more than clear water. Gradually, though, myriad tiny, squirming, reddish creatures came into view. They were more numerous than baseball fans attending a home game at Anaheim Stadium.
Daphnia are almost-microscopic water fleas that breed by the millions each year during the rainy season in the area’s freshwater lakes and ponds. Tropical fish find them irresistible, a seemingly scrumptious source of protein and sustenance.
So tropical fish lovers collect them in nets, carry them home in buckets and bags, strain them in sinks and feed them to their pets.
“I’ve got enough here to feed my fish for a week!” beamed club member Richard Lawson, 37, who has two aquariums at his home in Anaheim. “It’s better than spending $3 or $4 (in a pet store).”
The high point of the afternoon, however, came when two unsuspecting Huntington Beach police officers wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts pedaled up on bicycles to ask what all the hubbub was about.
“I figured this was just rainwater,” admitted one newly enlightened officer, glancing at the pond after being told of its invisible contents. “I never knew it bred all these water fleas.”
“You learn something every day,” his partner noted as he climbed back on his bike to leave.
