My friend Stephan took me on a trip to Germany to meet his fish friends. This trip was great!! I saw lots of fantastic fish rooms, got lots of ideas, and even brought home some fish. Our home base was the home of Ingo Seidel. He and Hans Evers are the co-authors of the Baensch Catfish Atlas volumes I and II. Volume I just came out in English and volume II will hopefully come out in a year. The first volume is 900 pages on whiptails and the second volume is over 1300 pages on L-numbers! Ingo works at Aqua-Global, a large fish importer north of Berlin. The owner Gerolf Jander and all the employees were really wonderful and very hospitable. They let Stephan and I search through all the hundreds of tanks looking for fish to bring home.
Stephan is on the left and Ingo is on the right (Stephan recently set up his own website by the way).
Here's Aqua-Global and the owner Gerolf
We went to a family owned fish breeding facility on our way to the Interzoo trade show. This was the most amazing breeding set up I have ever seen. Room after room completely filled with fish tanks. All of the tanks were planted, decorated, and beautiful even though they were used for mass production! They had the most stunning Apistogramma collection I've ever seen. They also had a Koi angel they said they have worked on for 20 years. They call it the Red Devil. I couldn't resist and I brought some home. We also made Ingo promise to bring us lots of Apistos and West African cichlids from this nursery when he comes over to the USA next year. They had a room of dwarf cichlids, a room of angels and discus, a room of catfish, and a room of livebearers. It just went on forever. They even had a retail store front even though they are primarily a breeder-wholesaler. The quality and the health of the fish that I saw at every German pet store was FAR superior to anything I have seen in the USA. For some reason our pet stores have really shaggy fish. Stephan and I have been discussing the differences in procedures every day at lunch for years (we work together). The bottom line is that if somebody would start a German style pet store in the USA it would do really well.
They make it look a little nice for the Retail Room. But check out how well planted the tanks are. The fish were all so healthy. I wish the fish in our pet stores were so healthy!
We spent the next four days at the Interzoo trade show in Nuremberg. This was held at a huge convention center and was packed with companies from around the world. Everything from Singapore fish farms to manufacturers of dog collars, aquariums, bird cages, etc.. There I met the owner of Tetra Press, Hans-Joachim Herrmann. He and his employees were wonderful and took us all out to dinner. Stephan and I promised to write him some articles for his magazine Aquaristik Fachmagazin. They have the best journals over there that aren't translated into English. The articles are just packed with information and they make TFH and FAMA look like coloring books for children. They have lots of books that we never get too.
Here's Ingo and Stephan in Nuremberg.
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Here's Stephan, Hans-Joachim, Eckhardt, and Birthe at a restaurant in Nuremberg.
Here's the Interzoo trade show itself.
Here's a beer garden in Nuremberg.
Here's Neil Woodward and Stefan Koerber at that same beer garden. Neil has a pet store in Wigan, Great Britain. Stefan maintains a fantastic website on Argentinian fish. These are two very funny guys!! I learned all sorts of useful things to say in Spanish...
After the Interzoo, Stephan and I went to the home of Uwe Wolf and his wife Elke, while Ingo went back to work at Aqua-Global. Uwe and his wife have a beautiful home and were wonderful to visit. Uwe partially supported his family in East Germany for years on the fish he raised in his fish room. What is truly amazing is that this fish room is only 9 feet by 6 feet (3 by 2 meters)! It is the ultimate in space efficiency. I learned a lot from his ideas and designs and he told me how to breed some neat fish. The tanks fill up almost all of the room and there is barely any room to stand. What was really neat was the pull-out bench that comes out of the wall for him to stand on to reach the upper rows of tanks. Even more neat is that the bench comes out from underneath two huge fish tanks built into the wall that face the living room. The lower tank has a beautiful Potamotrygon leopoldi stingray and the upper tank is planted and features small barbs.
Next, Stephan, Uwe, and I went back to Aqua-Global, and reconnected with Ingo. Gerolf, the owner, was kind enough to let us use his larger car and we went on a tour of fish rooms and pet stores across Germany. First, we visited "Das Aquarium" in Braunschweig. Carsten Zupp was nice enough to show us around. The store offers excellent discus and fantastic koi!
Next, we visited the home of Jens Gottwald, an importer of fish from the Rio Xingu. Ingo is sexing Scobinancistrus cf aureatus L14.
We spent the night at the home of Ingo's parents in Hoykenkamp.
Uwe and Stephan enjoyed German bratwurst and delicious Jever beer all evening long.
The next morning we went to the store a friend of Ingo and Stephan, Volker Bohnet works for, "Aqua Design". This was a fantastic aquarium store. If Stephan and I ever get up the courage to start a store, we will return to this one to get the blue print.
Next, we visited the home of Volker. He has another of these fish rooms that is a model of space efficiency.
Next was the home of Michael Schlueter. His fish room is one wall with around 55 tanks on it! Fantastic use of space. He was really nice and gave me some Dario dario. All his fish were so cool! He has an excellent website of his own here.
Stephan and Ingo seated, Michael Schlueter is on the right.
The fish he gave me, Dario dario.
Next was the home of Hans-Georg Evers. He is the co-author of the Catfish Atlas and a new Corydoras book. He is also the editor of the Amazonas magazine (I wish they'd do this one in English!), a new publication of the NTV publishing house that produces the fantastic Reptilia magazine, which is available in English.
Ingo, Hans, and Uwe.
I brought home some great Panda corys that Uwe Wolf gave me. From Aqua-Global I brought home some really cool butterfly loaches (Sewellia lineolata, they look like little hover craft) and some fantastic L-262s.
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