Michael Purcell
Eng. 11 B55
Holly Pappas
Mickey Purcell the Monster Fish Keeper.
As I sit staring at the T.V., I see what is going on and I am absorbing it all, but only one thought really sticks out, one thought stands above them all. It is over taking my brain, it’s making me anxious and nervous and excited all at the same time. The thought is this, How can I get a specific fish all the from Japan. Doesn’t sound too hard right? The right amount of money can get you what ever you want. The thing that makes it so difficult is there are so few in the world available in the fish keeping hobby. If I had to guess how many there are, I would say more than one, but less than ten. The reason it is so hard to acquire these is because Brazil has put a fishing ban in effect recently. There is no import or export right now. What ever ones were exported before the ban are the only ones available. Unfortunatley the very few that were exported were exported to Japan. I’m sure you’re asking yourself why would you go through all that trouble to get a fish? I’ll tell you why, because I have an addiction, an obsession, a passion for keeping “Monster” fish.What makes a fish “Monster”? Well size accounts for a lot of it, but aggression and attitude makes some of the smallest fish “Monster”.
My obsession began in the summer of 2007. I was working in the fish department of a local Petstore. I had always liked fish and respected them for what they were, but that was it, nothing more than that. One week after the store had received a shipment of fish my sister and her boyfriend Vinny came by the store to say hello. My sister hung by the counter talking to me, catching up on things while Vinny disappeared into the isles of fish tanks. He looked through every tank, but he wasn’t just looking at the fish, he was more or less studying them. Noticing the movements they made, the individual colors from scale to scale. After my sister and I were done talking we went off to find Vinny. When we found him he had some questions about prices and compatibility of some fish. I helped him answer the questions to the best of my abilities. There was one question I will never forget though. It was a question that stumped me. He was looking at one of the tanks in the Cichlid section (Pronounce: Sick-lid.) that was filled with Pikes. I didn’t know why they were in that section, they didn’t look like Cichlids. All of the Cichlids had a really basic fish shape to them. These Pikes were long and slender, very sleek looking, like a torpedo. He asked me something to the effect of “What kind of Pikes are these?” to which I ignorantly replied “Ummm… Regular Pikes.” He gave me that kind of confused look, you know, the one when the person cocks their head to the side with one eyebrow raised, eyes squinted, and a half smirk. He looked back into the tank and said “Heh, they look like Crenicichla Sp. Belly Crawlers, real common in the hobby. I used to have one.” At that point I returned the look of confusion. “Huh? Creni-what?” He say anything, he continued looking from tank to tank studying the fish. His nose was almost touching the glass, he seemed happy and excited, almost at ease. I could tell he really enjoyed the fish. After Vinny was done we all said our good byes and my sister and Vinny left. I had a weird feeling though. I felt almost belittled it was my job to inform people and help them with there questions and problems, but I couldn’t answer what seemed to be an easy question. I didn’t know what kind of Pike we were selling neverming that there were different types.
I later made it a point to get in touch with my sister so I could contact Vinny. I wanted to ask him what the Pikes were called so I could look them up. When I finally contacted him he told me they were called Crenicichla. He recommended that I check a fish keeping forum and if I had any further questions to post them there. The webisite he recommended was called Monsterfishkeepers.com. It was the best thing anyone could have ever recommended for the subject at hand .
Once I got to the website I immediately utilized the search feature. I typed in the word Vinny told me the Pikes were called, Crenicichla. When I searched it pages upon pages came up with that word in the links. There was a whole forum dedicated to nothing but the Crenicichla. I began to look through the threads to try to gather up some knowledge. Upon doing this though I saw some tanks that were unreal. They looked as if you just put on a pair of goggles and submerged your head into the fish’s natural environment. It wasn’t like the artificial tanks I was used to seeing. Instead of tacky colored gravel they had natural looking sand. Instead of Dragons statues or ship wrecks made of a resin material the had elegant pieces of driftwood. They didn’t have fake looking plants that you had to dig into the gravel, instead they had all sorts of different live plants rooted into the sand or hanging on to the driftwood. I was in awe. I was intrigued to learn more about these fish because of the aquascaping alone.
After posting some questions and getting some answers, I felt as if I was capable of doing research on my own. I learned that not only was there one than one type of Pike, that there was many different families of them. All in different families cause of certain traits and variations. From the litte dwarf species Wallici who are said to be the most aggressive pound for pound to the Lugubris group who grow the largest and have the most flashy and eye catching colors, I was amazed. I was so intrigued and interested in these fish. I wanted to get some, I wanted to experience these fish. There had to be a reason so many people owned them and went through such trouble to make there tanks as natural as possible.
So my obsession began. One day at work, I took the plunge. I bought myself a 29 gallon tank and set it up in my apartment. I cycled the tank with goldfish for close to 2 months to make sure the water was suitable for a Crenicichla to live in. I waited and waited for our store to get in a shipment with some Crenicichla in it because the batch we had when Vinny came in was already sold out.
Finally, the day came, I was putting away a new shipment of fish and I saw it, a bag labled Brown Pike. I immediately rushed to it. I grabbed the bag and held it up at eye level so I could see inside the bag. These fish were identical to the last ones we had. They were Crenicihla Sp. Belly Crawlers. They were called Belly Crawlers because of the way they swim. They live in flast flowing rivers in South America so they keep close to the bottom and only move with their Belly hugging the ground. They were about four inches long and very thin. I guess the whole saler we bought them from didn’t make it a point to feed them for what ever reason. I picked the one I wanted and brought it home.
I had that Belly Crawler for close to eight months. She finally met her demise one day when the heater I had in the tank stopped working during a cold winter day. The water got far too cold for her and she ceased to live. I say she because the females have a spot on their dorsal fin. That is the fin on top of the fish. There was a spot on it’s dorsal which concluded it was a she. I had such a great respect for her though. In the eight months I had her I learned so much about her. What foods she liked, how to get her to eat foods she didn’t like, what levels to keep the water parameters at and so on. I really liked how bold and curious she was though. When I looked at her through the glass she came right to the front of the tank and returned the favor. She would sit there and stare at me. Her eyes would move in what ever direction I went. I had such a great respect for her.
From that day on I have constantly studied these fish. Learning all there is to know about them. I have kept the at least one of all of the available species. I am now obsessed. I love these creatures. So here I find myself without a tank. When I moved from my apartment back to my mothers house I couldn’t bring my tanks. I had to get rid of all of my precious specimens. It was like giving up my children. Recently I have work out a deal with a fellow fish keeping friend, Vinny. I am going to be setting up a tank at his house in the event that I can acquire a pair of Crenicichla Rosemariae. These are probably the rarest Crenicichla in the hobby, and they are by far one of the most beautiful. They are Lime green on the top half with small Red spots through the green and the bottom half is flourecent orange. It is probably going to cost me thousands of dollars to get them here if I can even find them. I would even settle for a single specimen at this point. This hobby has taken over though. It isnt a hobby anymore though, it’s a passion, a life style. Even though I don’t have any now, I still surround myself with thoughts of them. I am constantly reading about different species and always waiting for the ban in Brazil to be up. No matter what though even if I never own the Crenicichla Rosemariae, I will always be curious about them. From experiences with other Crenicichla I can only imagine what they would be like to keep. So that’s my story, I am a Monster Fish Keeper.
