Patterson333
Aquarium Advice Freak
Hi all! So when I first got into fishkeeping about three years ago, my father took a pretty intense interest in it. When I asked him why, he told me about how he used to keep fish when he was growing up in Cuba.
However, before I go any further, allow me first to say: I do not, in any way, shape, or form, endorse keeping fish in these conditions nowadays. Please keep in mind that this was a very different culture and during a period in time in which fishkeeping was nowhere near as common as it is today.
That said, I still think it's a story worth telling because it's a nice little insight into a piece of fishkeeping history.
Alright, so back to the story. My father told me that the only fish that were available to them at first were guppies, and that they were sold by a man who had been keeping and breeding them for a long time. Now here's the only problem they had. This was post-revolutionary Cuba, and it was impossible for a Cuban to buy a fish tank. So they kept the fish either in large empty barrels, or in small glass vases. The problem was that you couldn't really see them in the barrels, and they didn't last very long at all in the vases.
However, culturally, Cubans have always had a remarkable ability to make do with what they got, and that's exactly what they did. What my father and his friends ended up doing was getting themselves some old dead batteries off of boats. From his description of the batteries, they seemed to have been about the size of a 20 gallon tank. They would clean the batteries out with seawater (soap had become a bit of a luxury), and they would cut a really large square hole in one side of the battery. They would then get pieces of glass (my dad said he didn't remember where they would manage to find them), and have them cut to the right size to cover the hole they had cut. They would glue that glass in place over the hole, and use these "batteries with windows" as their fish tanks. They would replace half the water with fresh tap water a few times a week (the water in Cuba wasn't chlorinated). As far as food goes, my father says they used to feed the fish leftover banana peels, and also some bits of coconut every once in a while.
Remember that part where I said I don't endorse keeping fish like this? Well, in case it isn't immediately obvious to you, keeping fish in emptied out batteries and feeding them banana peels probably isn't very healthy for the fish. That said, my dad's story serves as a testament to the hardiness of guppies and other livebearers. He told me that they would have many deaths, but that the population was kept more or less stable as they would also breed prolifically. In fact they had enough fry that they were able to sell them to others.
My father left Cuba in 1970, and he and my grandparents were only allowed to take the clothes on their backs with them. Needless to say, the fish stayed behind; he had entrusted them to a good friend of his. My father has since lost contact with him, but he doesn't doubt that there are still people in Cuba today, keeping fish in whatever they have available to them, and he tells me he wonders sometimes if maybe his colony of guppies is still around somewhere on the island.
Sorry for the long read! If you made it all the way through, I hope you found it interesting!
However, before I go any further, allow me first to say: I do not, in any way, shape, or form, endorse keeping fish in these conditions nowadays. Please keep in mind that this was a very different culture and during a period in time in which fishkeeping was nowhere near as common as it is today.
That said, I still think it's a story worth telling because it's a nice little insight into a piece of fishkeeping history.
Alright, so back to the story. My father told me that the only fish that were available to them at first were guppies, and that they were sold by a man who had been keeping and breeding them for a long time. Now here's the only problem they had. This was post-revolutionary Cuba, and it was impossible for a Cuban to buy a fish tank. So they kept the fish either in large empty barrels, or in small glass vases. The problem was that you couldn't really see them in the barrels, and they didn't last very long at all in the vases.
However, culturally, Cubans have always had a remarkable ability to make do with what they got, and that's exactly what they did. What my father and his friends ended up doing was getting themselves some old dead batteries off of boats. From his description of the batteries, they seemed to have been about the size of a 20 gallon tank. They would clean the batteries out with seawater (soap had become a bit of a luxury), and they would cut a really large square hole in one side of the battery. They would then get pieces of glass (my dad said he didn't remember where they would manage to find them), and have them cut to the right size to cover the hole they had cut. They would glue that glass in place over the hole, and use these "batteries with windows" as their fish tanks. They would replace half the water with fresh tap water a few times a week (the water in Cuba wasn't chlorinated). As far as food goes, my father says they used to feed the fish leftover banana peels, and also some bits of coconut every once in a while.
Remember that part where I said I don't endorse keeping fish like this? Well, in case it isn't immediately obvious to you, keeping fish in emptied out batteries and feeding them banana peels probably isn't very healthy for the fish. That said, my dad's story serves as a testament to the hardiness of guppies and other livebearers. He told me that they would have many deaths, but that the population was kept more or less stable as they would also breed prolifically. In fact they had enough fry that they were able to sell them to others.
My father left Cuba in 1970, and he and my grandparents were only allowed to take the clothes on their backs with them. Needless to say, the fish stayed behind; he had entrusted them to a good friend of his. My father has since lost contact with him, but he doesn't doubt that there are still people in Cuba today, keeping fish in whatever they have available to them, and he tells me he wonders sometimes if maybe his colony of guppies is still around somewhere on the island.
Sorry for the long read! If you made it all the way through, I hope you found it interesting!
