Welcome

This is my little welcome jaunt, the place where I am going to outline my plans/ hopes for this section of my site (my site in general, actually!) and other random stuff. Thanks for tuning in!

If you've surfed my website through the main path, going from page to page, you're going to notice that this aquarium section is bigger than the other areas. Does this mean I like my fish better than my other pets? No... well.... in a way... yeah, I suppose it does. It's nothing against the small and furry's, really! I have to say I love dogs even more than fish, so there.

Why are fish so important to me? I have no idea... maybe because I have kept them for so long? I started keeping goldfish (in bowls, bad me) when I was like 7, and I got my first aquarium in 5th grade, when I was ten. Since then, after a dry spell (no tanks) that lasted a few years, I have acquired three tanks total- 2 ten gallons and a 2 and a half. Next year, I am upgrading the tens to twenties, and who knows what'll happen after that!

Aquarium keeping has also been a huge part of my job for the past few years. I've worked in the aquatics department at PETsMART (yes, PETsMART, don't start on me about that! It's a messy job, but someone's gotta do it!) for three years now, and I have learned a lot about the trade. I learn by reading, watching, doing and talking to people- customers and fellow fish geeks.

To make it really bad, I have recently decided to pursue fisheries science as my major in college! So eventually (I hope) catching fish will be part of my real job! It sure beats working at a chain store for the rest of my life. I have picked up an interest in native fishes, a previously unknown (to me) realm through membership in the American Fisheries Society.

My hopes and goals for this website are for newcomers to the world of aquarium fish to become familiar with fish keeping, especially with the familes and orders of fish. Scientific names are very important to the industry- I highly reccomend anyone that is serious about this hobby get used to using them. How else are you going to ask your local fish store (lfs) to order you that rare species of catfish? Seriously, I converse with people from many different countries, and we are all bonded by our love of aquaria and fish keeping! And people from Germany may not know what a Neon Tetra is, but they will know Paracheirodon innesi!

I don't expect this website to be very large in its reach, but even if I only touch a few people, that's a few more fish finatics in the world, right? I hope you enjoy your stay at my website, and please come back every once in a while, as this will be an ongoing project.

I'd like to make a few managerial notes here: one, the pictures in my fish families section are not mine, I borrowed them from fishbase.org. Go there and check it out, it's an awesome ID site for all sorts of fish! Eventually, I hope to have almost all of my pictures owned and taken by ME, so I can have a more original page. Secondly, any site marked with this symbol

is under construction (DUH). I hope it will be done soon, as my time allows. Thirdly, check out Age of Aquariums, which is the site where most of my backgrounds came from.

Also, please email me any suggestions you may have for improving my site! Thanks!