This blog post is long overdue, in fact, it's been overdue since May 2015. Given the difficulties that there are in the hobby of procuring quality bows (especially for us in the UK), I thought I would share a little of my experience in visiting a rainbowfish expert, Gilbert Maebe. My life has been hectic of late, but now that the dust seems to be settling a little and I have time to sit back and observe my rainbows in their 8 x 2 x 2 home, my mind floats back to that time when I purchased the bulk of my stock from Gilbert in Belgium. The trip is well worth sharing.
It was back in early 2015 when I, with some trepidation floated the idea to my wife of a trip to the North of France during the Easter break. My aim was to tick a few boxes, not least of these being a visit to the sites of the Battle of the Somme, along with various other sites from World War I and II. This part of the trip was memorable and sobering and was a truly worthwhile experience and will not be forgotten any time soon. I would urge anyone, especially anyone who has had family members fight or die on the Great War to visit these sites. It's an experience I really cant put in to words.
To the right - a picture of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, France. A monument to the men of Ulster that fought and died there.
Another part of the trip was that I planned to take a mad detour to Belgium to visit Gilbert Maebe, the only non-German founder of the IRG. Much to my surprise my wife took very little convincing and she agreed to be my navigator on the trip! What a girl!
I feel in many ways like I had been pushed towards this trip. Having purchased rainbowfish in my local shops, I was flat out disappointed beyond belief at their quality. They never seemed to live up to the quality in the pictures. In fact, what reality hit me was that one day when I posted a few pictures of my boesemani on an online forum I was told they were nice for 'aquarium strain.' Whilst I believe the quote was meant in the most sincere form, I was struck not by what was said, but by what was not said. Nice for 'aquarium strain' really meant to me 'nice for shop bought bows' - I understand that not all shop bought rainbowfish are poor quality, in fact some are quite spectacular - but you get the picture - they certainly have a general reputation for being poor in quality - and in many respects this reputation is well deserved - I didn't want to take the risk of putting a years effort into fish only to realise they were never going to have any colour. The 'aquarium strain' slight (if I can call it that) wasn't on me, it was on the quality of my stock and the stock generally available in the UK. I could put all the effort I wanted into those fish, and they were always going to be drab and colourless compared to the real thing. Whilst I know the some shops in England have great reputations for the rainbowfish they sell, most will not ship to Northern Ireland, and those that do charge big money. Financially it made sense to go to Belgium and buy a lot of bows. I'm serious about my hobby - I enjoy it, I put effort in, and I want to get hte best I can from my fish. I knew I had to do something drastic, and if I had to drive half way across Europe, I was going to do just that!
Prior to heading I double checked the legality of what I was doing, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) being the government agency that would deal with this sort of thing in NI. There were no issues for tropical ornamental fish coming from within Europe, so I was all good from that respect. I made contact with Gilbert prior to my trip and organised where and when I could meet him. Logistics were important to me - it had to be well planned out, especially since as I saw it, I had two days from pick up to get the bows back to Northern Ireland or else they'd be dead, or there abouts. I came prepared with my polystyrene box and heat packs. He gave me some good advice and agreed not to feed the fish the morning of pickup so that there would be less ammonia in the bags during transport, and he also said he had some pure oxygen which he would use to fill the bags. These added bonuses helped put my mind at ease.
I have to admit whilst on my way to Gilbert's house I thought 'this is absolutely mental...who drives half way across Europe to buy fish?' Me apparently! The crazy thing is, I would do it again in a heartbeat! Anyways, with my trusty navigator at my side, we arrived at Gilbert's house right on time. It had been a four hour drive from where we were staying in France and we were looking forward to stretching our legs. If there was ever a moment of regret, it quickly disappeared as soon as I saw Gilbert's show tank in his living room. Please appreciate that my photo in no way does it justice - the most beautiful Melanotaenia boesemani you had ever seen, along with some Melanotaenia ajamaruensis, Chilatherina fasciata and some Pseudomugil Gertrudae Aru II. When I saw the tank, I thought, 'good decision, Dave, no regrets!' I also made a mental comparison of the quality and colour of his boesemani against the shop bought boesemani I had owned. Trust me, there was absolutely no comparison! Gilbert's M. boesemani blew anything I had previously owned out of the water. I should also note that Gilbert also released a short writeup about his tank for the IRG. I'll post a link to that article at the bottom of the page.
Picture Below - Gilbert's show tank
It was back in early 2015 when I, with some trepidation floated the idea to my wife of a trip to the North of France during the Easter break. My aim was to tick a few boxes, not least of these being a visit to the sites of the Battle of the Somme, along with various other sites from World War I and II. This part of the trip was memorable and sobering and was a truly worthwhile experience and will not be forgotten any time soon. I would urge anyone, especially anyone who has had family members fight or die on the Great War to visit these sites. It's an experience I really cant put in to words.
To the right - a picture of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, France. A monument to the men of Ulster that fought and died there.
Another part of the trip was that I planned to take a mad detour to Belgium to visit Gilbert Maebe, the only non-German founder of the IRG. Much to my surprise my wife took very little convincing and she agreed to be my navigator on the trip! What a girl!
I feel in many ways like I had been pushed towards this trip. Having purchased rainbowfish in my local shops, I was flat out disappointed beyond belief at their quality. They never seemed to live up to the quality in the pictures. In fact, what reality hit me was that one day when I posted a few pictures of my boesemani on an online forum I was told they were nice for 'aquarium strain.' Whilst I believe the quote was meant in the most sincere form, I was struck not by what was said, but by what was not said. Nice for 'aquarium strain' really meant to me 'nice for shop bought bows' - I understand that not all shop bought rainbowfish are poor quality, in fact some are quite spectacular - but you get the picture - they certainly have a general reputation for being poor in quality - and in many respects this reputation is well deserved - I didn't want to take the risk of putting a years effort into fish only to realise they were never going to have any colour. The 'aquarium strain' slight (if I can call it that) wasn't on me, it was on the quality of my stock and the stock generally available in the UK. I could put all the effort I wanted into those fish, and they were always going to be drab and colourless compared to the real thing. Whilst I know the some shops in England have great reputations for the rainbowfish they sell, most will not ship to Northern Ireland, and those that do charge big money. Financially it made sense to go to Belgium and buy a lot of bows. I'm serious about my hobby - I enjoy it, I put effort in, and I want to get hte best I can from my fish. I knew I had to do something drastic, and if I had to drive half way across Europe, I was going to do just that!
Prior to heading I double checked the legality of what I was doing, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) being the government agency that would deal with this sort of thing in NI. There were no issues for tropical ornamental fish coming from within Europe, so I was all good from that respect. I made contact with Gilbert prior to my trip and organised where and when I could meet him. Logistics were important to me - it had to be well planned out, especially since as I saw it, I had two days from pick up to get the bows back to Northern Ireland or else they'd be dead, or there abouts. I came prepared with my polystyrene box and heat packs. He gave me some good advice and agreed not to feed the fish the morning of pickup so that there would be less ammonia in the bags during transport, and he also said he had some pure oxygen which he would use to fill the bags. These added bonuses helped put my mind at ease.
I have to admit whilst on my way to Gilbert's house I thought 'this is absolutely mental...who drives half way across Europe to buy fish?' Me apparently! The crazy thing is, I would do it again in a heartbeat! Anyways, with my trusty navigator at my side, we arrived at Gilbert's house right on time. It had been a four hour drive from where we were staying in France and we were looking forward to stretching our legs. If there was ever a moment of regret, it quickly disappeared as soon as I saw Gilbert's show tank in his living room. Please appreciate that my photo in no way does it justice - the most beautiful Melanotaenia boesemani you had ever seen, along with some Melanotaenia ajamaruensis, Chilatherina fasciata and some Pseudomugil Gertrudae Aru II. When I saw the tank, I thought, 'good decision, Dave, no regrets!' I also made a mental comparison of the quality and colour of his boesemani against the shop bought boesemani I had owned. Trust me, there was absolutely no comparison! Gilbert's M. boesemani blew anything I had previously owned out of the water. I should also note that Gilbert also released a short writeup about his tank for the IRG. I'll post a link to that article at the bottom of the page.
Picture Below - Gilbert's show tank
The tank is set in the wall. As soon as you walk into the living room you get the view as per above. The back of the tank is in Gilbert's heated fish room. This heated room helps to maintain the water temperature without the need for wires and heaters - beautiful.
...And then I met Gilbert. Gilbert is a man of immense knowledge when it comes to Rainbowfish. I cant remember exactly how many years he's been keeping them, but it's been around the 40 year mark. He was friendly, patient and most of all showed no sense of ego. He was happy to let me take a few photos, ask questions, and he even took the time to show me his collection of rainbowfish books, some of his photographs and helped me out by supplying me with some fish and biotope pictures for a presentation I was giving to my local fish club. For a guy who has been all over the world, who has given presentations and who has collected rainbowfish in the wild, it is somewhat humbling that he took the time to answer all of the questions I had. Gilbert is clearly passionate about rainbowfish, he's interested in every facet of them, and clearly, he's interested in preserving these beautiful fish for the hobby. I think that's something that we as rainbowfish hobbyists should be thankful for. Without the efforts of people like Gilbert Maebe, we would have barely any access at all to the wonderful rainbowfish we have on our tanks.
As impressive as his display tank was, Gilbert's fish room was even more impressive. There were over 60+ tanks kept in pristine condition, the largest being over three metres long, all stocked with beautiful rainbowfish - including some much coveted Glossolepis wanamensis. All Gilbert's tanks were planted with a few varieties of low tech plants which help keep his fish happy. I find it hard enough to find the time to maintain two tanks in pristine condition, nevermind 60+. Once more, Gilbert cultures all his on live food so he ensures they all get a healthy balanced diet. I remember being completely blown away by the sheer variety of species on offer too. I don't care to name them all here, but safe to say there was , M. ajamaruensis, M. affinis, M. boesemani (from a few different locales), M. etnaensis, M. parva, M. picta, M. trifasciata (more than one type), G. wanamensis, various Pseudomugil, and some Rhads too - really, there was lots more, I can't remember half of them. I am quite reserved and controlled by nature, but this was like a kid let loose in a sweet shop. I had went to Gilbert's home with a plan of what juveniles I wanted to walk away with - boesemani, parva, bleheri etc to name a few. I came away with these and a whole host more, including M. ajamaruensis and M. trifasciata 'Habgood River' along with some wonderful Pseudomugil Gertrudae Aru II. The little blue eyes especially had never been on my radar, and then I saw them sparring in one of Gilbert's tanks. Gilbert had a host of the juveniles growing on and so was more that willing to sell me some.
Once the fish were all bagged up, Gilbert and I talked about various rainbowfish related subjects including a trip that he planned to take to Australia to once again catch some fish in the wild. Before long though it was time to go. I had been with Gilbert a few hours by the time I left, but in reality it felt like minutes and as you can see, it was an experience I thoroughly enjoyed and one I am happy to share.
Link to the write-up on Gilbert's show tank
http://www.irg-online.de/media/rfe/Regenbogenfisch_2016-3_pp97-102_Maebe_Living_Room_Tank.pdf
http://www.irg-online.de/media/rfe/Regenbogenfisch_2016-3_pp97-102_Maebe_Living_Room_Tank.pdf