Eagle Archives, Feb. 18, 1938: Tropical fish is Olcott's hobby - Berkshire Eagle

Eagle Archives, Feb. 18, 1938: Tropical fish is Olcott's hobby - Berkshire Eagle

Eagle Archives, Feb. 18, 1938: Tropical fish is Olcott's hobby - Berkshire Eagle

Posted: 17 Feb 2021 09:01 PM PST

Fish have personalities. Take it from William M. K. Olcott, 40 Bartlett Avenue, who started last April raising the finny creatures as a hobby. The little streamliners turned the fisherman's tables by catching their captor's fancy, neat as any human angler, and hauled him into fish-rearing "hook, line and sinker." Already Mr. Olcott has developed his own breed of Guppy!

To one so little versed in fish-lore as to develop a rash from eating one, it was explained that Guppies are the Belgian hares of the sea. They multiply faster even than fish stories, with a dozen or fifteen eggs a month. The trick that hobby-ists strive toward is to develop a Guppy with some "standardized" stripe or marking. But with the rapid turn-over this must needs be done almost with a speed camera.

But the Guppies, compared to the red snails, might be charter members of the Margaret Sanger club. Since April the snails have accounted for two or three thousand descendants — or would have but the fish ate some. There is a point at which fish-culture creates a housing problem for the breeders. "Shall we keep the living room, flood it for the Swordtails, or put them in the cellar with the Couramis?"

Both Mr. and Mrs. Olcott — his wife is almost equally interested in the hobby — are convinced raising tropical fish, which are the only kind they breed, can be one of the most engrossing, yet uncomplicated hobbies in the world. It is an education, say both, to watch the underwater antics of the creatures.

Asked how tropical fish could weather Berkshire climate, Mr. Olcott explained simply that even in the tropical home-waters of the finny tribe, the warm water was only at the surface, with much colder water a few feet below. To prove their hardihood, he found they throve under temperatures from 68 to 80 degrees. Once, he recalls, the tank of Siamese fighting fish was left on a radiator overnight. Steam came on during the night, and by morning the water was 110 degrees, but both fish survived. He admits perhaps this is why they are fighting fish, or vice-versa.

Among the exotic fish raised in their apartment are the Angel fish, perhaps so named because the father aids the mother in caring for the young. They are pastel colored, and termed the aristocrats of the tank. Even when frightened, they swim with dignity, quite unlike the little Tetras which dash to the bottom and stand on their heads when alarmed.

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