Massive tropical fish operation splashes into new Madison retail space - WMTV – NBC15

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – One fish, two fish; red fish, blue fish… so many fish!

Thousands of new residents have moved behind the four walls at 1010 Stewart Street, in Madison. A massive tank farm and tropical fish operation houses everything from freshwater critters, plants, and corals to freshwater livestock from across the globe.

Walking into the unassuming building that dons the Big Kahuna Tropical Fish name on the front, reveals a world of fish, with a team of aquatic professionals just a stone's throw away. Five huge 1,500-gallon systems fill the 7,000 square foot space, which sells and ships tropical fish across the country.

Big Kahuna Tropical Fish stocks thousands of tropical fish at its store in Madison, Wisconsin.(WMTV-TV)

For the Big Kahuna's big kahuna Jon Healy the tropical fish trade runs as deep as an ocean current. Healy recalled how passionate his father was about tropical fish and how he bought a store in southern California, which was successful for a long time.

"My friends and I all worked there when we were 12 and 13 over the summer and you just learn the business, the ins and outs and where the good fish come from, where to buy them and how to care for them," Healy recalled.

He admits the ceilings for running a tropical fish business in Dane Co., which is at least 700 miles from the nearest ocean, is pretty low; so Healy instead turned to the internet for most of his business. Now, his store is flooded with thousands of snails, starfish, corals, and so many schools of fish that they could start their own NCAA rival.

The fish come from near and far, from cichlids that traveled thousands of miles from the Far East to ones that only had to make the 100-mile trek from a local breeder in DeKalb. Many of colorful corals come from even closer to home and are created with sustainability in mind.

General Manager Tyler Walhovd explained all the coral Big Kahuna has sold in the last seven years has been grown in-house. That way they don't have to take anything from the oceans.

Plus, he noted, the coral fills another purpose for the store. While the coral gets 80% of its nutrients from the store's lights, how it gets the other 20% helps keep the tanks clean.

"The rest of that comes from food and in this case in the form of fish poop," Walhovd said. "There's about 50 fish in this 320-gallon tub and we feed them really heavily and in turn they produce a lot of waste and that waste is the remainder of the diet of these corals."

Greener tanks nearby, a plethora of plants are living below the surface ready to be propagated for their new home.

"Most aquarium stores, you'd only see one or two tanks with a few random potted plants...we have at any time between 30 and 40 different varieties of aquatic plants which is a lot different than most aquarium stores" detailed Chris Brown, Maintenance and shipping Manager. "We also run CO2 in our systems so that allows for a lot better plant growth."

Healy pointed out they help bring the process full circle and allows the Big Kahuna to maintain its livestock.

"It's great we're able to give them an environment to succeed and flourish and grow and do well," he continued.

Together, it's a relationship that goes swimmingly hand in fin.

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