Snail Tales

Before diving into my endeavor as an aquarium owner I thought a lot about the humane-ness of keeping small creatures confined in my home. I am a scuba diver and love nothing more than seeing underwater ecosystems thriving.

Though I’ve always loved and appreciated nature, I was certainly not always a model aquarium-keeper. When I was in elementary school I went through Walmart goldfish like they were a dime a dozen (sorry Cindy and Jerry!). Literally my “hobby” got to the point where we had a mass grave with tiny toothpick crosses in our front yard. I still feel awful about it.

Moving into this new era I thought a lot about how I could do it differently; there was clearly a lot of room for growth. I thought about bigger ticket items like my own value system when it comes to keeping a nano aquarium and began asking myself questions like:

• Does it feel morally okay to confine aquatic creatures?
• Will I be able to make sure these animals have a nice and comfortable life in my care?
• Where do I draw a line with the size/intelligence of the creatures in my tank?
• Is this type of hobby contributing to the larger aquarium trade which is, actually, pretty nasty?

After mulling it over for days, and speaking to some local aquarium suppliers I was able to wrap my head around this awesome little hobby, while also doing right by the animals I was bringing into my home. I decided that I would not purchase from shops who were careless with their animals (I see you shop on 6th and Clement!), and would only buy shrimp and smaller animals from places that valued their critters. I also vowed to NEVER buy any animals that were taken from the wild (that happens often in the aquarium trade unfortunately) and would only buy nano-critters who were born in captivity and whose lives might be enhanced by my tank set up.

This brings me to Steve. Steve owns a shop on 2nd and Balboa in San Francisco that is truly a one-man operation called Lucky Ocean Aquarium. He knows all there is to know about caring for creatures, and he refuses to even consider selling a goldfish unless the buyer has at least a 5 gallon tank. Steve is always busy, yet always has time to answer any questions thoroughly and honestly. Unlike the shop on 6th and Clement, his animals have plenty of space and he takes care in making sure each animal is showing their natural behavior. As he was giving me a tour, he told me a bit about the animals and how they were doing after a tank-mate was sold, or if they were new to the store and trying to acclimate. We love Steve.

I do still battle with the morals and ethics of it all. I do think about a life in a tank and how that might affect a small animal. Though outside of that, I think of the different ways I can create a balanced habitat that they will thrive in, for (hopefully) years to come.