Article Archives

During the war, Gotha’s three open-air aquariums, along with their club buildings, had been destroyed by bombing. In Hajo’s article this month, he shares how several club activists volunteered thousands ...

An article written by Dr. Martin Brittan before his passing was published by the Sacramento Aquarium Society. Dr. Martin Brittan was a well-respected ichthyologist and did great work with Danios ...

An article by our good friend Frank Fritzlen on one of the rarest aquarium books published in English (2 versions!) - The Aquavivarium Fresh & Marine by E. Lankester, M.D ...

Chapter 19 of Wild Animals, Free Delivery (Adventures in Bangkok) describes the continued chaos that arose after the war in the animal export business. In desperation, Ruhe made a deal ...

In the aquarium hobby, there is a fine balance between form and function. In this month’s article, Emiliano highlights the SACEM Junior aquarium, a nano tank that any hobbyist collector ...

Article by Lee Finley, which talks about Alfred W. Roberts and some of his work, such as selling plants to Barnum’s American Museum, becoming Director of Fisheries at Coup and ...

Royalty have maintained exotic collections almost from the dawn of time. In David Alderton’s article this month, he shares the history of royal menageries in Europe from Henry III’s animals ...

In the sixth part of Hajo’s article series on aquarium keeping in Gotha, he talks about how Hitler’s reign affected the hobby from 1933-1945. In the attempt to control all ...

In Chapter 18 of Wild Animals/Free Delivery, Hermann shares the struggles of caring for zoo animals during wartime, evacuating animals at a moment’s notice during bombings, and the status of ...

Can you imagine being a new pet store owner buying a great American made tropical fish food and with every dozen receiving “Wardley Dollar Coupons”, that you can redeem on ...

Birdkeepers today take clean bird seed and an expanding range of carefully formulated bird foods for granted, but this was not always the case. The trend towards improved nutrition started ...

Many hobbyists today may find it difficult to imagine the immense importance that open-air facilities once held for early aquarists and terrarists. At that time, long-distance travel to tropical regions ...

In Chapter 17 of Wilde Tiere Frei Haus (wild Animals/Free Delivery), Ruhe shares the difficulties of raising orphan gorilla twins and challenges with starting a zoo in Germany right before ...

They wanted a society of their own—the workers and the less well-funded former members of the association “Nymphaea.” It is always problematic when affluent, and no doubt better educated, individuals ...

Like other collectors in my field, I am particularly drawn to aquariums and fishbowls with unusual designs, especially those crafted from alternative materials that make them appear more like sculptures ...

These animal actors attracted huge global audiences of many millions, and made fortunes for their movie studios, but they have since become largely forgotten today, except amongst film buffs. However, ...

In Chapter 16 of Wilde Tiere Frei Haus (Wild Animals/Free Delivery), Ruhe shares tales of transporting sloths, manatees, and zebras, and the crazy events surrounding training circus animals like a ...

The jubilant celebrations around the turn of the century, 1899–1900, were prepared and held with great enthusiasm in Gotha as well. The new era had brought with it many novelties, ...

If you ask an American collector of antique aquariums to show you his want list, you will notice that almost certainly one of the top spots will be reserved for ...

The German Birdcage Museum (Voss Vogelbauer Museum) was the world’s first and only institution dedicated exclusively to the history of bird keeping. The original museum was owned by Joseph Voss ...

In Chapter 15 of Wilde Tiere Frei Haus, Ruhe shares of an ibex which had to be recaptured after jumping an 8-foot fence, and the shanigans it got up to ...

For lovers of nature, May is the most beautiful month in Central Europe. Fresh greenery is everywhere; a lavish splendor of blossoms adorns the countryside, gardens, and parks. Everyone basks ...

Something of a tradition of having a resident cat has developed in various hotels around the world. Although initially, these may have helped with rodent control, the presence of a ...

Mesco Salts were an additive in aquariums that helped duplicate the high pH and trace elements found in Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. This product was instrumental in keeping African ...

In Chapter 14 of Wild Animals, Free Delivery, Ruhe shares more stories from his family’s business, along with an extensive price list for animals they sold in 1930 ...

When I was born, the city of Gotha was already 1,183 years old. That means it will celebrate its 1,250th anniversary in 2025. What does the name Gotha actually mean? ...

It is no coincidence that dogs have become our closest animal companions. From the earliest days of their domestication, they have adapted to working alongside us in a wide variety ...

In Chapter 13 of Wilde Tiere Frei Haus, Ruhe talks about a how his team was able to catch an escaped zoo tiger, which had found refuge in a bathroom ...

Today we cannot walk into a pet store almost anywhere in the U.S. and not find a few colorful, playful budgerigars. Where did they come from and how did they ...

The British Isles are home to some of the world's most popular breeds, and there are certainly enough variations to appeal to everyone today, from the tall, rangy Irish wolfhound ...

The vestibule (“foyer”) of the Aquarium de Paris was designed to resemble the caves and cliffs found along the Breton coastline in northwestern France, where mica-rich shale rocks are abundant ...

The title of “The Daphnian” has long been attached to some publications of The Boston Aquarium Society [hereafter BAS]. Pictured above are copies of the covers of two such early ...

In Chapter 12 of Wilde Tiere Frei Haus, Ruhe talks about a trip to Abyssinia where they narrowly escaped local turmoil and were left with only a young lion to ...

We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Heiko Bleher, a true pioneer in the fishkeeping hobby. Heiko was instrumental in introducing many of today’s most beloved aquarium ...

A number of famous authors have expressed a deep love for cats and have been inspired to write about the cats that they themselves kept. Samuel Longhorn Clemens (1835-1910), better ...

Visiting the 1900 Paris Exposition must have been a truly breathtaking experience, both for visitors and exhibitors alike. Speaking of the latter, France invited 56 countries, and 40 of them ...

Most of the historical illustrations in this presentation are from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd, Library of Natural History and the National Museum ...

In this chapter, Hermann Ruhe shares how a failed animal sale inspired an employee to start a circus! ...

Leafing through my German-language aquarium and terrarium catalogs printed between the late 1800s and the early decades of the 1900s, I notice some unique enclosures which are almost completely absent ...

When introduced in the late 1950s, the SILENT GIANT was a unique and quiet aquarium air pump for its time, only producing a slight hum. Other vibrator type pumps were ...

Since the 1880s, a completely or partially glazed container for keeping or caring for reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and plants has been called a terrarium, not only in the German-speaking world ...

The late Ray Ashton worked for an ecotourism company some years ago and asked me to lead some trips. One such opportunity involved two visits to the Galápagos Islands. Usefully, ...

Commonly known as “textile hemp”, Cannabis sativa is a remarkably versatile plant, capable of thriving even in challenging soils. Cultivated since ancient times for a wide range of uses, it ...

All canaries are descendants of the little green serin, a songbird that Spanish sailors brought to Europe from the Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands in the 15th-17th centuries. Keeping ornamental ...

In 1886, the book 'The Freshwater Aquarium and Life in Freshwater' by K. G. Lutz was published by Emil Hanselmann's publishing house in Stuttgart. The book, in an octavo format1 ...

From 1966 to retirement 30 years later, I was in charge of the Department of Herpetology in the Pierre A. Fontaine reptile building at the Dallas Zoo and later the ...

One of the many things I love about antique aquariums and fishbowls is that, even today, you can purchase them at relatively affordable prices. This is because they’ve always been ...

In some peoples’ eyes, this is a rather nondescript little bird whose unmusical song, though not unpleasant to the ear, has none of the attraction of many of its cousins ...

In 1926, the first living Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), known as “oras” in Indonesia, were placed on exhibit in New York’s Bronx Zoo (Figure 1) and the Amsterdam Zoo (Figure 2), but the ...

A rare German advertising sign and article for the "Thermocon" heated aquarium. Sold by  A. Glaschker of Leipzig, Germany around 1909. The aquarium was made in order to insert a ...