1960s-1970s Era Aquarium Society Ribbons

1960s-1970s era aquarium society ribbons from the Davis Aquarium Society, Peninsula Aquarium Society, Sacramento Aquarium Society, Salinas Aquarium Society, San Francisco Aquarium Society, and the San Jose Aquarium Society.

Comments from our friend Chuck Rambo:

Where did all these ribbons come from?

From June 1949 to August 1951 Innes published a few articles about starting and running an aquarium society in The Aquarium. Societies popped up all over America. In 1956 there were 19 aquarium societies in California. The clubs were all doing very well until the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. There was a club every 30 miles around L.A and the Bay area. The big thing was to try and win an award from another clubs show and to defend your clubs show ribbons from another club. Shows getting ribbons were a very big deal. Late in the 1960’s rift lake cichlids started to make their make in the hobby and many of the old timers and newcomers split from their general clubs and started to form cichlid societies. Then when silicon tanks started to show up there was a big push for Marine fish. The Marine fish societies wanted nothing to do with the general aquarium societies. Very reminiscent of goldfish vs tropical fish hobby in the early 1900’s. As the clubs declined, so did their members participation in shows. Many of the usual categories had no entries so the ribbons went unclaimed. I remember the LA aquarium society wrapping up soon after the “Advanced Cichlid Aquarists of Southern California” started.

What happened to all these clubs?

General aquarium societies were already weakened with competition from specialty clubs then the Gas Crisis hit in 1970s. Nobody was spending money or gas going to the meetings when they didn’t know if they would have gas to go to work. The cichlid clubs stayed alive because everybody wanted the new cichlids and stayed home to watch their tanks. There was also a financial incentive to sell the new fish and make some money. The cichlid club stayed alive by advertising fish for sale and by providing articles on all these new fish that you couldn’t get anywhere else. After the crisis, the cichlid and marine hobby went through the roof and there wasn’t much left for the general societies. I suspect San Francisco club relied on public transportation plus had the backing of the Steinhart to help keep them going.