Frank Panis
Frank Panis
Written by Wednesday, 30 July 2008 00:00
Let me introduce myself. My name is Frank Panis and I’m living in Beerse, Belgium. I’m happily married with my beloved wife Hilde and together we have two children. The oldest is our son Matthias and the youngest is our daughter Catho.
My fishkeeping passion started back in 1996. We kept Barbus tetrazona, Trichogaster leeri and Xiphophorus maculatus in an old rusty tank. Back in those days we’ve spent way too much money on various stuff that wasn’t really needed for aquatic use. My plants kept on dying anyway and fish diseases came and went. But we learned bit by bit. The real cichlid passion hit me in the fall of 1996. My local fish store had some very colorful Pseudotropheus, Labidochromis and Melanochromis. These magnificent animals instantly grabbed my attention and although the shopkeeper warned me that these fish were very agressive and notorious for rebuilding their tank for their own needs, it didn’t take long before I was in love with them. A second 180L aquarium was bought, filled and decorated and soon some various Mbuna shared this rocky environment. I really liked their behaviour and I kept adding more species. The tank got really overcrowded so I moved up to a 400L in 1997.
It didn’t take long before I found out that Lake Malawi also contained some very neat Haplochromis species. I was sold and in the summer of 1998 we decided to order a 1000L tank. Four people were needed to lift the 170kg tank that was transported with a small trailer. After hard labour getting it in it’s place on a precisely welded metal frame we had to lift the aquarium again to slide under a protecting polystyrene foam. Once it stood nicely in the living room it was decorated and aquascaped and ready to cycle in no time. This tank was the joy and pride of the house for a long time to come. Around that time we bought our first computer. This was a revelation, as this allowed me to search for information about cichlid keeping when I wanted to I started exploring the internet and soon I got in touch with George. He introduced me to the African Cichlid E-groups which became Yahoo-groups later on. This was the start for a turbulent ride along various message boards and chat services. I still remember the late nights online with people from all of the world which was quite an experience!
In the meantime the tank lust kept on raging and the cellar seemed to be the ideal place for an even larger tank. After working with plywood tanks at shows of the aquarium club I saw the advantages of it and wanted to build one myself. A 3000 L plywood giant was built down there and it also became a very valuable test case for a future kitchen tank. But I was confronted with the downsides pretty quick, as it started leaking after a few weeks. Luckily it was only a small quantity of water that escaped through the seems, but it was enough to change the plans for the new 1500 L kitchen tank. That tank was built in 2003 and it got a polyester coating to ensure that it was completely leak proof. The 1000 L tank was sold in the meantime because I hated the filter design which produced too much noise and additionally the front glass showed too much scratches for my liking. Then plans were made for a completely silent 750L living room tank, which was a great success. My only worry with that tank is the rather bad gas exchange due to the small water surface. At this moment the 1500 L Malawi Haplochromis tank, the 750 L South American cichlid and catfish tank and a smaller 240L Mbuna tank are the pride and joy in our house.
Through the years my photography evolved quite rapidly too. In 2003 I took my aquarium photo’s with a Fujifilm bridge camera, but that became really frustrating because of the lack of speed and poor image quality for cichlid action shots. Then I bought the Nikon D70 DSLR which dramatically improved my keeper rate and image quality. But soon photography became a hobby on it’s own, and now I’m at the point that it is my main hobby with a huge investment in a high quality lenses and camera. Don’t worry though, as my cichlids still get the best possible care and plans are being made for newer and bigger tanks that will include all my tank building knowledge. I only need to plan ahead to ensure that I will find a perfect balance between both hobbies and MCH.
Frank
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