I was born on the 8th of November 1975 in Kirkcaldy Scotland and from the beginning I was obsessed with all things to do with aquatic life, the sea, rivers, ponds and aquariums. when I was two years old My parents emigrated to Western Australia to a lovely city called Perth. This is where I really got into fishing and its only in my later years that I realized that I was not after the fish for food I was hoping for glimpses of life under the surface.
Throughout my childhood, I was always building little ponds to keep fish in and at the age of ten I learned how to build my first fish tank. I used to sit in one of our neighbors garages for hours because he had converted it into a fishroom, This is where I was taught about cycling and aging water and all the rest of the stuff that goes with fish keeping, from there I probably have had multiple tanks in all parts of my life.
Fast forward 10 years to my mid twenties and I had my first shrimp tank, here is that story.
While I had been heading out to a fishing mark of the coast of where I lived I had to walk
through shallow water to get to an Island those shallow waters were full of small flatfish that we used to call stampies and there were also some clear shrimp, I decided to abandon the fishing at that point and collect a few liters of sand some water and a few specimens.
The plan was to have a bare tank with just sand as a substrate some seaweed and whatever animals I collected, there was no real bioload and because I lived next to the sea I new getting fresh sea water every few days wouldn’t be an issue.
I had this little tank set up for a few weeks when I found what I thought was a dead shrimp It turns out that this was just a molt and from there I just mopped all all the information I could do about shrimp.
I didn’t seriously get into shrimp keeping though until about 2009 when I moved to Norway for a job I had got, the job was moving heavy furniture/Pianos/Safes for Embassies in Oslo, the work itself was very enjoyable until I injured my back. I took time off work following doctors instructions for six months, When I returned to work I only lasted a few weeks before this injury returned. So I went to see a specialist and had xrays and MRI scans which did reveal the true injuries my back had, to name a few degenerative disk disease, faucet joint syndrome, fractures and other things ..the worst part I think is my disks compressing on my nerves in some spots and this is where I get the most pain.
My back is of course to bad for them to operate on with a 50% chance of failure or worse,
this is because I would need multiple fixations and because I already have degenerative disk disease there is no guarantee it would work.From this point on I was told to stop working and I am now classed as disabled.
I wasnt about to let my life waste away so I had to give myself something I could do when I was able and this is where my YouTube channel came into play, I was able to make videos and film myself when I could, I didn’t know my channel would explode the way it did but I am very grateful for it because it gives me purpose.
Day to day now my life is full of Shrimp keeping on a few different platforms and I love it.
Happy Shrimp Keeping
Mark
