Name - Keith Arkley
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Location - Liverpool UK
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Fishroom location - Outside in a large purpose built fishroom
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Speciality - Generalist fishbreeder and collector, lots of rare fish and a lot of larger fish not often seen in a lot of fishrooms! ​
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Notes - I have known Keith for many years and he is a valued member of my fishclub, he grew up with my good friends Alan Vassiere and Ray Blackburn. Despite knowing Keith for many years and spending a lot of time in his company at various aquatic events i have only visited his fishroom once, it is a very large room, the tanks are mainly 4ft and larger although there are smaller tanks and more delicate fish such as livebearers and wild type Bettas.
Keith has a great eye for the unusual and there were many special fish on show during my visit! most of the tanks are ran on a centralised system and share the same water, this is filtered via a large sump, pond sand filter and a inline heater. There is also a second room towards the back and this is not heated and holds temperate fish.
The fishroom is a wooden construction outside in the back garden.
As you can see here it is a long building! perhaps 30ft or more! it is certainly one of the most spacious fishrooms i have visited, once inside you do not feel cramped.
I am still convinced that Keith would still prefer more tankspace!! Dont we all?
A work in progress, there were still additions to the fishroom, new jobs and curent jobs under completion, hense the table of bits in the foreground, despite this the tanks were brimming with fish and some excellent sized specimens.
The roof is solid and the room lighting is via several strip lights, You can also see the black air ring around the parameter of the room, this supplies air to all tanks.
This rack by the door holds various small fish, some fry and home raised fish, others are just small species that require smaller accomodation. You can see the air ring a little clearer here. In the center of the picture you can see the live food cultures, i can see artemia bubbling away and several pots of microworm, Grindalworm and whiteworm.
Towards the back of the room is a door, this door leads into a second room which due to the nature of the garden space tapers to a point at the back, here the room is only 6ft wide.
This room is unheated and so the temperatures are a little cooler, here Keith works with temperate species in a smaller space holding six tanks.
The temperate tanks hold several goby species, several shiners from North America, fish like Notropsis and even a few goldfish.
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I love the sink! i wish my fishroom had space for a sink like this, it would make all jobs so much easier!
Water into the building is ran through a three stage HMA unit containing a prefilter and two carbon black filters, judging by the size of the hose going in and out of the filter i should imagine this is capable of cleaning a lot of water very quickly!!
Keith staring vacantly into a tank :) :) :)
The fishroom is space heated using a 2000w Oil filled radiator, a lot of the tanks are on a centralised system with heating included in the system but some of the smaller tanks are heated by room temperature!
As always in the UK, the insulation of a fishroom is of the very utmost importance! Keith built this fishroom with very good insulation materials, even in winter the heat is trapped inside where it matters!
The sump (Or a section of it anyway!) the water is trickled in via the pipework, there is mechanical filtration underneath with collects debris, the bulk of the biological media is made up of colourful pan scourers, a cheap and easy to source biological media!
A powerful air blower supplies large quantities of air to all of Keiths tanks.
Here you can see the plastic Algarde taps that keith uses to distribute and regulate air to individual tanks.
An inline heater completes the centralised system, this is stepping into the realm of proffessional aquatics, very few fishrooms in the UK utilise such technology! These heaters and expensive to buy and to run, but work superbly well at heating the water quickly and evenly.
I am not a huge fan of pigeon blood discus but this specimen is superb! great body shape and the colour and vitality really show!
Geophagus sp.. Kept as they should be! in a large group.
Herichthys cyanoguttatus - The texas cichlid! these are 'Old school' but you just never see them anymore! especially as nice as this specimen.
Great looking wild type angelfish! these were living in a 3ft planted cube tank inside Keiths house! stunners
Skiffia multipunctata are a beautiful livebearer.
I think i have died and gone to Dwarf cichlid heaven!! Wallaceochromis rubrolabiatus, of course back in 2013 this was known as Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus.
But whatever the name this was my holy grail fish for a long time, i spent a lot of money on this species but could not keep them alive for long, they simply fought to the death! Keiths pair seemed happy in each others company!
Another absolutely beautiful dwarf cichlid Wallaceochromis humilis, a fish that i had better success with and bred for several years. This fish is a stunning male specimen. Possibly of the Kasewe locality.
There were even a few Loricarids dotted around the fishroom, Keith's collection is certainly diverse!
Haplochromis sp from Lake Victoria (I think!)
Stunning fish and very well coloured, Keith got this into a show tank especially.
Leporinus maculata, stunning specimens in great condition! Keith should be entering these fish into shows! they are certainly good enough.
I hope that you enjoyed this quick look at a wonderful fishroom!