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My meeting with Anton Lamboj and Michael Koeck

I met Anton Lamboj for the first time at CCA's Aquamania back in February, where he was one of the featured speakers. (For those who don't know, Anton is one of the leading experts on West African fish.) He's Austrian, and when I mentioned that I would be going to Vienna for work in late June, he graciously offered to meet up with me there to talk fish.

I'm a relative newbie at aquarium keeping, and I don't keep many cichlids. So while I was excited to be able to pick his brain about fishkeeping, I was a bit apprehensive that I'd be wasting his time with my questions, but Anton was an amazing host. He not only spent a whole afternoon with me in Vienna, he arranged for me to have a behind-the-scenes tour of the Haus des Meeres, Vienna's aquarium, where his friend and former classmate, Michael Koeck, is the curator of freshwater fish, invertebrates and mammals.

I had an unbelievable time with both of them. I loved hearing about both of their careers in fishkeeping, their collecting trips and how they got started in the hobby. Michael, in addition to being one of the head honchos at the aquarium, was one of the founders of the Goodeid Working Group, which seeks to preserve and breed the various endangered species of goodeids. In the basement of the Haus des Meeres is Koeck's goodeid fish room, which if I'm remembering correctly, is the world's largest collection of goodeids in captivity. He had hundreds of tanks of them, and he even offered me some specimens, but alas, I had no way of transporting them back to the States (or keeping them alive in my hotel room).

The Haus des Meeres itself is a very interesting aquarium. The structure is an old WWII anti-aircraft artillery tower. The walls are several meters thick to withstand bombing attacks. After the war, these towers turned out to be too expensive to tear down, so they mostly just sat there abandoned. Eventually, one of the towers was converted to an aquarium, which over the years has steadily occupied more and more of the tower, so now there are 10 stories, with some of the tanks spanning multiple floors. There's also a greenhouse attached to the tower housing a tropical rainforest exhibit. It's neat to see that they've repurposed an old war relic into an educational facility.

Anyway, I had a great time with Anton and Michael and am extremely grateful they were willing to spend an afternoon showing me around the Haus des Meeres! And I have Aquamania and CCA to thank for introducing me to Anton!

Pics to follow.
 
Anton on the left, Michael on the right
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A partial view of Michael's goodeid fish room in the basement of the Haus des Meeres
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A goodeid tank. Wish I could remember which species
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Another goodeid tank
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Anton and Michael discussing the particulars of an Amazon exhibit
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View of Vienna from the rooftop deck at the Haus des Meeres
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Seahorses being grown out backstage
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A monkey (Colombian, I think) in the rainforest exhibit
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blkmjk

Members
Very cool! Me and my eldest daughter were lucky enough to engage in a very fun conversation with Anton ,Tony, and his wife at Aquamania 2. That is so cool getting the behind the scenes tour! I am overwhelmed with jealousy. Thanks for sharing!

Drew
 

AquaStudent

Members
That's an amazing opportunity. People in this hobby can be similar to those out on the hiking trails. There are no nicer people.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
so what size tanks are those in the 2nd pick (the one of the rack of tanks). They look like an interesting size.
 
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