It's just another day in the PFK office, entailing me drooling over great tanks and great fish when my mind drifts off to assembling my dream aquarium.
So what would I go for? Reef, plants or freshwater biotope, or all three, and what kit would I include on my imaginary tanks?
It's just dawned on me that with a few notable exceptions almost all my kit, and maybe even the tank itself, would be German.
So what is it that makes the Germans so good at fishkeeping, and fishkeeping equipment? They even discover many more species of fish than we have, and their shops and shows are better. I'm jealous!
And like with German cars such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes, you do tend to pay more, but for a quality product that comes with user satisfaction guaranteed.
German bred fish are quality and have a British following, including everything from Discus to Frontosa.
Rolf C Hagen was even German, before moving to Canada and starting off selling bird seed out of the back of a van!
So my question is, why are those Germans just so damn good? And just take a look at the short list of German aquatics companies I've drawn up below. It's like a who's who of aquatics!
Eheim
Tetra
Sera
JBL
Oase
Aqua Medic
Deltec
Juwel
Dennerle
Dupla
Tunze
Grotech
Korallen Zucht
Geisemann
Hagen (sort of!)