Jul 17, 2026 · 43 min · 9 segments
In the final episode of this series of Collecting Fish, James Hepworth reflects on the current state of the aquarium hobby and the challenges shaping its future. From online education and captive…
James HepworthHost
So the first element I would like to discuss with you is education has never been more accessible.
So when I was starting out in the hobby as a young child, we didn't have the internet.
This was the late 90s, early noughties, and we didn't have the luxury today of iPhones or iPads or just the wealth of education and access to education and resources that we have today.
When I was a young boy, my parents used to buy me aquarium books published at the end of the 80s and the 90s.
And, you know, there are only a handful of fish actually in there compared to where we are today.
We've got catalogs and databanks of all the possible fish and fish you can keep together.
Do you have it in? They would then go with people working the shop to say, yes, we do or we don't.
And there was always this conflict of interest because I remember very vividly There was one fish I really liked.
It was called a six-banded distacodus, and it looked a bit like a clown loach.
And I remember so clearly going with my mum to the shop because it said in the books it only grew to eight inches.
You know, this is back in the days in the 1980s where I simply didn't know how big these fish would become.
And even then, you had people who knew a lot more and they were saying, no, you shouldn't go for one of these because they'll turn out to be big fish and not eat your fish.
And you can imagine myself as a child being really upset because I got my hopes up.
So the first element I would like to discuss with you is education has never been more accessible.
So when I was starting out in the hobby as a young child, we didn't have the internet.
This was the late 90s, early noughties, and we didn't have the luxury today of iPhones or iPads or just the wealth of education and access to education and resources that we have today.
When I was a young boy, my parents used to buy me aquarium books published at the end of the 80s and the 90s.
And, you know, there are only a handful of fish actually in there compared to where we are today.
We've got catalogs and databanks of all the possible fish and fish you can keep together.
Do you have it in? They would then go with people working the shop to say, yes, we do or we don't.
And there was always this conflict of interest because I remember very vividly There was one fish I really liked.
It was called a six-banded distacodus, and it looked a bit like a clown loach.
And I remember so clearly going with my mum to the shop because it said in the books it only grew to eight inches.
You know, this is back in the days in the 1980s where I simply didn't know how big these fish would become.
And even then, you had people who knew a lot more and they were saying, no, you shouldn't go for one of these because they'll turn out to be big fish and not eat your fish.
And you can imagine myself as a child being really upset because I got my hopes up.
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