Tom Keegan has been keeping fish since he was five years old and has never left the hobby. Starting with a Metaframe ten-gallon tank and a box filter in the early sixties, and then working at the local aquarium shop when he was twelve. He built a small fish room in his basement with used equipment from the store and started breeding angelfish and others for extra money.
Tom earned his Pre-Med B.S. in Biology from Stony Brook University in 1978. Still working and now managing the store, he helped, taught, and was involved with many professors at Stony Brook with their experiments with fish and became the person to go to for guidance. At the end of his junior year in college, the store was up for sale, and he took the leap to purchase it.
He operated the store for some thirty years building it up to over 300 tanks and a pond section with about twenty vats. Seven days a week he lived the dream of looking, observing, and keeping fish from all over the world. In 2003 when the store closed (long story), he moved on to a new career but never stopped keeping fish in his home and yard.
Tom now runs a small koi farm on his property and has a fish room in his house where he breeds different species of fish for fun. He is an active club member of the Nassau County Aquarium Society, LIKA, and GCAS.
He has a lot of fish and equipment history, and knowledge learned from many of the old-timers.
Click on any image to see the full view, and to start the slideshow:
1 Comment
Lonnie · April 13, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Tom,
I would be fascinated to hear the history of your Tropical Fish Store.
Please share! Or, present it at a future NCAS meeting. Please?
Lonnie