MEET AN AQUARIST SERIES : THE NETHERLANDS
Part 1 : Nico and Frank

By Theo Wyne

Aquarticles.com

Just a few of the many many exotic fish owned by Nico and Frank

Nico busy on tank maintenance in the fish room

Frank and Nico are not men to do things in half-measures. When the two of them decided to start breeding stingrays, and later to keep Asian arowana, it was to be on a big scale. These two men operate what may be the largest freshwater stingray breeding program in the world. They have a long waiting list of customers for their stingray pups (they are all sold before they are born), and they are constantly expanding into new areas of the exotic tropical fish hobby. Recent developments include their setting up of a breeding tank for the large Tiger ray from Peru, as well as their large scale importation of Asian arowana from Singapore. So highly esteemed are these guys in their "hobby" that graduate students from a Brazillian university have arranged to do their field study on Brazilian stingrays in Holland by studying the rays kept by Nico and Frank! To say that these Dutch fellows were lucky to get into exotic rays when they did is not to pay them the credit they are due; they were smart and prescient. The rays they now breed are no longer available for export from Brazil. Consequently, the only legal way a tropical fish hobbyist can obtain one of these "embargoed" Brazilian ray species is to buy from a breeder. In Europe that most likely means going to Frank and Nico.

Some very exotic freshwater stingrays - click to enlarge thumbnails

Several months ago I contacted Frank to see about paying them a visit during some of my travels around Europe. Many emails later I found myself hosted for a day in Holland by his partner Nico. In their partnership, Frank has chosen to be the public face of their company. Nico, in contrast, is more a behind the scenes kind of guy, very busy running a large company and happy that Frank manages their internet site. On first meeting Nico I was struck by how down-to-earth he is; he picked me up from the train station in a company pickup truck and was dressed in work clothes. Together we worked to hoist my touring bicycle onto the back of his truck. Moments later I was being shown around his company and got to see just one of his many tank set ups. In this case it is an Asian arowana display (see below).

Two different photos of the Asian arowana community tank set up in Nico's office.
Try as I might, I could not cut the glare and reflection to improve the photos.

I noticed how effortlessly Nico seems to have incorporated his hobby into his professional life. Having several aquariums at work allows Nico to indulge his hobby pretty much all day long.

Leaving Nico's office we changed vehicles and headed off to visit the stingray breeding center he built up with Frank. A visit here is very impressive. Nico ushered me into a room with metal shutters all along one wall. A few buttons were pushed and the shutters mechanically rose, revealing a massive aquarium viewable through four large panels of glass. My first glimpse of the tank reminded me of a famous aquarium scene in an old James Bond movie.

The main viewing tank

Before my eyes swam many of the fish of my dreams! Beautiful "black rays", like P.Leopoldi and P 14's swam amidst other equally rare species. Pearl Rays, exotic morphs, and others - so many others! The tank is so large one barely notices a large school of Frontosa cichlids tucked in a corner of the aquarium. Likewise, the full size 3 foot silver arowana gliding along the water's surface looks like a tiny guppy in the tanks massive hold. I was dumbstruck with awe.

A full size silver arowana during feeding time

Note the full-size P.Motoro at back left; it measures over 3 feet across.
Likwise note the foot long Frontosa African cichlid at the back of the tank.

During the day the tank receives natural light through some massive skylights. Nico is convinced this sunlight promotes the natural and healthy development of the fish. At night, flourescent lights can be turned on too, an important consideration in a country like Holland where it is dark for so much of the day in winter.

Top view of largest tank 

Top view of the "small" Tiger ray tank

Top view of the small holding tanks for baby rays and other fish

The main tank was built using a very innovative technique thought up by Frank and Nico. Four large steel shipping containers, the kinds used to ship goods on container ships around the world, were opened up and welded together to form the framework for the aquarium. Four glass panels were installed, a professional aquascaping company was hired to decorate the inside of the tank, and voila - you have one absolutely amazing and innovatively created aquarium.

I am not going to try elaborating further on the aquarium-building process they used. Instead, I recommend you visit the link located at the end of this article to visit Nico and Frank's amazing website. You may find yourself viewing it for a considerable period of time.

After gawking at the rays for a bit, Nico guided me to the back rooms of the operation. Here there is another large aquarium, this one using just one shipping container. Nico told me that such shipping containers can be had for around $10,000, so if you consider the final size of the aquarium and its incredible strength, it is actually not a bad price.

Beautiful adult Tiger rays

Nico was quite excited about this "smaller" tank as it houses a newly put together collection of Tiger rays from Peru. Frank and Nico obtained these fish 6 months ago and are now busily conditioning the fish for breeding. I caught Nico's enthusiasm as he scampered up and down a metal ladder propped next to the tank; the pride he had in showing these fish was obvious.

Another photo of the Tiger rays

It was then time to look at what amounts to a small aquarium shop's worth of aquaria scattered throughout the rest of the building. Dozens of 20, 30 and 50 gallon tanks are set up holding all sorts of different species of fish. Through connections in the wholesale fish industry and with a local university, Frank and Nico are able to obtain a variety of perfectly healthy small "feeder fish". This allows them to forego the quarantine process that most people have to follow who use feeders. Other tanks hold an assortment of baby rays and any other fish that happen to catch the fancy of Frank and Nico. Quite apart from the very large tanks they have, this assortment of smaller tanks is itself quite interesting.

A small warehouse worth of tanks

After a great deal of site seeing for the remainder of the day (to be chronicled in an upcoming series of Aquarticles' articles), I had a fantastic home cooked dinner courtesy of Nico's wife. This is not to say that my aquarium site-seeing stopped just because of dinner. Nico has an absolutely world-class Asian arowana aquarium in his livng room!

5 meter tank seen from a distance

Some fast moving Asian first-grade red arowana

Due to the speed of the fish swimming about it was hard to adjust the film-speed

A couple of Nico's favourite rays swimming in his home Asian arowana tank

The background to the tank comes from the Danish company Pangea

After dinner, Nico and I returned to the ray breeding center to do some tank maintenance. Daily filter floss changes are made for the large Eheim canister filter attached to the smaller Tiger ray tank.

The filter floss gets changed in the large cannister filter for the Tiger ray tank every day

Then it was time to feed the rays. Nico's wife had earlier presented him with a small hand held "slicer/dicer" to help him prepare the foods for the rays. And so the four frozen foods used (fish, worms, shrimp, and beef heart), were one by one cut up. I hurried round front of the tank to capture the feeding scene.

Click to enlarge photos above of frozen food used: fish, worms, shrimp, and beef heart

Experimenting with a new slicer-dicer to chop up frozen food

Click on the thumbnails above to see the rays busy eating

I asked Nico how they go about cleaning the interior of the tank, catching rays, or making any other changes to the inside of the tank set up. I think I guessed his answer before he said it - scuba diving. Nico is an experienced diver (we had fun exchanging stories) and he thus finds it a kind of fusion of two hobbies to strap on gear and dive amongst his rays. Unfortunately I do not have any photos of that experience.

After feeding the rays, Nico offered me a soft drink and the two of us just sat in front of the ray tank and admired it. He told me how several weeks earlier he had been busy running around (he is a very busy guy) when a good friend of his who was visiting made him sit down to watch the rays. Nico at first wanted to watch the rays and do something (clean a filter, do some kind of maintenance, whatever), when his friend said "Nico! Sit down, enjoy a drink and watch the tank!" He did so and in his retelling of the moment, the next hour flew by as he felt the magic that our hobby can provide. I'd like to think the two of us tapped into that magic too, as we sat there in front of a beautiful aquarium, observing the rays carefully, discussing their personalities and making small talk. It was a special time I will remember.

Nico is a very knowledgable aquarist and I appreciate the generosity he showed me. He said that he had been shown around Taiwan by experienced hobbyists some time ago, and so he knew how I felt passing through a foreign country. After seeing what Frank and Nico have created I really felt the passion they have for our hobby. They live by the motto of doing what they believe in and not being afraid to trust in their instincts and realize their dreams. Sigh. I wonder how soon I can get a 500 gallon tank running with a trio of "black rays" to breed?

Editor's note: Courtesy of Frank and Nico, I do have two video links to share which are without doubt of extremely rare fish!

Rare fish

Rare fish 2

Finally, I strongly recommend that you spend about an hour seeing what there is to offer at www.freshwaterstingray.nl. Trust me, there is a lot to see!