Our Team
Currently, we are a one-woman show, with our founder as our only employee! Her bio is below, but it is also worth mentioning and thanking her husband Sam for all of the background and behind-the-scenes support that he provides.
Maintenance Technician:
Beatrice Osterhoudt
Hi, I am Beatrice Osterhoudt!
Luckily, I am a fast learner and have a passion for animals, so I began furiously researching! This hands-on experience led me to a point where I was regularly teaching my customers everything that I wish I had learned before bringing my first fish home. I trained my coworkers, taught my manager new info, helped with ordering livestock, collaborated with a coworker to create a complete guide of how to set up an aquarium, and orchestrated the creation and implementation of our custom betta sales rack pictured below!
I have been keeping aquariums since 2022 when I was 18, and while I made plenty of mistakes in the beginning, I have taken every shortcoming and learned from them to reach where I am today. I brought home my first tank (pictured to the right) under a month after I started working at Critter Cabana (Newberg, Oregon's pet and pet supply store), and even though I had been learning a lot, it was clearly not enough at that point.
After a short time at Critter Cabana, I felt the need to take on more hours, so I pursued a job with a temp agency in my area. After a few months of working for the agency, I got a call from the staff asking how much I knew about taking care of aquariums since they knew I was working at a pet store as well. Within a week, that conversation lead to me taking on my first client for aquarium maintenance. When I took the tank on, it was already long established. Unfortunately, it was poorly maintained.
I was given the history of this 70 gallon tank, and was able to observe the remaining survivors of the long list of fish that had called the tank home before moving on to the big fish bowl in the sky. All that were left were one Corydoras catfish, one baseball sized fantail goldfish, and one obese Synodontis catfish. My work was very much cut out for me.
Before my first month was up, I had refreshed the decor, added live plants, and introduced the first new-comer to the tank before tackling the task of rehoming our giant goldfish and catfish. After two months, I had fully restocked the tank, and everything was thriving.
I maintained it at that level until the centerpiece Angelfish (and mascot of this company), Davy Jones, passed away.
As heartbreaking as that loss was, I was able to take the opportunity to flip the stock again and turn it into a glorious haven for small shoaling fish.
I have to say, this is my favorite tank stocking that I have put together so far, and I will hold onto my Ember Tetras and Dwarf Honey Gouramis for as long as I can!
With all of this new experience under my belt, I decided to start a new tank at home from the ground up, using all of the things I had learned. It was intended to be a 10 gallon betta fish aquarium, but eventually became what it is today: my first room-temp aquarium with Golden Dwarf Barbs. Although it took over a month for the tank to be ready for me to add fish to, it is the healthiest and easiest to care for tank that I have run to date.
I also help maintain some of my friends' fish tanks when they have too much on their plates. Most often, I do work on a 10 gallon with a Betta, as well as a 120 gallon tank with Angelfish, tetras, and a small Pleco catfish. I have also helped put together quarantine setups and treatment plans for my friends' fish and the fish at my pet store.
If it is not clear from the style of all but my first tank, I am of the belief that a fish keeper's best role model is nature. I have a focus on naturalistic style aquariums when it come to aesthetics and care. I use live plants, natural sand or gravel, and filtration methods that promote growth of bacteria that helps to keep my tanks at their healthiest. While this is my preference and personal style, I am happy to collaborate to try to attain a different vision for my clients, as long as I am not compromising on the health and well-being of the critters in the tanks that I maintain.