By Yasir Khaleq, Christine Cao, Kyle Nguyen and Katherine Reis, Staff Writers
Marc Tadros is a varsity cross country runner at Fountain Valley High School that tends to a wide array of aquatic animals, and even crossbreeds fish in his own home.
“I crossbreed aquatic animals, and I’m looking to do reptiles too. I take the sperm of a male fish and I put it in a female fish to make new babies, and this process does involve two deaths,” Tadros said. “At the end I usually get an outcome of 8 to 10 new fish”
Fish require a great deal of care, but they have their benefits to some. They tend to be fascinating, and Tadros loves to explore everything that fascinates him about aquatic life.
“The behavior of the animals and how you have to interact with them is very interesting. The way you can manipulate what they are gonna eat and what they’re gonna do is very fascinating,” Tadros admitted. “How they act in a different environment, and if you change the environment one bit, how that could have a tremendous effect on the fish, positive or negative.”
This interest with aquatic life stems from the younger years of Tadros’ life. Back then he was more interested in reptiles rather than aquatic life, but when he got older, Tadros purchased a single fish, and his collection grew from there. Now Tadros has several tanks with many fish and eels under his care.
“When I was little, I really liked reptiles, I liked animals and stuff like that. It’s all part of the fact I want to be a vet, to help animals,” he explained. “I wasn’t able to keep reptiles, so I started keeping fish, and from that one fish I started building up more and more until I got more experience with what I have.”
Although Tadros’ aquatic room is simple a hobby, he still looks to continue to grow and add more life to his own aquarium.
“I’m hoping to get more new species because really I just do this for fun. I really enjoy aquatic life. I really hope people see this and become interested in fish,” Tadros said.
If you’re interested in what Tadros does, you can look more into his work @marcs_aquatic_room on instagram for photos and videos of his aquatic life.
