Bjørn Rildå

I started with tropical fishes at the age of ten in 1966 following the “traditional” way with some guppies in a small bottle. One little aquarium followed up with a bigger one and so on.

Since then I have always had between 15 to 30 aquariums, even in my student time.



Being interested in most everything in the freshwater hobby I have also had two short periods in the 1980`s and 1994 with saltwater, and in 2006 I started once more. Today I have several marine aquariums, with main interest in clown fishes and tangs.

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My main interest in freshwater is South-American fishes, especially Altum Angels and Discus. But of course any rare or odd species always attracts me. 
In 1972 I built my first pond in my parent’s garden, where we kept koi and goldfish.  In 1986 I went to Niigata, Japan to study koi there “in the home of the koi”, a sort of pilgrim-tour in the early days of western koi keeping.

My friends and I have started two aquarium societies. The first was in my hometown Sarpsborg, founded in 1974 called “Sarpsborg og omegn Akvarieklubb”. I was the secretary for most of these years, and it shut down in year 2000.
I 1982 we also started a Norwegian club for those interested in koi and pond keeping “Norsk Hagedam Forening”. We lead this club for 15 years, but today there are new leaders, and I just visit their meetings occasionally as a regular member.
I’ve also had some years on the board for “Norsk Akvarie Forbund” (Norwegian Aquarium Society”.

Some expeditions have been done to Thailand, Japan, The Dominican Republic, Bali and Panama to study and collect fish.

Today my main interest is to keep my fish in excellent condition, change water, feed the fish and even breed some of them. 

I breed the black clownfish, the Darwin Ocellaris and sell some of these saltwater species from time to time.

I also have 3 groups of wildcaught and German-bred Altum Angels, bred by my friend Simon Forkel and hopefully some of these will give me fry someday…

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I have many good and interesting contacts and can get many species of fish from many odd places.

I have kept tropical birds since 1978 and today the interest is African finches and the dwarf-macaw; Ara maracana, of which I have some specimens.

In my opinion the best challenges with the aquarium hobby is the fact that everyone can find their favorite species - ranging from the easy ones, to the more advanced ones. 

And of course, good-looking aquariums are something for the eye! And everyone can find their size from small nano-aquariums up to the massive tanks! 

This hobby gives you possibilities to read foreign literature and magazines, and creates a social network which connects you with wonderful people across the world.