Tropic Sunset Aquatics Inc. is founded by Robert Bussell an aquarist and aquaculturist and lover of the hobby, my story and journey began in the early 1980’s when my mother bought my first tank of guppies and the enjoyment of breeding them but my real fascination was with marine fish and by 1989 I was breeding clownfish at home, at the time there was hardly any literature, no internet and really no local sources of information on marine aquaculture (“maquaculture” coined the phrase by The Breeders Registry circa 1992), I had read the book by Frank Hoff Plankton Culture Manual, it was my bible, later in 1996 Frank Hoff published another book Conditioning, Spawning And Rearing Of Fish With Emphasis On Marine Clownfish which was the first book strictly for the marine aquaculturist, I was also in constant contact with Florida Aqua Farms which was my source at the time for phytoplankton, rotifers, brine shrimp eggs and supplies.

 

I was a board member, officer, chairperson, of the local Sacramento Aquarium Society (SAS) and member of Tropical Fishkeepers Exchange USA and later into 1992 I was also a founding member of the local Marine Aquarist Roundtable and the world renowned The Breeders Registry that Stanley D. Brown, David Sheehy and Joyce D. Wilkerson had founded in Sacramento California, in 1994 the local (SAS) had their 28th Exotic Fish Show, a local public aquarium showcase at Cal Expo located in Sacramento for local aquarists in Northern California to display a tank up to 40 gallons on site for 4 days, hundreds of tanks were on display, I received 1st place in the Marine Community category along with 1st place in the all aquarium categories of Best Of Show and Peoples Choice where the public voted, in fact I still have a piece from that display tank.

 

I also started my own side company named Aquacare, to sell my fish to local retail and nearby San Francisco retail stores as at this point I was breeding over 10 varieties of clownfish, and had many hundreds of clownfish to sell, during the timeframe from 1989-92 myself and Stan Brown were the only people I knew of breeding marine fish in Northern California, both of our houses and garages were literally fish rooms by 1994 while I still had to keep my main job and raise a family.

 

I had issues along the way, the local market was still not ready for captive bred clownfish and wild caught was the big market, there was no such thing as hybrid or designer clownfish nor the internet for a selling platform, I had gone through a rough divorce in 1996 and sold off my company with most of my equipment and only kept my favorite pair (Yellow Stripe Maroons I started with) my main 150 gallon reef tank and a small percentage of breeding equipment, my passion had to be put on hold for a few years but eventually started breeding again on a very small scale as I always fall back on my love of the hobby, in 2008 my new wife and I moved into a new house, I had lost my female breeder due to the move and age of fish, I had purchased her as a juvenile and was part of my family for 19 years, within 4 months the male died due to loneliness I had him for 18 years, it was heart breaking and devastating.

 

In 2010 I read about the PNG Lighting Maroon that Matt Pedersen had acquired, for many years I waited until finally Matt sold the few juvenile F1’s at auction, he revealed in 2014 Soren at Sea and Reef had purchased one, Sea and Reef finally advertised the juveniles in January 2015 from the original F1 Matt Pedersen’s pair which Soren paired with another wild caught PNG Maroon to make this another F1, I purchased a wusiwyg juvenile in January 2015 from Soren with the help from John at Your Reef located in Roseville California.

 

If you are still following along….. I decided to start another company… this company … Tropic Sunset Aquatics Inc. with the help of my youngest son Sean Bussell to continue the story.

 

The mission is to supply premium quality marine aquacultured clownfish, inverts and products that we feel are essential to the hobby for future generations to enjoy without destroying Mother Earth’s greatest treasures the reef.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading along, I’m just a reef luver with a pirate smile.