A tropical underworld

A gold-spotted black stin-gray lazily ripples across a stack of algae-covered rocks to 36-year-old Tom Meador's food-laden fist, which looks small, pink and vulnerable poised in the water as the ray glides closer and envelopes it. It hovers there only a moment as Meador strokes the 28-inch ray's underside and then glides away as he laughs.\n"She's not really interested in this food," he says, tossing the brown pellet food to the other fish in the small pond. "She'd rather have some frozen fish or shrimp." \nMeador shakes the water off his fist and seals up his bag of fish food, glancing around at his other pets. Rather than cats or dogs, gold-flecked piranhas leer out at him, tiny rainbow-colored tetras dart past and an African sultana turtle lurks under a dark deck hidden beneath strands of green vines, a 15-foot palm tree and several orchids. \nThese pets and plants live in a room that is half jungle and half underwater adventure. The room serves as the showplace for Meador's mail-order fish business, Rainforest Farms International, of which he is the founder, manager and sole employee. It's also his basement, but hardly the sort of basement that's typically found in southern Indiana.\nRather than a dark, damp storage place, this basement teems with light and life. An 18-by-11-foot pond with bright blue tile and a gentle waterfall occupies the front corner of the room, and a smaller eight-by-eight-foot pond is fitted in the back. Several 150-gallon fish tanks line the walls, one holding seven piranhas and a school of gold tetras, another holding striped Brazilian angelfish -- the largest type of angelfish in the world. Amid the tropical plants surrounding the tanks and\nponds, Meador keeps about a dozen geckos (his house cats ate the 40 he used to keep) as well as tiny red-eyed tree frogs.\n"It's neat to be here at night because you can hear the frogs calling when it gets dark," says Meador.\nThis bright showroom is fully Meador's creation, work and world. He pays close attention to any of the drama going on inside his tanks and ponds -- if two fish are breeding, he knows, or if a fish is getting sick, he knows why and how to help it. He talks to his favorites in a low murmur and points out their unique colors and personality traits. And in the summer, when the water temperature in his larger pond is around 84 degrees, he jumps in and snorkels with his three stingrays in their 5,000-gallon home.\nThe upstairs of Meador's house completely obscures the vivacious world below. The house is a few blocks outside of downtown Bloomington in the midst of a mainly student area, and no signs of Meador's work are visible from the outside. A calculator, well-used notebook and several phones pushed into a pile on Meador's dining room table give off a slight aura of business. And only a few telltale details betray Meador's fish passion, such as a faded breeder sticker on his front window, an empty fish tank pushed into the corner of his brick porch and various fish statues, posters and rugs scattered casually throughout the house. \nMeador's backyard is similar -- nothing but a few empty tanks give any indication of his work. But stepping into Meador's white "garage" is a different story, as the occupants aren't cars. Instead, the garage holds the majority of Meador's 220 fish tanks (50 55-gallon, 110 29-gallon, 40 15-gallon, one 120-gallon, 12 125-gallom, four 150-gallon and three 75-gallon tanks). This is Meador's discus hatchery, the main money-maker of Rainforest Farms, Intl. \nDiscus are rounded, tropical fish that grow up to four inches and are usually spotted, striped or solid in a wide array of bright colors. Meador's hatchery boasts around 100 breeding pairs at the moment, 64 of which he keeps in 32 tanks against one wall of the hatchery fondly referred to as "Motel 6." Inside their fish motels, breeding pairs drift around the tank, sometimes spawning tiny black eggs on the red bricks placed inside the tank. The entire hatchery is a discus paradise: the temperature is kept in the mid-to-high 80s, which causes the to fish grow more quickly and keeps their metabolism high, as well as mimics the temperatures typical of Singapore and Malaysia, the natural habitat of many lines of discus. Water circulates constantly, and Meador cleans the tanks every two days to keep their environment ideal. And he constantly tries to cross different types of discus in order to create new colors and patterns on the fish, as many of his customers are seeking a specific fish. Among his current population are several types of Snakeskin discus, a few Red Dragons and some Solid Turquoise discus, all of which drift around the tanks like shiny orbs of color. \nMeador ships fish all over the United States and beyond -- he even sent some discus to Aruba just a few days ago. Locally, though, Meador only is known to a select few. He chose the fish and setup of the 250-gallon saltwater tank at Uncle Fester's Jungle Room, which he maintains constantly and to which he constantly adds fish. Currently, he's waiting for a new shipment of powder blue Tangs, an emperada Angelfish and some colorful purple and blue clams, which he'll add to the tank this week. Additionally, the Jungle Room includes another 30 gallon saltwater tank and two 55 gallon freshwater tanks -- all maintained by Meador.\nThe big saltwater tank near the bar and the door is the main attraction, though, but it's not without its problems. Though Meador carefully researched a good combination of compatible fish and coral for the tank, several fish have had to be removed for tearing up the tank or being too aggressive. Additionally, Meador told Fester's owner Aaron Steele the small pufferfish inside the tank would be toxic to the tank environment if it died, which it did.\n"We watched it really closely all the time," Steele said. "When we saw it hit the bottom, I yelled, 'Get the net!' and we got it out really fast."\nIn addition to the four tanks at the Jungle Room, Meador estimates he's set up around 75 tanks for individuals around Bloomington. In the future, he plans to put together a book on his practice, expand his saltwater fish collection with seven new tanks in his basement, try to add a new strain of discus every two months (Meador plans to add 15 new lines to his current 40) and possibly even open a pet store, if he can find an investor. In the meantime, he's living quite comfortably because, many times, a fish he's paid merely nine dollars for can be resold for $75. Unique breeding pairs can go for $600 up to $1,000, and some of his customers order several thousand dollars worth of fish at a time. \n"I'm not rich, but my business took in over $100,000 last year," Meador said. "I invested most of it back into the business." \nMeador's business is strictly mail-order at the moment, so he doesn't invite passersby into his home as a normal business might. However, Bloomington does have several options for residents who want to start a fresh or saltwater tank immediately -- most notably, A Glimpse of Nature, PETsMART and Wal-Mart.\nTerri Stillions, the manager and owner of A Glimpse of Nature, spends most of her time each day answering questions about setting up tanks, and though she sells both saltwater and freshwater tropical fish, she said saltwater fish are easily the most popular.\nLike Meador, Stillions sets up tanks for customers and tries to find compatible fish and tank setups for them. She enjoys her work and setting up saltwater tanks in particular because of the "live" sand and rocks teeming with microorganisms, which tanks must have in order for the fish to survive. \n"When people use live sand and rock, things develop," Stillion said. "There's always something new to see." \nSince only a few places in Bloomington sell saltwater and freshwater tropical fish, Stillion is supportive of Meador or others starting pet stores with fish. She believes the market is wide open in Bloomington. \nMeador's store front is just a distant goal, though. He actually has a business degree from IU, and though he hardly went the corporate route for which the Kelley School of Business is often known, his entrepreneurial skills have come through in his breeding business. After 10 years on the job, Meador, like Stillions, is doing what he loves and has no plans to stop.\n"Of course, if I could make $50,000 more a year, I'd be happy," he says wryly. \nAnd if things go as he plans, that just may happen. \n-- Contact Weekend editor Kelly Phillips at kephilli@indiana.edu.