Bald Hills pisciculturist joins finned friends at Ekka

There’s something very fishy about north Brisbane pisciculturist Peter Ford and his role at this year’s Ekka.

Peter Ford has been entering the fish competition at the Brisbane Ekka for about 20 years. Picture: Sarah Marshall

THERE’S something very fishy about Bald Hills pisciculturist Peter Ford.

The 60-plus years young man has loved fish since childhood and now has thousands of them in tanks and ponds in and around his home.

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“I keep mainly Papua New Guinea fish, rainbows and L-number catfish,” he said.

“The Papua New Guinea fish are just so colourful, it’s really peaceful to sit down and relax watching them.”

His favourite are the zebra catfish “because they are like a zebra, black and white”.

Peter Ford has thousands of fish in tanks and ponds at his home in Brisbane’s north. Picture: Sarah Marshall

This time of the year is a busy one for him and his finned friends, with his involvement at Brisbane’s Royal Queensland Show (Ekka), which runs from August 9-18.

Mr Ford said he had been going to the Ekka since he was “a little fella” and has been entering the fish competition for about 20 years.

This year he has entered nine classes within the Pisciculture section.

But his involvement doesn’t end there. He has been a steward for eight years and a trainee steward for a few years before that.

As an Ekka steward, his first job every morning is to check all the fish had a good nights’ sleep.

“If we find something wrong we deal with it,” he said.

“If a fish is sick, we’ll call the owner and they can make the decision whether they want to come in and take the fish home.”

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The stewards also join the Grand Parade, where the champion fish are paraded around in jars.

“We do two and a half laps of the oval with all the other animals and the crowd loves it,” Mr Ford said.

“I get a kick out of being at the Ekka and answering peoples’ questions.

“A lot of kids come through with schools. They have questions they ask, stuff they’ve prepared at school.”

But Mr Ford is just as happy pottering around with his fish at home.

“I love keeping fish,” he said.

“I just sit down at night and watch them, they’re very peaceful to watch.

“I spend 45 minutes each night feeding them and one day each weekend cleaning tanks and doing water changes.

“They’re very low maintenance, you don’t have to take them for a walk.”