Our Story
Fishkeeper Clothing Co was founded in February 2021 by Jamie Lanier, a hobbyist fishkeeper turned small business owner with a passion for helping other fishkeepers experience success with their aquariums. In July of 2022 we opened Aquarium Pro Gallery, Maintenance and Tropical Fish Store at 1739 Kresky Ave, Centralia WA 98531. Our Mission with launching this clothing line in addition to our retail location and service business is to donate a fish tank to every classroom to help educate the future generations on the beauty and educational side of keeping fish as pets as well as provide a platform for the teachers teaching them to come to to get advice from a community of fishkeepers.
A message from our founder:
I began fishkeeping in December 2017. I got into the hobby after developing a passion for fishing after moving to Washington State from California for my career as a graphic designer at the time. I was gifted a 29 gallon aquarium and a 1 gallon with a filter from two friends randomly and had decided I wanted to set them up with the help of my dad whom use to breed and keep discus and other fish when I was growing up. Luckily for me, having my dad around he made sure to tell me to research the fish I wanted after we had stopped by our local Petco in Lacey, WA my dad helped me get a few things for the 29 gallon and while there I fell in love with a female koi betta. That night I was up researching about koi bettas and came across betta sororities and I could say the rest is history. But the next day I went back and bought that betta for the 1 gallon I had and a few things for it. A few days after my dad ended up inviting my sister and I to go to a local fish store where I met a an awesome guy name Matt there whom gave me an experience I had never had before going into any type of store where I could feel his passion about this hobby. We ended up leaving with a biocube 32 Led and everything needed to set up a freshwater planted betta sorority tank. From there my passion for this hobby grew and I ended up deciding that I wanted to try to experience more in fishkeeping so I decided I was done doing graphic design and I wanted to go work at a fish store. Having previous retail management experience I was hired on at a Petco in Olympia, WA and I made it my personal mission to change the shopping experience that I was use to from going to stores like PetSmart and Petco when I was growing up to an experience like I got from Matt. I truly for the first time was waking up excited to go to work always showing up early because it literally felt like Christmas everyday getting to open boxes of fish and play with the fish tanks all day. I began meeting all types of people from every walk of life that were fishkeepers, I began following FishTubers and I even quit Petco for a few months and moved to Florida for a few months to work at a 20,000 sqft fish store *Shout out to Beverly's Pet Center*. When life brought me back to Washington I was lucky enough that there was an openning at my local Petco where I got my very first koi betta from. I ended up living a 2 minute drive away from work and before I knew it I had 24 running fish tanks, 2 saltwater nano reef cubes. Then in January 2021 I was moving my last fish tank into a new place an was rear ended in a car accident that totaled my truck and shattered the tank. But the fish and I survived thankfully. The accident is really what triggered the start of this clothing brand as I had began experiencing back pain after the accident that was affecting my ability to do what I love at work and for a few clients I had began doing in home aquarium maintenance services for early 2020. I found myself sitting at home and getting on my laptop and wanted to do some shopping for aquarium stuff when I came across a few aquarium tee shirts and found myself interested in a cool shirt but hating the designs I was seeing. And that's when the graphic designer in me came out and Fishkeeper Clothing Co was created with its mission derived from my personal mission of setting up all fishkeepers I meet for success in fishkeeping. I am blessed to have been able to open up a tropical fish store and aquarium gallery in Centrailia, WA and can’t wait to be stocking our clothing brand in store!
View our interview with the chronicle about our fish store
At 1739 Kresky Ave, Centralia Wa
Hours
Tuesday - Friday 11-7
Saturdays 11-8
Sundays and Mondays Closed for Services
- Jamie Lanier