Of all the things to have a slightly unhealthy fixation on, keeping tropical fish is probably quite low on the list of something your friends and family will worry about. Be careful, though: it just may become a way of life.
This is pretty much what happened to Travis Homme, owner and operator of Blue Reef, a shop on Missoula’s West Side that specializes in exotic fresh and saltwater fish, invertebrates, and coral.
“I ran another store here locally, The Blue Realm,” Travis says, “for a gentleman named Steve Rostik. I ran his store for about 15 years. I think he was just an interesting enough personality that I wanted to be around him more than the store. That's how it all came about, and I've just been kinda doing it ever since.”
Blue Reef is set in an unassuming block of small warehouses just off West Broadway. Step inside and it’s like being transported to another world that belies the monochrome exterior. It’s a world of soft, blue light, aquariums lining the walls containing wildly colorful fish and corals that dazzle with their glowing hues. It’s no wonder that winter is a busy time of year, when folks could use a good dose of color in their lives.
“I talk to some of my comrades that live in places where they don't really have seasons, and they say they're busy all the time,” Travis says. “We slow down in the summer pretty good. I think it's because, you know, you're stuck inside all winter most of the time here in Montana. It's super cold, and it gets dark at 4:30 in the afternoon.”
Now, after three-plus decades in the business, Travis has paved the path from labor to labor of love. It might be a business, with all the ups and downs that would entail, but for him it’s worth any bumps in the road to get to spend hours each day with what he loves.
As he says, it’s not his job, but a way of life.
“It's really just mind, body, and soul,” he says. “It's very Zen to own an aquarium. I don't have a TV in my house, I just watch my aquariums. It's very addictive.”
“I have run a lot of businesses, but this isn't my job, and I don't look at it that way either,” he continues. “I’m not here for the money; I'm here because I love fish. My wife told me I couldn't have any more aquariums at home. So the next day I rented this warehouse. It's more my passion, my hobby, and I needed a place to take my hobby to the next level.”
What is it, then, that made Travis take such a leap, to put so much on the line in order to expand a hobby? Again, it doesn’t feel so much like a decision he made as it feels like a natural extension of his life.
For one thing, he’s a farmer. It’s how he makes his living, and just like the animals he raises on his farm, he wants the animals in his store to have the best possible life.
“I just like to pass on my knowledge of the 35 years in the aquarium industry and try to help people understand that there is a better way to do things,” he says “Most people don't know that other way. They just know the way we've been doing it forever: normal tap water, normal garbage food, and really it comes down to, ‘would you eat that stuff or drink that stuff?’ And the answer is ‘no.’ I don't drink Missoula city water; I wouldn't put my fish in Missoula city water. I want them to be as happy and healthy as they could possibly be. And I want you to want that too before I sell my animals.
“I see it every day. I have the conversation about health and happiness way more than I would like to. It almost wears on me, you know?”
And the fact that raising and selling fish and coral is not a money-making endeavor for him really sets Travis apart from those who appear to be in it for the payout and not the animals themselves.
“There's just not a lot of really good fish stores out there. I’ve traveled all over and I go to the fish stores because it's my hobby. There's not a lot of good stuff,” he says. “You can tell most people don't do it for the love of what they do. They do it for the profit.
“I spare no expense for the health of my animals, even if it costs me more money than they're worth. It's an ethical thing, right? And that is why I have a farm, so I can love my animals, just give them the best life I can. Same thing with all my animals here.”
It’s probably pretty clear by now that Travis is heavily focused on doing things a certain way. He wants to carve a path of ethics and care through a society that often expects us to turn a blind eye to harm, in the interest of increased efficiency and profit.
Anything that Travis can do to be a more mindful steward, he will do.
“I do aquaculture a lot of my own coral,” he says. “I grow it, I frag it, so that I can do my part in helping not rip the oceans apart. We can't do any more than that because that’s just industry. So I try to do my part by growing and making as much of it as I possibly can. It’s probably a speck in the eye of the ocean, what I am trying to do, but I gotta do my part, right?”
“I spare no expense for the health of my animals, even if it costs me more money than they're worth."
“I just like to pass on my knowledge of the 35 years in the aquarium industry and try to help people understand that there is a better way to do things."