Steven’s aquarium becomes film set for Sir David’s latest show
ARUNCORN aquarium owner helped Sir David Attenborough film his latest BBC documentary.
Steven Chester, owner of Premier Aquatics, is an advisor for the new BBC nature documentary The Mating Game and helped supply fish for the programme.
The fourth episode of the series was broadcast on October 24 and Steven was approached by researchers to help with this episode by investigating the breeding of the South American Copella Arnoldi fish.
Steven was formerly a head keeper at Chester Zoo’s aquarium before he opened his own business and says it was a ‘fantastic’ opportunity for him to work with Sir David Attenborough, even if his role was behind the scenes.
He said: “I have a long history with this species and the BBC researchers found an old news piece about me breeding them when I worked at Blue
Planet Aquarium in
Ellesmere Port around 2013-2014.
“They reached out to me last year to supply the fish for filming and to act as a consultant to make the fish happy enough to want to breed, and to set up the tanks for filming the breeding process.
“I have seen clips of the results and they are outstanding!
“The Mating Game is another of the BBC’s extraordinary nature programmes and it is fantastic for me to have the opportunity to be involved, albeit behinds the scenes, of a series presented by the great Sir David Attenborough.”
The Runcorn-based business owner started by collecting tropical fish as a hobby and has seen this turn into a dream career, which has now led to an exciting business enterprise revolving around his fondness for exotic fish.
Steven says it was ‘amazing’ to get an idea of how these documentaries are put together.
“The episode focuses on unusual breeding behaviour in freshwater, I think there are several fish species filmed but I was asked to supply one specific fish species from South America that actually lays its eggs out of the water.
“It then proceeds to splash the eggs to keep them moist until hatching 48 hours later.
“This is virtually a unique breeding strategy and absolutely fascinating to watch.
“It was amazing to be behind the scenes to get an idea of how these dramatic programmes are put together.
“We set up our aquariums to monitor the breeding process and the results the viewers will see are quite incredible.”
Steven’s business at The Heath in Runcorn is home to some 18,000 exotic fish and 150 aquariums.