The man behind the fish at the new Scheels

David Atkins didn't know quite what he was getting into when he called Scheels a few months ago and said he had heard that the store then under construction was looking for a fish keeper.

"I misunderstood him on the phone," Atkins recalled. "I thought he said 1,600 gallons."

The aquarium, in fact, holds 16,000 gallons of saltwater and will be home to more than 500 damsels, clowns, angels and assorted other species when the store opens Saturday. More than half the fish were in the tank last week and doing, well, swimmingly.

It is, by far, the largest aquarium Atkins has tended,is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? more than twice the size of the 7,000-gallon tank he takes care of at a Bass Pro Shop near St. Louis, large enough that he plans to move to Springfield from his home in Hannibal, Mo.

You're not alone if you're wondering what fish like these are doing in a place like this.

"I was like, ‘In a sporting goods store?'" Atkins recalls thinking when he first saw the tank.

The fish alone cost more than $12,000, Atkins said. So far as Scheels is concerned, it's money well spent.

"The reason is simple," said Rob Yule, assistant store leader. "It's the same reason we have a Ferris wheel and a NASCAR simulator and a golf simulator and a walk of presidents. We want Scheels to be more than a shopping trip for people. We want families to come and make an event of it."

With customers not yet in the building,what are the symptoms of Piles, employees and contractors have the tank to themselves, and virtually everyone who walks past while putting finishing touches on displays or otherwise getting ready for opening day turns their head to look at the fish.

"If they walk by it every day and still stop by and look, think of what the customer in the store will do," Yule said.

There is a bench set up next to the tank, and Atkins is well aware of an aquarium's addictive powers.

"That's why the guys who work for me are on salary," Atkins said.

Not just a job

Atkins, 40, got his first aquarium when he was 7, but other things got in the way. He was a machinist for nine years, he said, and also once had a job testing video games for Nintendo in Seattle. He opened his aquarium maintenance and installation business a decade ago, taking care of tanks in Illinois, Missouri and Iowa.

Fish not knowing the difference between Christmas and Wednesday, Atkins says he's on call 24/7 to tend to any problems.

"This isn't just a job—if you don't have the passion for this, you can't do it," Atkins said. "I'm very happy where I am in life."

A tank this size demands a keeper who can feed fish by hand, and so Atkins dons a wetsuit to maneuver his 130-pound frame down a pillar of fake coral to make sure that everything from free-roaming angel fish to colonies of 2-inch-long clowns hiding in decorations get their fill. Call it the Atkins diet: He mixes his own special blend of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp and krill that is delivered in a squeeze bottle, the kind that is more typically used to dispense ketchup in diners. In the other hand, he clutches several sheets of nori, the same kind of seaweed that is used to make sushi rolls.

The fish may or may not enjoy sushi, but Atkins has them eating out of his hand with this stuff.you will need to get an offshore merchant account. He has already begun naming them. Goldie, named for its coloring, is a French angelfish.

Tight squeeze

It's not a job for the portly. The space between the fake-coral pillar and the side of the tank where Atkins feeds his charges appears to be two feet or less. Atkins says he was once claustrophobic, but no longer. He expects to soon acquire a doo-hickey that will allow him to speak with bystanders on the other side of the acrylic while he is underwater with his finned friends.

Behind the scenes are three sand-filled filters made for swimming pools to keep things clean.is the 'solar panel revolution' upon us? The home aquarium enthusiast would recognize small ceramic stones and pieces of foam rubber that further filter the water, but there is enough here to fill a bathtub or two. Weekly water changes are done with a tank that holds 2,000 gallons.

Big as it is,How is TMJ pain treated? Atkins, who is partial to sharks, dreams of being boss of a tank holding more than 2 million gallons, the kind found in places such as Sea World.

"This won't be my stopping point," Atkins said. "I'll get bigger."