Fuat Jan was born in the city of Ta’if in the mountains southeast of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. His parents were Turkish “guest workers”, as were many different nationals employed in the Kingdom. Even though he was born there, Fuat was not a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Fuat eventually immigrated to the U.S., and Americanized his name to John Can. He found work with an uncle who had an Italian restaurant, and learned the pizza business. In time John found his way to South Florida and opened his own restaurant near Boca Raton.

It was only a short distance from a new marine fish wholesale business that I was helping to build. We would go to John’s place for lunch frequently. John is very outgoing and liked to talk with his customers, and we told him about the fish business. As he learned from us about the aquarium fish industry he became quite enamored by the subject. He began to wonder about the fish of the Red Sea, how valuable they were, and how he might go back to Saudi someday to start a fish collection station there.
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Part 1

 It was the spring of 1977. Having left an aquarium maintenance job with Exotic Aquaria in Coconut Grove, I had begun to work independently.  I was delivering some new fish for a 360 gallon saltwater tank installed in a North Bay Village office near Miami Beach. It was in the offices of Diversified Industries, a somewhat shady company the employees dubbed “Diversified Thieveries”. This was my first custom installation and featured then state-of-the-art filtration package and a diorama background. There was a small elevated service area behind the tank where I could introduce the Clown Trigger and Emperor Angel I had just brought. I could see through the tank that the owner was entertaining some guests who were curious about the tank and the new fish.  Once the fish were released I went into the office to explain about caring and feeding the new aquarium occupants.

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