It all started with a fish tank... You don’t hear that often, but for Anchore employees Touré Dunnon and Amy Oxley, this hobby was just the thing to start their Anchorenaut friendship.
Touré’s 250 gallon saltwater aquarium is the real deal. It has an impressive mechanical and biological filtration system that holds 400 gallons total (2500 lbs). Touré grows seaweed and keeps the water extra clean for his nine fish from Fiji and the Caribbean.
This advanced level of aquatic life didn’t happen overnight. Touré learned his love of fish through his Dad, who started him out with a 10 gallon saltwater tank when he was 13. After college, Touré got back into aquariums with his two daughters who help manage the water changes, clean the tank, and feed the fish. Since he was interested in becoming a marine biologist as a kid, Touré is hoping his daughters will be inspired to pursue that path when they get older.
Outside of his fish tank fatherhood, Touré is a Senior Software Engineer on the Anchore platform team, primarily working on policy engine with a key focus on keeping active containers within compliance.
Meanwhile in Texas, Amy’s three-year-old daughter Fynn’s obsession with the Finding Nemo movie piqued her interest in starting a fish tank hobby. It wasn’t until seeing Toure’s aquarium during an Anchore All-Hands virtual meeting that she was inspired to commit. Amy’s 40 gallon freshwater tank has 11 fish, complete with schools of tetra, catfish, and shrimp.
While still aspiring to make her tank more automated (and eventually upgrade to a saltwater tank as “saltwater fish are way cooler”), Amy and Fynn love to count the fish and learn their names.
Amy is the Senior Manager of the IT and Information Security team, filling her days with managing Anchore’s internal systems for both ease of use and compliance while maintaining and managing the company's security initiatives.
Toure and Amy’s friendship has continued to grow - with Touré being a fountain (dare we say, an aquarium) of knowledge for Amy as she has embarked on her fish tank journey, being her go-to person for questions on everything from water changes to the ideal plants and fish to purchase next. They even connected on their hobby of woodworking, and strategize on how to build stands and support systems for their fish tanks.
In a distributed company during an unprecedented time, Touré and Amy’s friendship is an example of the unconventional ways people can make a connection through something as simple as a video conference background. You can keep up with Touré and Amy (and their aquatic hobbies) on LinkedIn.
