Q. Introduce yourself 🙂

A. I have been keeping fish since 2003. My first tank was a 3ft that I got from my father in law when he was still my girlfriends father. My first fish was a common pleco. The tank had normal gravel and plastic plants. At some point I moved onto aquascaping for a while but I really ground my passion when I started breeding fish. First species I bred was Notho. Eggersi red. Would love to breed them again in the future.

Q. Let us know a little about you? what you do outside of the hobby?

A. Im a chemist at a pharmaceutical company. I enjoy cricket and growing plants, especially fruit and vegetables.

Q. What are some of your favourite fish and why?

A. Threadfin rainbowfish. I bred them in great numbers and added them to an aquascaped tank. Looked really great. The males flick their fins by extending them out and then clamping them back against their bodies while circling each other. It’s quite a sight!

Q. Do you have a favourite plant?

A. Dwarf Hair Grass. It makes a stunning carpet. I first got some about ten years ago and have always had some somewhere since.

Q. How many tanks/fish do you currently have set up?

A. I have 6 tanks currently running. One is a crypt/rockscape of about 250l. One is a breeding rack consisting of a sump and 6 breeders. There is a 3ft that has a parva carpet that houses my cpds and then a dirted tank that was going well but now not so much. Redo on the cards there. The other 2 are quarantine tanks.

Q. What and who inspires your hobby?

A. The joy and pride of breeding and raising my own fish inspires me.

Q. How have you evolved as a fish keeper?

A. Started off trying whichever fish I fancied, had plastic plants. Then I decided I liked nano fish so I stuck with them. Then came the aquascaping phase but I didn’t really enjoy it, so I went with plants that are easy just to have plants in support of the nanos. Then gave breeding a try and loved it. In my opinion, this is the natural progression of most aquarists.

Q. Has the hobby changed over the years?

A. Yes. Many more plants and fish are available than 20 years back. There are also a lot more complexities such as co2 if one wishes to go down that route.

Q. What do you think is missing in the hobby in SA, or what negatives currently exist in the hobby?

A. The hobby is fairly small so there are few dedicated aquarium shops. There is no expo available. The prices of some stores are a bit on the high side while the quality is lacking sometimes

Q. What advice/tips can you give to fellow hobbyists?

A. Try everything, decide what suits you and go with it. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing.

Q. What future plans do you have?

A. I want to expand my breeders and look at a few more species that aren’t the easiest to get hold of. At some point, I will set up a proper fish room and just have my breeders in the garage.

Q. What got you so interested in breeding Celestial Pearl Danios?

A. They aren’t easy to find and their quality isn’t great. They are sought after so I don’t have trouble selling them, and I can keep hundreds in my tanks if I wish to.

Q. What makes you so successful in breeding Celestial Pearl Danios?

A. Perseverance. I have tried many different techniques until I found something that worked for me. RO water mixed with tap water in a 1:2 ratio is what I’m currently using. And vinegar eels as a first food for the first month has made a huge difference.

Q. What foods do you use for your fish/fry?

A. Vinegar eels for fry. Adults get banana worms, Mosquito larva and brine shrimp as live foods, then a whole lot of different flake food from Prof Dirk Bellstedt.

Q. Do you breed for profit or pleasure?

A. Pleasure. I put everything I make back into my fish. There is a huge sense of pride in having a beautiful shoal of fish that I raised from eggs to adults.

Q. Where do you sell your fish?

A. On the ECAAC group and on gumtree. Also, people spread the news and I get messages out of the blue sometimes asking if I have fish.

Q. Have you changed species a lot or did you previously breed other species?

A. My first species was Notho. Eggersi. I got eggs, hatched them and raised them. I only got 3 to adulthood. They spawned, I raised all those fry but they were all female. There were only about 6 if I recall. Then I moved onto threadfin rainbowfish for a few years until I moved to my current house in 2015 where I switched to cpds, Emerald rasbora and Sawbwa resplendens which I’m still currently breeding.

Q. Do you face any challenges when selling your fish?

A. Mostly saying no to people when I don’t have to sell. People want my adults often.

Q. Do you ship?

A. Not yet. I haven’t produced enough fry to ship until recently, and the demand in PE has been high enough for me not to have to ship.