Matt Bielski Is a mechanical contractor by trade from Niles Michigan. A member of the michiana aquarium society, he has been breeding fish since he was a teenager.

With nearly 2,500 points in the breeders award program at the local club in which he holds Grand Master breeder status Matt has spawned over 200 different species of fish.. through research and his natural method of breeding fish he has challenged himself with some tough species to spawn in captivity.

Dave Schumacher has been an avid aquarist from a young age. Getting his first job at 16 as “the reptile guy” at a local pet store specializing in cichlids, he quickly found he enjoyed the fish even more than the lizards and turtles he’d started with. Dave worked for Armke’s Rare Aquarium Fish while in college, which was the go to source for cichlids in the hobby during the 90s and 2000s. In 2006, he bought the company, changed the name to Dave’s Rare Aquarium Fish, and moved to San Antonio, TX. Dave has been a part of the Hill Country Cichlid Club since it was founded in 2004, and is serving his third term as a board member of the American Cichlid Association.

Caroline Estes has been in the hobby for 41 years. She owned and operated Amazonia Aquariums for 20 years; a retail store in Austin Texas with 500 tanks specializing mainly in Cichlids and oddball rare fish. 

Art Parola is a member of the Advisory Board of the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) and leads the NAIA’s CITES Engagement Program. He is also a consultant and is pursuing a law degree.

Art developed a love of nature from a young age, spending as much time as he could, covered in mud and creek water, with a butterfly net chasing every critter that crawled, slithered, or swam and trying to identify them with his collection of field guides. This led him to a career path focused on animal welfare, sustainable development, and conserving nature, particularly through sustainable use policy initiatives.

He still hasn’t lost his childhood enthusiasm for spending time in nature, although he now more commonly carries a camera instead of a net. His writing and photographs have appeared in numerous online articles, as well as in print publications in multiple countries around the world.

Don Danko has kept cichlids for many years, breeding many rare species, including several that were first U.S.A. spawnings. He keeps a mix of new world and Lake Tanganyika cichlids in his current fish room which has an automatic water change system. His wife, Marilyn, also enjoys keeping fish and has a passion for breeding Ancistrus catfish species. Don has been involved in several aspects of the cichlid hobby, including writing articles, speaking, taking photographs, holding club offices, and most recently, editing.

Don has collected extensively throughout Mexico since 1987, from Linares and Cuatro Cienegas to Bonampak. He has visited Costa Rica as well.

He has written a number of articles for magazines such as the American Cichlid Association’s Buntbarsche Bulletin, Cichlid News, Amazonas, and the Ohio Cichlid Association’s Buckeye Bulletin. Don is an accomplished nature photographer that has amassed an extensive collection of cichlid pictures as well as of other animals. Many of his photographs have appeared in both fish and nature-specialized magazines. He has contributed many of them to the Cichlid Room Companion.

For the past year, Don has acted as the editor of Cichlid News Magazine. In addition, he served as guest editor for two special issues of the ACA’s Buntbarsche Bulletin, one featuring all Tanganyika articles and one featuring New World articles.

Don has held leadership positions in the Ohio Cichlid Association for many years and has served on the BOT and Cadre of the American Cichlid Association. Don is currently engaged in helping to promote events for both the OCA and ACA.

Several years while attending an annual ACA convention, I was walking through the vendor showroom and spotted several tables covered with some really cool-looking clay caves. I had been looking for something very specific for one of my tanks, so I walked over to the tables and saw a large sign that said Pleco Caves. I began talking to the young lady on the other side and explained that I was looking for something specific. I then asked her if they do custom work. She said, “Sure.” That was my introduction to Jodi and Brantley Berry, owners of Pleco Caves.

Based in Indiana, Pleco Caves is a regular vendor at many cichlid and fish conventions/shows. The number and diversity of clay products they make for aquariums is incredible. Not only do they make great stuff but they are fantastic to work with. They have made several custom items for me, which have always been produced exactly to my specifications. Don’t let their business name fool you. Their products work great for cichlids too! I can honestly say they have made my fish journey a better one. I reached out to Jodi and Brantley back in the spring and asked if they would be willing to do an interview for the blog. Thankfully, they didn’t hesitate. Let’s get started!

Dave Smith will be giving a talk about “Building Your Fish Room” in October.  Dave is a scientist in the food industry. He has 50 years of experience in the hobby and has had articles published in the Journal of the American Livebearer Association and the ACA’s Buntbarsche Bulletin. Although currently concentrating on livebearers, his Cichlasoma bimaculatum took Best of Show at the 2017 ACA convention.

Kevin is the owner of Tangled Up in Cichlids, an internet-based tropical freshwater fish import/export company that has been in operation since 1995 that specializes in New World Cichlids, as well as Characins, catfish, pleco, and other rare and unusual species from around the globe. Kevin has been in the aquarium hobby for 35 years most of which was as a private hobbyist and breeder until taking on the role of owner/operator of TUIC in 2019. Tangled Up in Cichlids is located in Northwestern NJ and operates as a single sole proprietor operation with no other employees in a closed to the public 10,000+ gallon, 2,000 sq. ft. facility. TUIC continually offers a unique and widely diverse weekly updated online stock list that is available to the public via the internet, that rivals or surpasses most private and open-to-public retail establishments in the US. Tangled Up In Cichlids