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Dan Sharifi is the owner of Cichlids of the Americas, an internet-based fish provider. Dan has kept fish for nearly 30 years, focusing primarily on Central American cichlids, but with a number of South American cichlids as well. His current indoor facility is over 3,000 square feet, with additional outdoor pools and ponds used to raise fish. In his facility, there are tens of thousands of fish, with over 80 varieties currently in Dan’s breeding program. Dan is one of a few USDA-APHIS certified facilities in the U.S., and ship fish to literally every continent. Over the years, as a fishkeeper, Dan has collected, located, and purveyed fish in countless ways. Dan enjoys sharing his love of fishkeeping and breeding with hobbyists and clients and is a regular speaker for aquarium societies. He is well-known as “Cichluvr” on numerous aquarium websites. Dan believes he has one of the largest collections of Central American cichlids in captivity.

Before becoming a full-time fish breeder and source for New World cichlids, Dan worked a total of 19 years in financial services for HSBC, Bear Stearns, and Mercedes Benz Financial running and managing multiple call centers to handle consumer loans, mortgages, auto finance, and managed collections, information services, and credit risk.  He oversaw over a thousand employees at HSBC and Bear, and call centers in Dallas, Tampa, and Manila at Mercedes Benz.