Blog

Jim Cumming hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and has been keeping tropical fish for over 65 years. Other than a fifteen-year sojourn into the world of killifish (his online name is ‘notho2000’) he has kept and presently keeps Central and South American cichlids, and currently devotes about one third of his 40 aquarium fish room to Madagascan cichlids and the Etroplus genus from India.
Jim has given presentations to over 100 cichlid and generalist aquarium societies throughout the US and Canada over the last 6 years and in the Spring of 2018, was invited to Berlin and Dresden, Germany where he presented on Madagascan and South American cichlids to the German Cichlid Association (DCG). Other speaking engagements included the International Cichlid Conference in Brisbane, Australia in November 2018, the Nordic Cichlid Association in Uppsala, Sweden in March 2019, the East Anglia Cichlid Group in Newmarket, UK in April 2019 and the ACA Convention in Cromwell, Connecticut, in July 2019. In 2020, Jim has been invited to speak in France at the French Cichlid Association’s Convention in Lemans, and in Lausanne, Switzerland as well as a return to Australia where he will be presenting to four groups in November. Jim has never turned down an invitation to speak other than for a conflict of dates.

Over the last 10 years, Jim has become captivated by the magical cichlids from Madagascar. They have certainly ‘supercharged’ his passion for the cichlid keeping hobby. Jim has had extensive collecting experience in Mexico, Belize, Cuba, and Brazil as well as the Southern U.S. He maintains a very active YouTube channel with around 700 videos as of January 2019, highlighting the fish he keeps or has kept. The emphasis is on maintenance and breeding, along with social interactions, both con- and hetero-specific. Jim has been a moderator for several on-line forums and several Facebook aquatic interest groups and maintains a Facebook site solely devoted to fish and their conservation. Jim has had articles published in Amazonas, Cichlid News, Buntbarsche, and the Swedish Ciklid Bladet magazines. He is also an American Cichlid Association sponsored Speaker, as well as a Madagascan Cichlid Species Specialist and speaker for the CARES Preservation program. On Facebook he administrates the group Madagascar Endangered Fishes and is a Moderator of Geophagus Keepers. He also has been actively involved in the local Aquarium Society of Winnipeg, where he served for many years as Program Chair, Journal Editor, and President. He enthusiastically looks forward to spreading the word on Madagascar and its cichlids, as well as on variety of other hobby-based topics wherever and whenever he can.