I have posted many times about the benefits of attending various fish shows and conferences. In fact, I have pointed out that one of their greatest benefits, at least for me, is the opportunity to meet fellow fish keepers.
Though I sadly have not met today’s interviewee in person, she comes by way of fellow hobbyist Matt Quinn, who I DID meet at this year’s Bluegrass Bash in Lexington, KY. While talking to Matt at the Bash, he recommended that I interview Christine Keys, who he spoke very highly of. Shortly after the conference, Matt introduced me to Christine (albeit virtually via email). I reached out to her immediately, and below is the result. Thank you, Matt!
Christine’s fish keeping began in earnest when she was in high school and she has maintained that passion ever since. In fact, she was so committed during her college days that she hauled tanks back and forth between her college dorm rooms and home every year. After graduate school, she was able to expand her fish keeping and she quickly established a 33-tank fish room. Over time, she became more involved in the hobby by serving several board positions with the Capital Cichlid Association (CCA). Eventually, she was able to build a customized, automated fish room in her basement, where she currently maintains more than 80 tanks. When she has time, she also loves to present a talk titled Evolution of a Fish Room: The Adventures of a Lazy Fishkeeper. Oh, and she has another hobby outside fish keeping that you can read more about below.
Let’s get started!
NOTE: All photos courtesy of Christine Keys unless otherwise noted.
Your cichlid journey has included numerous species, but you’re primarily interested in West Africans. Where did that interest originate?
Honestly, I don’t know where the interest originated, but I’m smitten with the genus Pelvicachromis. They’re small, easy to keep, and gorgeous, especially when in breeding dress. And they’ve got great parental care behaviors, which cichlids are known for. The Pelvicachromis genus has great starter cichlids all the way to more challenging oddballs for the experienced fish keeper. There are many interesting species and color variants depending on which point location you have. Then, there are other dwarf cichlids that are quite similar to the Pelivacachromis that you can keep. Fish like Enigmatochromis lucanusi and Nanochromis transvestitus. And the Benitochromis if you’ve got a little more space (something like a 40-breeder size tank).
What’s your favorite West African species and why?
The short answer is P. taeniatus Moliwe because it’s one of the first that I bred, and I love their colors. When in breeding dress, the females’ pelvic fins turn jet black, and I think they look like they’re wearing a little black bowtie which contrasts nicely with their pink abdomen.
The longer answer is that I also absolutely love the Benitochromis genus. I currently keep several different species.
I remember when I was starting out keeping fish, I heard another club member talking about “biparental mouthbrooders” and I thought to myself, “Wait…what? Tell me more!” Turns out it’s a fascinating behavior where both parents take turns mouthbrooding the eggs and juvies, trading off parenting duties so that they can snag a meal or splitting the duties so they can each take some fry and hide if a threat is detected.
What should cichlid hobbyists new to West Africans know about them that they probably don’t?
Pelvicachromis kribensis (common Kribensis, or Krib cichlid) is often sold in stores as a beginner cichlid. And it IS a great starter fish, but it’s still a cichlid. I’ve seen Kribs clear an entire 55-gallon tank when spawning. They claimed a spot smack in the middle of the tank to raise their fry and had everything else in the tank huddling in the top left and right corners of the tank. Some of the less common Pelvicachromis are much less aggressive.
Another thing to keep in mind when keeping Westies is that there are many kinds that are under severe threat in their natural habitat due to habitat loss, overfishing, and other threats. That habitat is disappearing so fast that fish from a specific point location might not be available in the not-so-distant future. I’m happy to see more of these fish available from breeders. Hopefully those breeders will continue to maintain them.
Your fishroom has steadily grown over the years and now houses over 80 tanks. In fact, you’ve given talks about the evolution of your room. What would you say have been your three biggest challenges growing and maintaining so many tanks?
1 and 2: Time. Version 1.0 of my fish room had 33 tanks and now I have 82. I had thought the maintenance time for the additional tanks would be linear as the fish room grew, but I feel like it’s a lot more than I anticipated. I’ve adopted various automation strategies to maximize my time and have added technology to make it easier to monitor and control the fish room from my phone. I like to tinker, build, and optimize so the fish room provides a lot more enjoyment for me than just the fish.
3: So many fish, so few tanks. I really like the hands-on learning that fishkeeping offers. Several of my tanks are single-species tanks, but many of them house multiple species. As I learn more about cichlids (or find something new and interesting at a fishkeeping event or at my local fish store) part of my brain is already calculating if this fish can fit into my fish room. You know the “Math Lady” meme? That’s me in a fish store when I find something interesting.
For you, what’s the hardest part about being an aquarist?
It’s not the mulm or algae, it’s not even how five gallons of water on the floor suddenly looks like 20. It’s when I lose fish. Sometimes it’s because of a mistake I made, sometimes it’s nothing I could have prevented. But I feel like I failed a living creature. It’s something I wrestle with and haven’t internally resolved yet.
You have served on the board of the Capital Cichlid Association (CCA) and are now the CARES coordinator for the club. Describe that role for the readers and what you enjoy about it?
I think fish clubs are incredibly important for our hobby. I learned the most important nuggets of wisdom from fellow aquarists at the most unlikely times. One of the things I love about in-person fish club meetings is being able to simultaneously hang out with a retired chemist, a construction project manager, and an IT guru (plus many more). We’re all talking about fish, but we’re also all bringing our expertise to the table. I learned about fish I’d never heard of before. I learned about what size hardware I’d need to use to support the weight of the tanks on the rack I wanted to build. I learned about weird fish diseases to watch for.
Serving on the board allowed me to give back to the club. Many of the fish I keep are also CARES fish, so I’ve participated in that program for a while. It made sense for me to become the club’s CARES coordinator, and I see it as a way to stay involved and encourage others to consider making room in their tanks for a CARES fish.
In addition to your fish keeping, you operate SnarkyFish Glass Art, an outlet for another one of your passions. One of your amazing creations are fish caves made out of fused glass, which I have never seen before. Talk a little about these caves and the inspiration behind them.
My husband and I are both involved in making glass art and jewelry for our business, but art-quality glass can be quite expensive. My husband also occasionally hosts wine tasing events for friends and family. I wanted to find a less costly way to experiment with glass and decided to repurpose empty wine bottles from our tasting events.
Bottle glass is tricky to work with becaise it has some limitations that art-quality glass doesn’t have. For example, one bottle might not be “compatible” with another bottle. If incompatible bottles are fused together, they’ll eventually break from the stress of that incompatibility. So, I was creating things from bottles that only needed one-bottle worth of glass. Somewhere along the line, I realized that they’d be perfect to use as shelters for fish in quarantine. They’d give new fish a place to hide and reduce their stress while also being easy to sanitize in case the new fish came down with ich. I offered a few for sale, and they became popular. I use them throughout my fish room now. I like that the color of many wine bottles (olive greens and browns) looks more natural, in my opinion, but aqua blue and bright green bottles seem to also be very popular with customers.
What’s next for your fishroom and/or cichlid keeping?
Good question. I’m currently working on more automation pipelines and dashboards to keep track of the maintenance performed on my tanks. I have several ideas of how to accomplish this over the next year or two. I’d also like to add an easier way to track what fish are where in the room. I label the tanks so that visitors know what’s in each tank, but as I move fish around, the physical labels become out of date. Recently, I added NFC tags at each tank where I can bring up each tank’s inhabitant list with a single tap of my phone on the tag and quickly make the update right there in the fish room.
Another example is that I’d like a dashboard of when I last cleaned the mattenfilter for each tank. I usually clean them on an as-needed basis, but a few tanks get left out since they’re not on a regular schedule. I need something that will show me a “last cleaned” status for each filter. I’ll be developing that workflow (starting with a simple tap to an NFC tag) soon.
Thanks so much for your time. Anything we didn’t touch upon above that you would like to add?
I can’t think of anything.