Richard Stratton interview

Today’s interviewee is a really special guest. It’s not every day that you get to converse with the pioneers of home aquaria, the very people who helped establish the hobby. Fish keepers are in debt to people like this man, who helped lay the groundwork for tank manufacturers, livestock importers, fish sellers, and hobbyist organizations.

If you have been in the hobby for any length of time, the name Richard “Dick” Stratton should be familiar. Though I have known of Dick for years, I have never had the privilege of meeting him. That all changed several weeks ago when a mutual friend, Mo Devlin, introduced us. 

Among his many accolades, Dick is a former teacher, fish breeder, fish club president, author of fish books and articles, and tank builder. Going strong in his 90s, Dick is still keeping fish. I could go on and on but rather than cover everything here in the intro, check out the interview below. Let’s get started.

Your fish keeping journey has provided you with plenty of experience with a range of tropical, freshwater species. What have been some of your favorite cichlids to keep and why?

I have often called myself the Will Rogers of the cichlid hobby, in that I never met a cichlid I didn’t like. I did my best to try them all, but the Firemouth cichlid was the one that first snagged me, and I still have a special regard for and interest in that species, as well as species in its genus, Thorichthys. One of the reasons is that the parents take equal care of the young, and I really like their looks. I got a lot out of Juan Miguel Artigas Azas’s presentation on the genus Thorichthys at the last ACA convention I attended. He had filmed them in the wild from various different locations and he mentioned how predation was so intense that the parents had to guard the total area for predators. So, it made them particularly effective as parents, and that helped explain the equal care by the parents.

It is interesting to me how beauty really is in the eyes of the beholder. When I had jewel cichlids, my wife actually liked their looks better than Firemouths because she liked the blunt head as opposed to the pointed snout of Firemouths. I liked them, too, but I didn’t prefer them. I always found that they went well in a cichlid community tank with Dempseys, as the Dempseys were blue, and the jewels red, so it made a nice contrast. And it works out well in regard to aggression because jewels are more aggressive than Dempseys, but the Dempseys are larger. Of course, if one of them spawns, the dynamics change completely.

I first saw that combination in a fifty-gallon tank of Guy Jordan’s. That was when I was new to cichlids, and Guy was quite helpful to me in the various inevitable problems that came up with my fish. A couple of years later, he and I were quite excited when we traveled down to the airport to pick up some Rio Grande Perch that one of his contacts had sent him. These, of course, were Texas cichlids, and the only picture either of us had seen was the one in the Innes book, which was one of juveniles. We had no idea how big they would get. Those were different times, and there was little information on cichlid species. I still like that species. They are generally precocious spawners, and they’ll generally spawn at only four inches or so, and they are great parents—and I like their spawning colors. Before that, I liked Firemouths because they basically maintained the same coloration when spawning, but in some races the blue eyes turn amber, and the red may brighten a little. In spite of their large size, I’ve always liked Texas Cichlids, and other members of the Herichthys genus. I’m always trying to discipline myself by going small, but it seems that so often, the bigger cichlids are the more interesting in habits and in breeding.

The Red Devils came next. They made quite a splash, and that was something that gave a boost to the cichlid hobby, too. Diane Schofield first wrote about them. She named them and she made the comment that there was much variation in appearance. And it was true, as it turned out that they had sent us up only the red forms of three different species. I got the address of Father Astorqui, who lived near Lake Managua, and he had studied some of the red fish from the lake. Professor George Barlow took an interest. He described one of the species as new and he did a lifelong study of why the red color persisted in only part of the population. One of his conclusions was that the red color seemed to be intimidating when battling over a spawning site, and that might be a partial offset for the lack of camouflage.

The disappointment was when the fish were bred. Most of the offspring were of the camouflage type, not nearly as colorful.  Since then, hobbyists have selectively bred the species to produce all red offspring. As pretty as they are, they don’t look as dramatic as the original imports, as they had black markings that added to their exotic appearance.

Although I emphasize small species whenever possible, I have been bitten by the big cichlid bug myself. I was quite fascinated by what was then called Cichlasoma dovii. Gene Wolfsheimer had a dramatic red version of. It was the star of his hatchery, but he made no attempt to breed them despite my pleadings because they were so big. But Bussings sent three specimens for me to Barlow in Berkeley, who then relayed them down to me in San Diego. I knew how big they would get, so I kept one, and I gave one to Guy Jordan, and it became famous, as Guy wrote about him so much. So did other people. I also sent one to Kappy Springer in Los Gatos, California, and she was an enthusiastic hobbyist after whom Fryer named Iodotropheus springerae from Lake Malawi. On the way back from a family trip to the Redwoods, we stopped to see her, and her specimen was also a male, and it had tremendous personality, too. I don’t know if there is any fish species, marine or freshwater, that can match the intelligence and personality of Parachromis dovii, as the species is now known. A lot of the red forms are available now, but we should be aware that they can attain a meter in length, given time and resources. They are a candidate for the largest cichlid species, and they are quite aggressive, as well as being predatory. The two don’t necessarily go together.

Although most of my experience was with Central American species, I also kept cichlids from all over Africa. The colorful cichlids from Lake Malawi made such a big splash that it made cichlids a major player in the aquarium hobby. The Bailey Brothers here in San Diego made a good living as teenagers by acquiring and selling species from this lake. These fishes are marvelously colorful and very active, and that’s what most aquarists want. Some cichlid hobbyists didn’t like them because they were nearly all maternal mouthbrooders. But that doesn’t mean that they weren’t interesting. Many of them defend feeding territories, much like the marine damsels.

Still, I tended to spend more time with the endemic cichlids of Lake Tanganyika, as they were more interesting to me, and I could find lots of small species that were quite fascinating. It really is true that there isn’t a cichlid I don’t like.  But, of course, I like some more than others.

You and Guy Jordan started the American Cichlid Association (ACA). Talk a little about how the organization has grown and developed since those early days.

I’m the one who started that as a very young and enthusiastic cichlidophile. Thinking back, it seems downright impertinent that such a neophyte as I would do that, but Al Klee, who had started the American Killifish Association, was going to start a correspondence club of sorts with just advanced cichlid aquarists. When he started Aquarium Illustrated, his plans were put off, so I went ahead with it.

It’s important to point out here that cichlids were not all that popular with general aquarists, with the exception of angels. They were too big for the typical community tank, and most of them would consume their tankmates. We never dreamed that they would be as popular as they are today. Hence, I started the club by sending a request for stamped envelopes to advanced aquarists and ichthyologists. They all sent them, and I typed out the first Buntbarsche Bulletins (BB) and these included a sort of trading post, as cichlids were feast or famine in those days. Everyone in our town would have certain species, but we didn’t have many of the others.

There were several things that began to stimulate general interest in cichlids, with the beginning of the manufacture of large tanks. Those were made possible by some of the sealants that were developed in NASA’s moon program. There was also the introduction of several new species by Bill Bussings, a young ichthyologist working in Costa Rica. The Red Devils also made quite a splash. But the real draw were the cichlids of Lake Nyasa, also called Lake Malawi. These cichlids were active, quite colorful, and a more suitable size for the average home aquarium. So, it caused a tremendous surge in the cichlid hobby.

In the meantime, I had been given an administrative position in the school district that took up more of my time, so I asked Guy if he would take over running the organization. He did so with incredible efficiency. He started charging dues, and he actually hired an editor for Buntbarsche Bulletin. He had been my mentor when I first became interested in cichlids, and he was well connected throughout the country. He did some writing himself, but only for our local club’s bulletin, The Tropical Breeze.  Guy was a semi-retired musician, and he supplemented his income with financing second mortgages. It is quite amazing what Guy was able to do, as he was legally blind, and he couldn’t see well enough to drive. But he kept in touch by mail and by telephone locally, as long-distance calls in those days were quite expensive.

The club began to grow exponentially. Everyone pitched in, and soon we had BB editors that gave freely of their time, and they certainly didn’t charge for their services. I recall the great Ross Socolof once commenting to me about how impressed he was that doctors, attorneys, and other busy people donated so freely of their time to the ACA. And the club began to have conventions, but I didn’t attend one for several years because of work and three young children at home. I first attended a convention in Denver, and Ross Socolof introduced me as the founder of the ACA. I attended regularly back when my old friends would be attending, such as Ross and Professor George W. Barlow, who were just a tiny bit older than me. After my fellow older fellows died, I seldom attended. An exception was the Louisville convention (2022), as I had been invited to give a presentation at the age of 91.  I really enjoyed that in many ways, but it was mainly cavorting with some old friends, as well as new ones.

As an icon yourself, you have/had a longstanding relationship with many of the other icons in the fresh water fish keeping community – Paul Loiselle, Guy Jordan, Herbert Axelrod, Warren Burgess – just to name a few. What are some of the most important pieces of advice you have received from these fish keeping legends?

In regard to icons, I just covered Guy above. I was close to Loiselle when he was barely more than a teenager, but he was so smart and so focused on fish studies that he was already an encyclopedia of knowledge. He helped me learn to use keys to identify species and to make use of the Zoological Record for looking up descriptions and articles on species, as well as many other publications. Loiselle was fluent in French, so he was a natural to go to Togo in Africa and help natives make the best use of fish for food resources.

He got along well with Albert J. Klee, who only recently died at the age of ninety-four. Klee was not an ichthyologist, but he may as well have been, as he was so intelligent that he absorbed information like a sponge, and he was friends with many of the greats. He wrote a book about David Starr Jordan. There once was only one correct way to pronounce scientific names. However, Loiselle was the first one to tell me that the powers that be had decided that there would be no one correct way to pronounce names. Ichthyologists were of all nationalities, and they were inclined to pronounce names differently, according to their native language. Klee rebelled against that and he always maintained that there was a correct way to pronounce the names. The last time I saw Paul, he was certainly pronouncing all the names old style (i.e. correctly), but there are fish named after him. Ordinarily, you simply pronounce the name, such as Salvin, and if it’s a male, you add an “I” which is pronounced EYE. If there are two iis, you pronounce it EE-EYE. If it’s named after a female, it ends with an ae, which is a diphthong that is pronounced EE. That seems simple enough, but the idea is to get the original name in its language correct. For example, “ramirezi” is pronounced like the name Ramirez with an EYE added.  However, Paul didn’t even pronounce fish named after him correctly, as apparently in French Loiselle is pronounced WA-SELLE, or something like that.  However, in all other respects, Paul was using old-style correct pronunciations.

Herbert Axelrod could be quite charming and he did many good things, as well as some shady ones. He delighted in making good deals and ultimately got caught up in tax evasion. He eventually served time for that. There were people who hated him, and those who loved him. He was generally nice to me and my wife. He had been all over the world scuba diving, including two of the Great Lakes of Africa, and he told me he enjoyed diving in Lake Malawi more than in the finest coral reef areas, so he must have liked cichlids. He also became quite wealthy putting out publications on fish and other animals.

Ross Socolof was one of the most significant hobbyists, a friend of Al Klee, of all the fish pioneers and farmers. He, himself, was heir to a grocery chain started by his grandfather. He worked there for nine years, but he didn’t like it.  So, he started a little aquarium shop in Brooklyn, and that eventually grew into a tremendous business, with fish farms in Florida and collecting areas in Central America, as well as importing contacts all over the world. He eventually sold his fish farm to Axelrod. I guess Herbert planned on having people run it, but Ross didn’t come out of that experience with a high regard for Herb. Of the two, Herb could be quite charming for his own ends, while Ross was simply someone you couldn’t help like.

One of my greatest friends was also someone whose knowledge of science and ichthyology was beyond compare, and that was Professor George W. Barlow. Richard Dawkins writes about him in his own autobiography. He did research on all fishes, started scuba diving with Jacques Cousteau. He once lived for a few weeks in one of those underwater habitats, where ironically, you can go deeper, but it would be lethal to try to go up very far. You must breathe helium in place of nitrogen to avoid nitrogen narcosis, which is a hazard to scuba divers in deep water.

However, his field was fish behavior and he tended to specialize in cichlids. He eventually wrote a book all serious cichlid people should have, Cichlid Fishes: Nature’s Grand Experiment in Evolution. It’s technical, but any serious aquarist can read it, as the author explains his terms and makes everything sound easy and exciting. It also helps a reader know just how special cichlids really are. He died just a few days before the ACA convention in 2007, very unexpectedly, and he and I had gotten nearby rooms in the hotel. His middle daughter, Bica, called to let me know, and both of us had difficulty talking. It was a cruel blow. And all of us who knew him, including Paul Loiselle, commiserated over his loss at the convention.

I knew Wayne Leibel less well, but he was an asset to the fish hobby, as well as the ACA, as he was a molecular biologist. He was great as he edited the Buntbarsche Bulletin, and he took over the chairmanship of the Jordan Fund from me. He was brilliant, but he was simply a lot of fun. He had a great sense of humor, and he was full of energy, and he played several musical instruments. It really hurt when he, too, died suddenly and unexpectedly.

I’ll never finish talking about all the icons I’ve met, as I could go on forever, and I would end up slighting someone even then. There are a lot of good, smart people in the hobby, business, and scientific studies of cichlids—and nearly all of them are quite likable, too.