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Each year, the American Cichlid Association convention hosts fantastic speakers. The July 2024 edition in Cincinnati Ohio was no exception. In fact, I was able to snag an interview with one of the speakers who I had tried to get a few years prior (Dr. Ron Coleman). I also had the opportunity to talk to another speaker, Dr. Sam Borstein, who did an interview for the blog many years ago.
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Dave Schumacher |
About a year ago, I was looking for some cichlids that were proving to be difficult to find. I began thinking to myself “Who might have these fish?” I remembered hearing about a guy in Texas who often has some of the more difficult to find species, so I went to his site – Dave’s Rare Aquarium Fish. The owner, Dave Schumacher, didn’t have what I was looking for, but I thought “Why not ask him to do an interview?” I did, and he agreed. As a kid, Dave was always into reptiles and amphibians. He got his first job in high school at a fish store in Houston that focused on cichlids but the store owner was wanting to carry reptiles. The owner didn’t know how to care for them and didn’t want to handle them. It was at that store that he became fascinated with cichlids. After high school, he moved to San Marcos for college at Texas State University, and while there, got a job at Armke’s Rare Aquarium Fish. He worked there for a couple years, then bought the business in 2006. Not long after, he moved everything a short drive south to San Antonio. Currently, his shop houses more than 200 cichlid species. |
Dave’s been an active member of the Hill Country Cichlid Club, alongside Greg Steeves (who I interviewed back in 2017), where he’s been on the board and even served as secretary of the American Cichlid Association. He travels a few times each year speaking to clubs about Mbuna, Lamprologines, building his shop, and basic cichlid genetics/nomenclature.
Let’s get this started!
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Greg Steeves
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If you keep African cichlids, odds are the species you have are endemic to either Lake Malawi or Lake Tanganyika. However, there are many species of cichlids from other bodies of water on the continent, including other large lakes, not the least of which is Lake Victoria. In fact, for this interview, Lake Victoria is front and center. I reached out to a fellow cichlidophile who knows that lake probably as well as anyone in the hobby. A shout out to Pam Chin for facilitating this one!
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The Cichlid Stage: You’re widely recognized in the hobby as an expert on cichlids from Lake Victoria, one of the Rift Valley lakes of East Africa. Tell the readers what compelled you to want to keep these beautiful fish?
