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When it comes to the blog interviews, I would be doing you, the reader, a disservice if I only targeted cichlidophiles in the United States. Fortunately, I’ve been able to interview fish keepers from all over the globe. In fact, today’s interviewee hails from Denmark. If you keep Lake Victoria cichlids, then you have probably heard of him – Kim Pedersen.
NOTE: All photos by Kim Pedersen unless otherwise noted.
When it comes to cichlids, Lake Victoria and its satellite waters have a story to tell. A fantastic website just launched that helps tell it.
To numerous fish hobbyists, the Web is a great tool. We have probably all performed online searches looking for information about different species, hardware, fish food, and everything else. As I recall, I first learned about today’s interviewee as my fish keeping journey was just getting started. In fact, I believe I learned about Rick Borstein while searching for fish profiles. Fast forward to the present and I reached out to him about doing an interview.
If you keep Lake Victoria cichlids, there is a new research initiative that could use your help. Called the CARES Fin Clip Genomic Study, the purpose of the effort (among other things) is to more accurately identify Lake Victoria cichlid species kept by hobbyists.
If you’re a fan of haplochromines, especially from Lake Victoria, two new Labrochromis were recently described.
Though most of the fish we keep are tank-bred and raised, wild caught specimens are still very important to the hobby, and threats to these wild fish seem to be ever increasing. A rarely mentioned threat is the overabundance of cyanobacteria that creates obnoxious, green surface layers on the water known as cyanoHABs (cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms). These can be harmful to fish, human, livestock and other fauna.
In July of this year, I attended the annual American Cichlid Association (ACA) Convention, which was held in Cincinnati, Ohio. As with every ACA convention, there is ample opportunity to meet fellow cichlid keepers and to even acquire fish. Registered attendees can sell fish at the convention and, historically, have done so out of their hotel room at the convention hotel. Yes, the sight of numerous tanks set up in hotel rooms is very interesting, to say the least.
At this year’s annual ACA convention in Cincinnati, I was able to meet many well-known cichlid keepers who I have not met. Never passing up an opportunity to score some new interviews, I eagerly searched out a few folks who I knew were attending.
Over the years, I have met many fantastic cichlid hobbyists. However, until this interview, I have never had the privilege of meeting Lawrence Kent.