I began this fascination pretty much as far back as my first memories.  I was in first grade and my elementary school had an aquarium in the library.  I remember being very much more interested in staring into the tank than reading!!

 My Mom grew up in Miami so she was a visitor of the SeaQuarium.  She started collecting aquarium literature in 50’s and 60’s and by the time my younger brother and I were 10- 11 yrs. old, we were given the duties of caring for a built-in 55 gal. and a 20 gal. metaframe.  I also loved to draw at an early age.  I would dream of the next purchase of a scoop of neon tetras, calculate the costs… This was when $1.50 could buy a lot of fish!!

My middle school and high school years are a bit of a blur, but I certainly remember fishing and poking around in numerous creeks, rivers and lakes.  I helped with our family tanks and when I moved away, I kept my own tropical fish all through college.   Because of the various moves, I learned about water parameters.  Then came marriage and I continued to have two tanks while my girls were little.

In the late 80’s, I was at a LFS to pick up some fish food.  I saw an MAS flyer for their annual Spring Show at the Como Park Conservatory.  I knew I wanted to attend so I jotted down all the pertinent information.  The sound of the bubbling tanks amongst the beautiful plants was positively hypnotic.  So shortly after, I was attending regular meetings and not too long after that, BOD meetings.  It’s nice that I’ve known many persons in this club some twenty plus years!!

The speakers at the MAS meetings and club members taught me to take my fish keeping to a new level.  In fact, I was changing so much water, on one occasion I completely threw my tank’s balance out of whack.  The fish were fine, but the water was very white and cloudy.  A past President and dear friend, Ken Nordby advised me to step back from my water change routine and let the tank settle down.  Voila!!   It worked!!

At around the same time, I started spawning fish earnestly and with purpose.  A cichlid was first, but soon after, I kept and spawned a killifish.  What a beautiful family of fish, I thought… they are not very big, but they (the males) possess so much color!!

 Nothobranchius is a dynamic and species rich genus of the killifish family.  In September, I hope to do a good job inspiring you to attend the MKKA show and also to keep some of these lovely little annuals.

 Jen K.

September 2010

1.  Livebearers - Natural Varieties

2.  Killifish - Aphyosemions

3.  Virtual Bowl