bay area apisto legends (was Re: Mis-ID in Mayland and Bork?)

[swaldron@slip.net]

Hi folks,
I was lucky enough to have Brian as my apisto-keeping mentor and still
think about his amazing tanks and hanging out at the PCCA meetings
discussing apisto taxonomy (well if you know Brian- I was mostly doing the
listening) and not too mention enjoy the compnay of other dwarf cichlid
greats like Kurt and Hal Makin. The really amazing part was that was back
in the mid-80's when the only english language dwarf cichlid book available
was the old Vierke, "KW" series "Dwarf Cichlids" book, economical RO units
were not yet available  and the odds of finding any apisto in a retail fish
store were worse than winning the lottery (that changed when I started
working for "Aquatic Specialties" in high school- another old school bay
area cichlid legend). Up until meeting Brian, I had always thought dwarf
cichlid breeding and particularly lushly planted aquascapes were out of my
league, the realm of germans with dupla systems...Brian made the hobby (and
his bountiful apisto progeny) accessible for many of us- put a real
american spin on the hobby for me- not much that guy couldn't do with a
regular old 20 long, a tetra sponge filter, some plants and solid
husbandry. I wish they would have named A. norberti after him.

Justin's aquarist talent is on the level with Brian's and from what Justin
has told me- the hobby and business is not like it used to be, back in the
day. He doesn't expect to be in business for more than a couple more years.
I can buy my fish and supplies wholesale or mail order but prefer to shop
at Justin's- heck I could go to 2 public aquaria here in San Francisco on
any given sunday and end up going over to Ocean Aquarium to see captive
fish/plant husbandry at its full potential.

I guess I didn't have a real point to this post other than to pay homage to
those that have made and are making this hobby great, hopefully it will
make it well into the next millenium. best to all

>> Seeing Justin's tanks, the way they were set up with so many beautiful
>> plants and several ages of apistos swimming about, made me think back on
>> Brian Wolinski's apisto tanks of a decade ago.  Sorry if I keep bringing the
>> 'great one' up, but, to me, Brian was THE apisto-keeper!
>
>I couldn't agree more! Hockey had it Gretzky, but undoubtedly Brian was
>the Great
>One of apisto breeding. Whenever I found something new and I wanted to be
>certain
>that it was spawned, I always shipped it to Brian. He was the only one I ever
>knew who bred Mysis shrimp for food. His tanks were gorgeous. It was a sad day
>when he decided to pack up everything and retire from the hobby. The Bay Area,



                              Steven J. Waldron

                             http://WWW.ANURA.ORG
               "Natural History, Captive Husbandry, Conservation and
                           Biophilia of Tropical Frogs"

                    




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