Charles Nunziata

Charles Nunziata, BS, MBA, is general manager of a guidance and control system components manufacturer. He has been an active aquarium hobbyist for 40 years, specializing in killifish for 34 of them. He is a Fellow, Life Member, and Distinguished Member of the American Killifish Association and is a long-time member of the British and German Killifish Associations, the North American Native Fishes Association, the Suncoast Killifish Society, and the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society. Charlie has served AKA as BOT chairman, treasurer, and chairman of the Judging Committee. Currently he is a senior AKA show judge, Chairman of the AKA's Killifish Conservation Committee, National Coordinator for the NANFA Regional Outreach Program, and Coordinator of NANFA's Central Florida Region. He is Editor of the Suncoast Killifish Affiliate Club newsletter, and has co-authored the Florida Collecting Guide. He has authored and contributed to many of the AKA's programs and procedures, including the current Judging and Conservation programs and has authored many articles published in various killifish journals.

Charles has been the unofficial President of the Suncoast Killifish Society since it's inception in approximately 1998.

Brian Skidmore

Brian K. Skidmore earned a BS in Biology from the University of South Florida in 1990. He has worked as an Ecologist at King Engineering, a Tampa, Fl civil engineering and consulting firm, for the past 10 years. Brian has been in the aquarium hobby for about 25 years and has a variety of related interests. He currently holds membership in the American Killifish Association, North American Native Fishes Association, Suncoast Killifish Society, International Fancy Guppy Association, Florida Native Plant Society and the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society where he served as president for 2 years. Brian has authored a number of articles for aquarium journals and is co-author of the Florida Collecting Guide. Most recently, several of his photos were published in the July 2003 issue of TFH.

Bill Shields

Bill graduated with a BS degree in Biology. Bill worked in many fish stores for years. Uniquely, Bill worked as a breeder of elephants for years in the Tampa, Fl. area before he was grabbed up by the 5-D Fish Farm in Tampa, Fl. 5-D is probably the largest breeder farm in the world. Bill works as the Master Breeder for the entire 5-D Fish Farm. He literally spawns fish to the tune of 4-5 million every year! If it swims Bill can spawn it. He is a truely remarkable person. His dedication to the hobby and business of tropical fish is un-paralled! Tampa Bay is glad to have Bill!

Bill has also been the President of the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society for 2 years and the Vice-President for 4 years and a BOD member on the off years since it's inception in 1992.

Mike Jacobs
Mike graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Mathematics and received his Masters Degree in Mathematics Education From the University of South Florida. He began teaching 33 years ago in Indiana at a junior high school. He moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1973 and has been a high school mathematics teacher at Lakewood High School ever since. In addition to his teaching duties Mike was the defensive football coach for the Varsity Football team for 11 years and the head Baseball coach for 20 years all at Lakewood High School. In 1994 Mike was chosen to teach in the highly touted Center for Advanced Technologies (CAT Program) housed at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg, Fl. Approximately 500 of the best rising 9th grade students in Pinellas County make application for the 150 seats that are open in this Computer-Math-Science emphasis high school every year.

Mike has been keeping fish full time since 1963 but has memories of helping his mother do water changes in the home aquarium when he was very young.

Mike's present interest is Apistogrammas and having fun in the fish hobby, but in the past he has done a lot in the hobby. In 1968 he began to keep Saltwater fish and did so for the next 10-12 years. He then revitalized his interest in killifish with the Suncoast Killifish Society here in St. Petersburg, Fl. and now presently spends his time with the SKS and the Tampa group........Tampa Bay Aquarium Society!

Mike has served as President of the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society for 2 years and Vice-President for 2 years and a BOD member for 3 years and has been the Editor of the TBAS newsletter for approximately 4-5 years ( www.tbas1.com ).
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Bruce Lilyea

Bruce earned a B.S. in Accounting in 1991. He then served as an accountant
in the US Army for six years. Bruce spent the next several years in the
technology field, where he was a national director for a computer retail
company. Currently, he is part of a property management and acquisition
firm. He has a wide variety of interest including technology, fitness and
martial arts.

Bruce has kept fish for over fifteen years and has fond childhood memories
of the family aquarium. He has been a member of the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society
(TBAS) for several years and the North American Native Fish Association (NANFA) now has his interest as well as well as his membership.

He currently serves as the webmaster for TBAS (http://www.tbas1.com) [ed note:One of
the best web sites in the aquarium hobby. The time and dedication to this
effort from Bruce is really extraordinary.]

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Jim Cormier
Jim has an associate’s degree in Electronics and has worked in the electronic industry for 20 years. During this time he has had electronic and mechanical design responsibilities as well as managerial. Jim has used this knowledge and experience to build his own tank racks, automatic water changing system and a central filtration system.

Jim has been keeping fish for 27 years. Early in his fish keeping experience he kept mostly African Cichlids but in the last 8 years he has kept and bred most types of fish and he currently has nearly the highest point total in the Tampa Bay Aquarium Society’s Breeder Award Program. In 1996 he went on a fish collecting trip to Peru. He has maintained as many as 250 aquariums but is currently running 80.

Jim was a member of Pioneer Valley Aquarium Society for 5 years serving as Newsletter editor and Vice President. He moved to Florida 6 years ago and is a member of Tampa Bay Aquarium Society and has served on the BOD and as President.
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Mike LoBello
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Al Knowles
Al Knowles has been keeping cichlids for some 20 years. Although his current interest is South American cichlids, he has spent many years working with Central American cichlids and some Dwarf Cichlids.

Al is an avid writer for his local club, The Tampa Bay Aquarium Society. He has also written for the Cichlasoma Study Group and has given talks to many out of state Aquarium Clubs and is seen at the ACA Conventions almost every year. Al is known by everyone as the guy that is always smiling and dealing...you will never see Al with the same bag of fish in his hands for more than 15 minutes and then magically that bag will become another bag of different fish!

Al is always club oriented and in fact is a charter member of one of the most successful clubs in the country...Tampa Bay Aquarium Society. Al has volunteered to do everything from Membership chair to setting up for the famous TBAS Aquarium shows.

Al is very close with his daughter who's art is seen on his monthly column in the TBAS bulletin, "The Filter"(www.tbas1.com).
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Rick Cervantes
I grew up in Brownsville Texas, the most southern city in Texas, right on the Mexican border. As a young man I would collect sailfin mollies and firemouth cichlid in the various waterways around my home. Most waterways around Brownsville are old portions of the Rio Grande River where the river once flowed. At 14 I got a job working at Samano’s Pet shop where I got to understand the vast varieties of the hobby. From then on I was hooked on keeping fish.

In 1980, at 19, I joined the US Navy and that put my hobby on hold for a few years. Being single and aboard a US Navy ship didn’t leave any room for my hobby. It wasn’t until years later when I was stationed in Sigonella, Sicily that my aquarium fish keeping was re-kindled. I had kept somewhat in touch with the hobby by having kept my subscription to TFH and visiting aquarium shops over the years. However, when I got to Europe I was not prepared for what I would find. Fully aquascaped Dutch Tanks are the norm and that’s when I got my first introduction into discus. I befriended the owner of a local shop. He had in his shop some of the most beautiful discus I had ever seen.

German, Schlingman red discus. Not having a large enough tank I purchased a 360 litter that day. Since I was on shore duty in Sicily I finally had some time to try to breed discus.
I obtained 6 discus and thus began 3 years of trial and errors; the Do’s and Don’ts Years.
After Sicily I moved back to the US to Virginia Beach, VA where I again got into discus.
I was a bit busier in Virginia and although I kept discus I could not devote time for breeding.
After only 2 years in Virginia I was transferred to Macdill Air force base in Tampa. Little did I know that Tampa was Tropical Fish Farm capital of the US. I was in a local pet shop one day getting items to set up my tanks again and I was told about a new Aquarium club in Tampa. They met at the Roy Haynes Park. I decided to attend.

That night would change the way I viewed discus. The guest speaker that night was a Mr John Fisher, who bred discus down in Sarasota. I was very captivated by his happy go lucky attitude over breeding discus.

After the meeting I spoke with John Fisher and asked if I could come down and visit his discus facility. Being a friendly man who loved to share his knowledge of discus he invited me to come down to visit. That visit turned into a lasting friendship that I hold dear in my heart to this day. I can truly say that 95% of what I know about discus I learned from John Fisher. It is only now after having served in the US Navy for 20 years that I truly have some time to devote to my favorite aquarium fish.

Although I still work for the Military at Macdill as a civilian contractor, I now have a bit more time for the discus hobby.

Two years ago I had the opportunity to attend the 4th Discus Championship in Duisburg Germany. I was "In Discus Heaven", over 400 Discus entry’s in the show and Discus and Discus Vendors everywhere. The Duisburg Discus Show happens every 2 years alternating every year with Aquarama in Singapore. Needless to say I will be attending the Discus Championship again
this year in October.

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Roy Yanong, D.V.M.
V.M.D., 1992 University of Pennsylvania

B.A., Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, 1986
Yale University

Roy Yanong's longtime interest as a tropical fish hobbyist eventually resulted in a career in fish veterinary medicine.

After college, Yanong worked at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, studying leukemia in soft-shell clams from Boston Harbor. After working in Boston, he attended the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine where he received his V.M.D. in May 1992.

Two months later, he was hired by 5-D Tropical, Inc., a large ornamental fish farm in Plant City, Florida where he was quickly immersed into the industry. He worked as a staff veterinarian for four and a half years.

In 1996, he joined UF/IFAS' Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory in Ruskin where he provides both on-site veterinary assistance as well as diagnostic laboratory support. This work also includes water quality, necropsy and microbiology for fish producers in the area. Yanong also continues to be active with local aquarium societies and hobbyists.

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Bob Heagey
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Mark Robinson
Cichlid Domain is family owned and operated and located in Minto, North Dakota. My wife Sherry, 9-year old daughter Ashley, and I all share a keen interest in keeping fish, and from my very first tank of Guppies years ago (more years than I care to mention) to the 2,500+ gallons of tanks we have today, our enthusiasm still grows. Our phone number is 701-248-3979. Please place calls prior to 10:00 p.m. CST. You can send an email anytime.

Our main focus for a number of years has been on the care and breeding of the African species of cichlids but we also keep Discus and other cichlids native to the America's, Guppies, Catfish, and saltwater species. Recently, we combined our resources with a small group of enthusiasts and acquired the services of independent exporters from Africa. These people have proven their willingness to go further and dive deeper to get us the best specimens possible.

Along with some of the finest wild-caught specimens available, we will also be offering the offspring that our friends and we have been able to raise. If you do not see the species you are looking for on this site, please send me your wish list. One of the other hobbyists in the group may have them or we might be able to get them for you with the next shipment.

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Bob Keeton
CichlidStore.Com is a direct importer of highly desirable wild-caught cichlids (F0) from Africa, Central America and South America. Additionally, we offer tank or pond cichlids. We will make every effort to provide the gender of your choice but we can't guarantee juveniles. Although we are not scientists, we possess many years of Cichlid experience and will be happy to provide free stocking, breeding, tank setup, feeding and other advice.
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