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.
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 34 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 5-6 years ( www.tbas1.com ).
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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 responsibilities. 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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Ricardo
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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Mike
Wise 
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I was born (some 58 years ago) & raised in Kansas City, Missouri. In 1966,
I enlisted in the U. S. Army and successfully worked hard at not getting killed,
blown up or something stupid like that. What a way to earn money for a college
education! After 3 years of active service I started working my way through
college, earning a B.S. degree in geology from the University of Missouri-Kansas
City. It was there that I met the love of my life (No, not fish, my wonderful
wife!) and married her (32 years now, & counting). We then moved to Oregon
where I graduated with a MS degree in geology (biostratigrapy). After graduate
school, I moved to Denver, Colorado where I first worked (played, actually)
as a minerals exploration geologist, then in the retail & wholesale pet
industry, and finally as an environmental reclamation specialist at Superfund & nuclear
sites. Believe me, these were easier to do than what I'm doing now - raising
three teenagers!
I have been in the aquarium hobby for over 30 years now and have
kept dwarf cichlids almost from the beginning. My other favorite
fishes are tetras (especially pencilfish) and Corydoras catfish.
I'm a member of the American Cichlid Association (since 1982), the
Apistogramma Study Group (since 1983) and the Colorado Aquarium Society
(since 1977). For the past 20 years I've been technical editor for
the ASG’s publication, "The Apisto-gram". I've had
articles published in several magazines and writing awards from the
ACA and FAAS. I've also translated from German three books and many
scientific and hobby related papers on dwarf cichlids. I've talked
at previous ACA conventions, as well as to local, regional, and international
fish clubs about various aspects of identifying, keeping, and breeding
dwarf cichlids.
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