Volume 11, #4, April 2025
Editor: Alan De Angelo
Contact: [email protected]
Greetings and April salutations.
Greetings and April salutations. The onslaught of Spring has begun. April showers may bring May flowers, as the saying goes, but it also brings unstable weather patterns that should be shaking the doldrums out of your breeders. Your fish room should begin to start popping in regards to the number of spawns. It’s time to get busy.
CONVENTION 2025
Don’t forget the convention in San Antonio, TX this year. It is another combo convention with the ACA, AKA, ALA, IBC and FOTAS so there will be a great mix of speakers and fishes available. Something for everyone and more! Make your reservations soon.
The $70 price of Early Registration ends on May 1st. Registration goes up to $75 after that.
Remember, the deadline for the low room rate of $135 is 5/9/25. Make your reservations soon. Room rates go up after that.
The tours are almost sold out. Only 6 spots remain for the Goliad Farms tour as of 4/8/25. I have met Charles Clapsaddle, and he is a gracious host. This is one to see. Livebearers and cichlids, surprisingly, go well together in many cases so do not miss the San Marcos River Collecting/Xiphophorus Genetic Stock Center tour that is filling up, as well.
NewsFlash: I just heard that a Mechanical Bull Ride will be available to try your skills before the banquet. Be sure to bring your analgesics and anti-inflammatory meds for the event.
BUNTBARSCHE BULLETIN
Contrary to some beliefs, BB does not have an endless amount of backlog material to print. It takes new input for every issue. With those April spawns should come new opportunities to document your successes and share them with the rest of us. The ACA even pays its authors! So, set on down and get that keyboard working.
SECRETS
Pssssst, hey, Bud, I got a secret to tell you. The ACA does more than throw a great convention each year. Yes, really, it does. Honestly!
The ACA’s Guy D. Jordan Fund and the Paul V. Loiselle Fund help fund several projects each year in the realms of research and conservation. You’d never know it, though, because the ACA does a terrible job of tooting its own horn and getting the word out. With that in mind, below is a list of the projects that the ACA has currently funded in 2024.
2024 Jordan Grant Awards
Dwyer, Anessa
Masters Student
California State University Sacramento
Title: Bite Strength of Male Convict Cichlids, Amatitlania nigrofasciata, relative to body size and offspring vulnerability.
Overview:
This project aims to quantify the bite strength of male cichlids relative to body size and parental care investment. Since offspring vulnerability varies over the course of larval development, male aggression should also change. It is hypothesized that larger males will have a stronger bite force when compared to smaller males and that parental males will exhibit greater bite force earlier in the parental care phase when larvae are more vulnerable.
O’Brien, Karen
Undergraduate Research Student
Goucher College
Title: Environmental Enrichment as a Mechanism of Stress Reduction in Lab-Raised Convict Cichlids (Amatitlania nigrofasciata)
Overview:
This project will examine the role of environmental stress on captive raised juvenileconvict cichlids. Juvenile convict cichlids will be raised in an enriched and unenriched environment and then exposed to a stressor. It is hypothesized that juveniles raised in an enriched environment will have a decrease in the stress response measured using cortisol levels and behavioral testing.
Torgersen, Kevin
PhD student
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Title: Small, but not forgotten: Unexplored species diversity of the Wallaciia dwarf pike cichlids (Cichlidae: Geophagini: Crenicichlina) of the Orinoco River Basin
Overview:
This project aims to perform a revision of the Wallaciia dwarf pike group by 1) delineating current species boundaries to clarify taxonomic status of the currently recognized species and 2) to identify and describe new species. Specifically, funding is being requested for travel to examine existing collections at the Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (IAvH) in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, and the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (ICN-MHN).
2024 Loiselle Grant Awards
Donaldson, Hailey N.
Masters Student
California State University-Sacramento
Title: Investigating landscape genetics in two neotropical freshwater sister species, Amatitlania septemfasciatus and Amatitlania myrnae.
Overview:
This project will combine field work and the utilization of next generation sequencing to produce genetic marker to examine the population structure and possible hybridization between natural populations of A. septemfasciatus and A. myrnae.
The natural ranges of these two closely related species are separated by a narrow ridge that is prone to flooding, which could allow for introgression (hybridization) between the two species.
Craig Storms
Sandisfield, MA
Title: Crowd-sourced CARES species tracking with AquaticSpecies.net.
Overview:
This proposal describes a grass roots solution to tracking rare and endangered aquatic species maintained in home or amateur hobbyist aquariums. The CARES organization works with aquarists and local aquarium clubs to promote the keeping or these fishes to help prevent their extinction and to potentially enable future re-introduction to their native habitats. Tracking involves a largely manual process with peer review and photo validation of each species for each aquarist.
AquaticSpecies.net is a not-for-profit open-source website enabling aquarists a dynamic, crowd-sourced mechanism to easily ‘publish’ their active species list – readily accessible to all other aquarists, easily updated by the aquarist at any time.
Scope of content is narrow:
· What species are kept;
· Source of the original fish acquired by the aquarist;
· Reports of any success with spawning and rearing of young.
The intent is to work with local clubs to establish small-scale local-database (DB) tracking within each club, with the ability to ‘roll up’ species reports across clubs to obtain a national or global view of the species being kept in captivity. These tools are meant to complement, not replace, existing methods of tracking CARES species.
The objective is to grow a crowd-sourced self-updating DB view of aquatic species by engaging local aquarists. The site not only enables them to publish what they have in their fish room, but also to explore who else shares their interests by querying species and finding other local aquarists keeping the same or related species.
Madagascar Project
The ACA’s PVL Fund is also continuing its funding of the captive breeding project of endemic Madagascan cichlids on the island of Madagascar.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
You see, the ACA is more than just a convention. To better make our accomplishments known, I propose that the ACA create a new position in the cadre, that of Public Relations Committee. Now, this could be a single person or a group of people working together to promote the ACA and the things we do. I would be willing to help out, by punching up or rewriting announcements or discussing plans, but I am too busy to take this role on entirely.
Who would we promote ourselves to? Obviously, we should hit all the Social Media platforms and aquatic sites therein. Every single conservation/animal group out there, aquatic or not, every fish related group and every manufacturer and pet store relating to the aquatics industry should be targeted, too. Each and every one of them. Press Releases would be sent for every single accomplishment that the ACA does. Not a group announcement like I just did, but individual announcements throughout the year, as they occur. Research projects funded, conservation projects funded, even our convention could be blasted out there because, the ACA is an international educational non-profit, our convention with its myriad speakers, who are the elite in the world of cichlids, cichlid research and cichlid conservation, should be promoted throughout the entire wildlife community. AND, now this is a biggie, we would ask for people to JOIN the ACA and/or DONATE to the ACA in each and every press release.
The difficult chore would be the compilation of the web addresses of all of the parties to be contacted.
MEDIA MATTERS
Does anyone know a person involved with television, radio or print media?
I’d like to know so I can get in contact with them. When the Triple Crown was being planned, I tried to contact a number of media outlets and presented them with a great human-interest story. The three oldest and largest aquarium specialty organizations were coming together under one roof for a convention. I thought that at least a local station would come out and see the crazy fish people but none did. I contacted the big main stream media outlets, local outlets and even sent an email to Al Roker Enterprises. I thought that Al would have a grand time roaming the Triple Crown talking to we fish people. Alas, it was not meant to be. At least I tried.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. If anyone knows anyone in the media, even a local San Antonio affiliate media outlet, please contact me and I will try to get the ACA and the entire convention exposure. If we succeed once, we may be able to learn from that experience and succeed again. Gaining national media exposure would be great for the aquarium hobby as a whole, not just the ACA.
Why would the news cover an aquatic event? 14.7 million households in the USA or 17% of adults own a fish tank. 57% of aquarists are female and 43% are male. The aquarium hobby is a $2.5 billion market in the US and $13.17 billion worldwide. There are approximately 2,000 pet shops in the USA. A pretty big audience, I would say.
If you are interested in doing the ACA’s PR, contact me. Let’s see what we can do.
___
Vale
Dr Paul V. Loiselle
It is with a heavy heart that I am informing you of the passing of one of the giants in the world of cichlids and of the aquarium hobby as a whole. Our friend, Paul V. Loiselle, passed away recently. He will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace, my friend. – AD.
Peter George was in contact with Paul a few days before his death. Here are a few words from Peter:
We lost a friend this week. A friend of brilliant accomplishment, extreme modesty, and a grace and generosity that few possess. At the age of 82, Paul Loiselle died too young. He was a scientist and a hobbyist, an aquarist and a gourmet, a historian and a lover of cats of all kinds. He lived his life fully, traveling, studying, writing, speaking, and experiencing the vast array of cultures that define our planet. In short, a true polymath, a man who could have comfortably conversed with God if given the opportunity.
Over time we will be introduced and reintroduced to Paul and what he meant to the ACA, to the hobby generally, and to all those who had the opportunity to engage with him. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know him. Thank you, Paul, for all you gave us. We will miss you. – PG
___
A future issue of BB will be dedicated to Paul. I look forward to further celebrating his life and accomplishments then.
Be excellent to each other,
Alan
Don’t be bashful! Run for the ACA BOT and help to guide the organization through the next few years. Send your short bio to [email protected].
Keep in mind also …
YOUR Buntbarsche Bulletin needs articles, articles, articles. The ACA even pays for them.
Send submissions to our BB Editor at [email protected].
PRINTED copies of BB Back Issues and/or a flash drive (USB3 = really fast) containing the complete collection of each and every edition of BB ever produced, including all inserts, BB Indexes, etc (plus a few other publications, just for good measure) can be purchased from the website store at:
cichlid.org
The Museum of Aquarium and Pet History. It’s so cool …
moaph.org