May 11 @ JOHN F KENNEDY HIGH SCHOOL: 1901 Randolph Rd, Wheaton-Glenmont, MD 20902
Meeting room opens at 12:30 pm (Meeting to start at 1:00)
Topic: So you think you want to have a public Aquarium and other happenings in Peru
Education
Positions Held
I grew up in the Southern California desert (Imperial, CA); the son of a schoolteacher and a housewife. I have been keeping tropical fish since I was 8 years old, with my first aquarium being a 20-gallon metal frame filled with guppies and about 10,000 Malaysian trumpet snails!!!! Since then I have had reef tanks, have bred discus, many species of livebearers, killis, bettas, and cichlids of all types.
At the present time I have a 2-car garage converted into a fishroom with various creatures: wild discus, guppies, plecos, and poison dart frogs. In our family room I built a 500-gallon corner tank that is a Peruvian Amazon biotype filled with fish that I collected myself.
From a young age I wanted to study "the ocean"; more specifically fish. Most children go through a phase of being intrigued by the ocean. I just never grew out of it. Early in my academic career I studied ecology of fishes in the Red Sea (Egypt, Israel, and Jordan) but presently I am conducting research of the impacts of exotic species (guppies and gouramis) on native fishes in Peru and tilapia in Cambodia.
I split time between California and Peru. I am a Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Soka University of America (Small Liberal Arts University in Southern California, rated in the top 25 of all liberal arts universities in the USA). Additionally I am the Executive Director of the Amazon Research Center for Ornamental Fishes in Iquitos, Peru. The research center, which is almost entirely self-funded) is focused on the conservation, ecology and sustainable breeding of Amazonian ornamental fishes. In Peru, I have been conducting research on invasive fishes in the amazon. I have been working on guppies, gouramis, and most recently, tilapia and their effects on the local ecosystems.
