Kurt Johnston

Kurt has been a member of the Aquarium Club of Lancaster County since May 2005 and is currently the Public Relations Chair, BAP chair and Swap Meet Chair as well as a member of the Capital Cichlid Association and the American Livebearers Association.

"Through the last 40 years I always had at least one aquarium set up for show, but due to several moves never really got involved in a big way until moving to York County 6 years ago. After meeting my wife, her father introduced me to a 29 gallon tank that he was not using and the addiction started. Shortly thereafter I went to a meeting of the Aquarium Club of Lancaster County and started learning from the many members who were breeding many different species of fish. My first fish for breeding was a trio of Zoogoneticus tequila that I bought from Rit Forcier when he came to Lancaster on a speaking engagement. Goodeids and other unusual livebearers are still my favorites but I have also had several African Cichlids from Malawi, Tanganyika, and Victoria as well as some Peacock Gudgeons (Tateurndina ocellicauda) and Bristlenose catfish.

Because of my varied interests in different species of fish, and the cost of quality foods, I decided to explore the possibility of making a food that would meet the nutritional needs of many different species whether they be herbivores, omnivores or carnivores. Over the past 2 years I did a lot of research into the different ingredients that others used and checked into what different "difficult" or "special needs" fish needed. What I came up with is a food that is fairly easy to make, inexpensive, and nutritionally complete to serve as my main but not only food.

I will explain the whys and hows of this ongoing project during this presentation."