Prologue:  Same galaxy but last millennium (during the reign of the Greater Iowa Aquarium Association), Roger Stephens ran an efficient angelfish factory.  He cranked out thousands of small angels and sold them to fish stores (including Aqualand).  After years of angel rearing, suddenly he turned off his brine shrimp hatchers, hung up his angel raising jock, and sold his tanks.  Murmuring something to the effect of “I never want to see another angelfish again,” he disappeared from our radar.  Then a year or so ago, he started showing up at Aqualand, at the Iowa Aquaria Association, and at the Midwest Cichlid Association.  It looks like he’s re-enlisted.

LA
Some of the black angels in Roger's "tank in the wall."

The Saga Continues:  Jon Rink of the Midwest Cichlid Association and Iowa Aquaria Association headed over to Waukee to scope out his more laid back operation.  He’d turned his basement into a plasma TV viewing room and installed a 90-gallon tank in the newly partitioned wall.  And there they were -- several half-grown black angels plus other community fishes.  Not a bad “toe in the water” for an angelfish re-enlistee.

LA
Some of Roger's koi angels in his "fish room."

More Angels:  However, in the rest of his basement, we noticed that Roger’s fishaholic traits were re-appearing.  On the top row were 15-gallon tanks with slates leaning against their sides.  On one of the slates were new eggs being fanned by an angel parent.  In a gallon jar, a clutch of angel eggs were being aerated by an airstone.

LA
Hard to see but the eggs are there.

The African Connection:  John Rink gave Roger four Jalo Reef African cichlids late last year.  Roger gave them and some other Africans some very roomy quarters in a 55.  He had another 55 of younger Africans also.

LA
Some of Roger's Jalo reefs.

The Logo:  With a population like that, can Roger resist joining the Iowa Aquaria Association?  Seems he was at their last meeting.  And he was at the auction of the Midwest Cichlid Association.  Are we seeing some sort of trend?

 

LA
One of Roger's African cichlids aquaria.  Plenty of room for new residents.

Not Crowded:  As a former angel raiser, Roger hates to crowd his African cichlid.  As these guys grow and increase in aggression, he’ll understand why they do better in heavily populated tanks.  More cichlids to pick at spreads the aggression.

LA
Plenty of nooks and crannies for baby African cichlids.

LA
Male otopharynx starting to color.  The tank also included three females.

 

The Discus Connection:  We also saw a couple tanks of discus and a 75-gallon per day reverse osmosis unit over his fish room sink.  Roger had managed to find his way to Kansas City and Discus KC.  He acquired several  discus from discus breeders Jack Taylor and Willie Goh (speakers at MCA's EXPO 2006 in May), and had separated them into slow growers and faster growers.

LA
Nearly three inchers in this tank.

Nice Discus:  The smaller discus looked pretty good.  One had a blemish on one side, and Roger shook his head saying he sure didn’t see it when he was selecting them.

LA
His turquoise discus were very close to breeder size.

More Discus:  For some reason, his turquoise discus grew much faster.  Roger was already looking around for terra cotta breeder cones.

LALA

Prologue:  Well, after a short discussion, the three of us (plus probably Steve Ott) plan to motor over to KC and visit Discus KC.  I for one would like to see their set up in March.  Maybe we’ll build a page of their discus?  LA