Questions for Dan

 In 2021, tell us a little about your fishroom and/or breeding set-ups.  how many tanks, roughly the sizes of tanks you work with.

My fish room did not exist exactly one year ago.  In fact, I got my first tank in 20+ years for my daughter's birthday in mid January 2021.  I remembered quickly how much I enjoyed it and began to expand with tanks for myself.  Being in the middle of the pandemic, it quickly took over my home as my primary hobby and way to keep my sanity.

My current fish room consists of 5 tanks over 75 gallons, 8 tanks between 40 and 55 gallons and 20 tanks between 5 gallons and 33 gallons.

The majority of my breeding tanks consist of 20 and 33 gallon long tanks along with the 40 breeders and 50 low boys.

You are Rookie of the Year.  Tell us what motivated you to get starting breeding and participating in the BAP program.
After getting over the initial hurdles of starting up in aquaria again I knew I wanted to challenge myself.  I got into live plants and setting up the best possible, low maintenance ecosystems.  At this point I found MAS and looked into the BAP program.  What better way to 1) buy more exotic stock from the auctions and 2) pass my stock onto others!

What fish groups currently interest you in breeding efforts?
My interests have evolved in a short time.  I started with strictly guppies and those that were compatible with them. Then I moved into lake Tanganyikan shell dwellers.  The Shell Dwellers are still my main focus but I have diversified into more exotic livebearers, cories, native species and angelfish.

Tell us a little about the effort did you put into breeding this past year? 
My 2021 breeding efforts have been very hands off on a tank by tank basis.  If fry can survive with their parents in the same tank I was able to BAP them. I mostly focused on setting up my fishroom and diversifying my stock for the future.  There were many, many failures, way more than successes.  I have learned from these and will carry them forward as best I can.

Tell us about any new species or breeding projects for your 2022 year.
Being that almost my entire stock is less than a year old I look forward to conditioning them with good and diverse food and seeing what they produce.  I am also better prepared now to take or separate fry from their parents and increase the survival rate from predation.