About me
My name is Paul (thanks to Daniel who mentioned that nowhere on the site had I mentioned my name) and I was introduced to Killies by Brian Sell and Monty Ray in 1978 ( a long time ago), when I was a member of West Cornwall Fishkeepers. This group has done well, as of 2005 it was still going nearly 27 years on, but as of 2017 I believe it has disbanded.
In early 1979, my wife and I left Cornwall to live and work in South Africa, and that was when I joined the BKA (British Killifish Association) and I have been a member ever since. In South Africa, there were only a very limited number of people who were interested in Killies (Gert Schmidt, Otto Schmidt, Nigel Juul, John Vermaak and myself), which made it difficult to maintain any of the species long term with so many species and a very limited amount of tank space, but we tried our best.
Initially I acquired a lot of my killies from the BKA egg and fish list, and that was how I came in contact with Ken Dosser and through him the NEY group of the BKA. Ken was always very helpful, and if he could not answer one of our questions or queries, then he always knew someone that would. In the early days, Ken and the NEY group, supplied us with most of the killies that we were keeping. It was a great loss to the hobby when he passed away after a long illness.
One very interesting incident, was when we received a communication from Germany in the early 80s, asking for some help with accommodation and transport for someone coming out on a fish collecting trip (mainly non killies). On our agreement, we were asked if he could bring anything out for us, so we asked for some killies, never expecting what would happen. Now I agreed to collect the man from the airport, and he came straight through the customs green route with two cases. After leaving the airport our next port of call was to Otto's office as he was looking after our visitor for the first couple of days. After the initial chat about the flight, the South African sunshine, etc., the man lifted one of his cases onto Otto's desk, and on opening showed it to be full of bags of water, each holding a pair or trio of killies. At a guess, I would estimate that there were between 40 and 50 bags of fish, with about 30 different species. To say that Otto and myself were at a loss for words, would be an under-statement. We lost a few of the species over the first few weeks, but most of them were still going strong over a year later. I wonder if any off-spring from those imports are still alive in South Africa.
Of all of us killie enthusiasts in South Africa in those days, it was only John Vermaak who personally collected killies in Malawi, the Kruger National Park and Northern Natal (Mkuze Game Reserve). I am not sure why the rest of us did not organise a collecting trip, but in those days it was very difficult to get Government permission to collect in restricted areas like the National Parks and Reserves. Recently Otto has been on a number of collecting trips throughout Africa, some of which have been with Trevor Wood (another BKA member) and Brian Watters. In my time in South Africa I had two fishrooms in two separate houses that we lived in, with Otto and Nigel we reformed the Rand Aquarist Society which we ran for a number of years. After I had left South Africa, Otto went on a number of successful collecting trips with Trevor Wood and Brian Watters (from Canada), throughout South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Caprivi.
Due to business and family reasons my family and I left South Africa at the end 1986 and moved back to the UK, and settled down in North Lincolnshire. Unfortunately there are not many killie enthusiasts in this area, but luckily it is not too far from the NEY auctions, whilst it is a bit too far to attend their monthly meetings in York. During 2005/6 the number of people interested in Killies have started to increase in this area, so things were looking up but by 2016/7 the they have disappeared. The NEY group moved their monthly meetings to Wetherby, and I have started to attend most meetings.
For a number of years, I was limited to just a large community tank, then I built 2 (then 3) small tanks and started to keep killies once again. This limited me to 2 species (A. australe Chocolate that I acquired from Tim Addis in 1991, and Austrol. nigripinnis de Carmelo that came from Eric Brown). For some time I had thoughts about converting a garden shed into a fishroom, but there was a number of problems (my wife thought it a bad idea, no electricity, etc.), and that was when I thought about a cupboard (after rereading an old article in Killinews about some converting the area under the stairs into a killie setup).
So I purposely built a cupboard in my conservatory just for my killies. Details of an article that I wrote for Killinews describing my set-up, can be seen on the BKA website (see Cupboard Killies - BKA), or for my latest information and pictures, as of 01/02/2002, go to (see Cupboard Killies). On this website, see "Fish Cupboard" under heading of "My Fish Houses"
I was actively involved in maintaining 2 species for the Conversation Project. These being Austrolebias nigripinnis de Carmelo and Nothobranchius orthonotus Mkuze River Reserve (MRR) KZN 99/1. Unfortunately I lost both of these species after a number of years, and found it impossible to replace them as all the people I had passed them on to had also lost them. Actually Aust. nigripinnis de Carmelo is once again available from a source in South America.
We moved house in the middle of 2004 and one of my projects (August 2005) was to convert a garden shed into a fishroom, with a polycarbonate roof so that I can maintain plants in my killie tanks other than Java Moss and Fern. For details and some photos see "Old Fishroom" under the heading of "My Fish Houses".
Early in 2009 I stopped keeping fish mainly due to the many hours I had to spend at work, so this fishroom was "moth-balled".
Then in April 2011, I retired but my wife and I decided that we should sell our large house and move to something smaller. Unfortunately, it took us two and a half years to sell, but once we moved I started planning my next fishroom. See "New Fishroom" under the heading of "My Fish Houses" for details, and I am now back keeping fish and Killifish in particular (from June 2015).
So have a look at my "day-today" comments (blogs). Please leave your comments on anything of interest as it is nice to have a 2-way dialogue.
In early 1979, my wife and I left Cornwall to live and work in South Africa, and that was when I joined the BKA (British Killifish Association) and I have been a member ever since. In South Africa, there were only a very limited number of people who were interested in Killies (Gert Schmidt, Otto Schmidt, Nigel Juul, John Vermaak and myself), which made it difficult to maintain any of the species long term with so many species and a very limited amount of tank space, but we tried our best.
Initially I acquired a lot of my killies from the BKA egg and fish list, and that was how I came in contact with Ken Dosser and through him the NEY group of the BKA. Ken was always very helpful, and if he could not answer one of our questions or queries, then he always knew someone that would. In the early days, Ken and the NEY group, supplied us with most of the killies that we were keeping. It was a great loss to the hobby when he passed away after a long illness.
One very interesting incident, was when we received a communication from Germany in the early 80s, asking for some help with accommodation and transport for someone coming out on a fish collecting trip (mainly non killies). On our agreement, we were asked if he could bring anything out for us, so we asked for some killies, never expecting what would happen. Now I agreed to collect the man from the airport, and he came straight through the customs green route with two cases. After leaving the airport our next port of call was to Otto's office as he was looking after our visitor for the first couple of days. After the initial chat about the flight, the South African sunshine, etc., the man lifted one of his cases onto Otto's desk, and on opening showed it to be full of bags of water, each holding a pair or trio of killies. At a guess, I would estimate that there were between 40 and 50 bags of fish, with about 30 different species. To say that Otto and myself were at a loss for words, would be an under-statement. We lost a few of the species over the first few weeks, but most of them were still going strong over a year later. I wonder if any off-spring from those imports are still alive in South Africa.
Of all of us killie enthusiasts in South Africa in those days, it was only John Vermaak who personally collected killies in Malawi, the Kruger National Park and Northern Natal (Mkuze Game Reserve). I am not sure why the rest of us did not organise a collecting trip, but in those days it was very difficult to get Government permission to collect in restricted areas like the National Parks and Reserves. Recently Otto has been on a number of collecting trips throughout Africa, some of which have been with Trevor Wood (another BKA member) and Brian Watters. In my time in South Africa I had two fishrooms in two separate houses that we lived in, with Otto and Nigel we reformed the Rand Aquarist Society which we ran for a number of years. After I had left South Africa, Otto went on a number of successful collecting trips with Trevor Wood and Brian Watters (from Canada), throughout South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Caprivi.
Due to business and family reasons my family and I left South Africa at the end 1986 and moved back to the UK, and settled down in North Lincolnshire. Unfortunately there are not many killie enthusiasts in this area, but luckily it is not too far from the NEY auctions, whilst it is a bit too far to attend their monthly meetings in York. During 2005/6 the number of people interested in Killies have started to increase in this area, so things were looking up but by 2016/7 the they have disappeared. The NEY group moved their monthly meetings to Wetherby, and I have started to attend most meetings.
For a number of years, I was limited to just a large community tank, then I built 2 (then 3) small tanks and started to keep killies once again. This limited me to 2 species (A. australe Chocolate that I acquired from Tim Addis in 1991, and Austrol. nigripinnis de Carmelo that came from Eric Brown). For some time I had thoughts about converting a garden shed into a fishroom, but there was a number of problems (my wife thought it a bad idea, no electricity, etc.), and that was when I thought about a cupboard (after rereading an old article in Killinews about some converting the area under the stairs into a killie setup).
So I purposely built a cupboard in my conservatory just for my killies. Details of an article that I wrote for Killinews describing my set-up, can be seen on the BKA website (see Cupboard Killies - BKA), or for my latest information and pictures, as of 01/02/2002, go to (see Cupboard Killies). On this website, see "Fish Cupboard" under heading of "My Fish Houses"
I was actively involved in maintaining 2 species for the Conversation Project. These being Austrolebias nigripinnis de Carmelo and Nothobranchius orthonotus Mkuze River Reserve (MRR) KZN 99/1. Unfortunately I lost both of these species after a number of years, and found it impossible to replace them as all the people I had passed them on to had also lost them. Actually Aust. nigripinnis de Carmelo is once again available from a source in South America.
We moved house in the middle of 2004 and one of my projects (August 2005) was to convert a garden shed into a fishroom, with a polycarbonate roof so that I can maintain plants in my killie tanks other than Java Moss and Fern. For details and some photos see "Old Fishroom" under the heading of "My Fish Houses".
Early in 2009 I stopped keeping fish mainly due to the many hours I had to spend at work, so this fishroom was "moth-balled".
Then in April 2011, I retired but my wife and I decided that we should sell our large house and move to something smaller. Unfortunately, it took us two and a half years to sell, but once we moved I started planning my next fishroom. See "New Fishroom" under the heading of "My Fish Houses" for details, and I am now back keeping fish and Killifish in particular (from June 2015).
So have a look at my "day-today" comments (blogs). Please leave your comments on anything of interest as it is nice to have a 2-way dialogue.