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I got my first aquarium when I was about 12, a very small thing with a few
goldfish. Over the years the tanks got bigger and so did the fishes. I fell
in love with african cichlids and probably twenty years ago I came across
Cyphotilapia Frontosa. Actually, the guy in the pet shop had no clue what
species this single, nicely black and white striped, pretty solid 10cm fish
was, and neither had I. I bought and took him (actually her) home anyway,
into the tank with all the other, mostly way smaller cichlids. Well, with the same speed my frontosa girl grew, the number of the other cichlids decreased... ;-) Eventually I found some publications about this species from Lake Tanganjika (most noted that fish is it's favourite food ;-) and every once in a while I found another specimen so my single girl had some company. After a while I had a nice group of seven females and one male (I once tried two males but that didn't work) which produced hundreds of offspring (all given to friends or sold to the local aquaristic shop) and which I kept for many years. In 1995 the male died totaly unexpected, having reached a size of over 40cm. For whatever reason I decided I'm done with Frontosas, so I sold the seven females and went back to the colorfull malawi cichlids. But in '96 my local dealer had a bunch of 'Blue Zaire' Frontosa babies for sale, the pretty rare variant from Lake Tanganjika's shores in Zaire (Republic of Congo) and I think the most beautifull fresh water fish in the world :-) So I gave away all my malawi's and brought home 15 Frontosas of about 3cm size, of which by 2002 I'd kept five females and a most beautiful male. By the end of 2002 we found a nice house and I began to think about a new and bigger Aquarium for my Blue Zaire's. And when I thought big, I meant it... :-)  |
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Over the years Cally and I went onto various Scuba Diving Trips on which
we literally took thousands of underwater pictures. Of course, we've
always been happy if there were at least three or four good shots on one
roll of film ;-) Our first equipment was a Nikonos-IV-A underwater camera with a Nikkor 35mm f/2.5 lens. Soon I replaced the IV-A by a Nikonos-V, added a 28mm f/3.5 lens, Close-Up unit and a SB-103 Speedlight. An additional Hartenberger flashlight was bought later for additional illumination (and to get some light into the darkness of our night dives :-) Here's a selection of our best underwater pictures : 
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Ok, I admit, I'm over 40 :-) Here are some pix from my 40th Birthday Party :
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