This month's speaker comes to us form Louisville, Kentucky!
Rusty maintains over 8000 gallons of freshwater aquariums in a state of the art fish house constructed specifically for fish. The 90+ aquariums predominantly contain cichlids and livebearers, which he successfully raises and breeds. Rusty's specialty is Central American fishes.
Rusty has successfully collected fish from Africa and the countries of Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Mexico, and Uruguay. He has made over 100 trips since 1983. Considered by many to be the ultimate collector, he has introduced many new species of fish to the aquarium hobby. If it lives in the water, chances are that Rusty has either caught it or been bitten or stung by it. Dr. Robert Rush Miller, emeritus professor of the University of Michigan, named a beautiful and elusive cichlid-- discovered during one of his expeditions to Honduras-- after Rusty. You can find information on Theraps wesseli in the June 1996 edition of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine.
Rusty is also a prolific author and photographer. His writings or photographs have appeared in a wide distribution of specialized publications, like Aquarium Fish Magazine, Aquarist and Pondkeeper, Buntbarsche Bulletin, Cichlid News, Ad Konings' Cichlids Yearbooks, Freshwater and Marine Aquarium, and Tropical Fish Hobbyist.
In the organized hobby, Rusty is currently the Back Issue Sales Person for the American Cichlid Association and a speaker participant for the ACA/Marineland Speaker's Program. He is past chair of the ACA board of trustees (1990) and past convention chair (1992). In addition, he is an active solicitor for the Guy Jordan Endowment Fund (a fund set up under the ACA to grant endowments for cichlid research). On the local level, he is currently treasurer for the Louisville Tropical Fish Fanciers. Rusty has been awarded with the greatest honor the American Cichlid Association gives to its distinguished members, the ACA Fellowship in 1997.
Rusty has lectured and judged numerous fish shows throughout the United States, including the annual Florida Tropical Fish Farmers Association show and several ACA conventions.