Folks, we've got a great guest speaker, coming in from Tulsa. Come check out this talk! The Fishy Biography of Gerald Griffin I first started keeping fish at the age of nine and by ten bred my first fish species Colisa lalia, followed shortly by Colisa chuna (sota), Colisa fasciata and labiosa. At the age of twelve I read All About Bettas by Walt Maurus and fell in love with wild bettas. The only problem was that in the 1970s I could not find any living in Oklahoma. By the time I went to college, I found articles on wild bettas in the school library and joined the International Betta Congress and started corresponding with various fish keepers, and found some wild betta stocks and started collecting them and writing articles. Around the year 2000, I once again got hit with the betta bug and started keeping domestics again. As soon as I did, the wild betta bug hit me again and I went crazy again collecting them. I currently run over 80 tanks dedicated to a number of different fish. As I became more involved in my local fish club, the Oklahoma City Aquarium Association, I started keeping a variety of species and have since spawned various barbs, African cichlids, killifish, native American fish, American cichlids, livebearers, and a number of miscellaneous fishes, and have recently diverged into saltwater fishes (clownfish and seahorses). However, wild bettas and anabantoids will always be my first love and the primary fish I keep. I am currently the chair of the Species Maintenance Program of the International Betta Congress and the BAP chair of the Oklahoma Aquarium Association, the Treasurer for the American Labyrinth Fish Association, and also been the President of the Oklahoma Aquarium Association’s Tulsa Chapter, as well as have been their HAP and Presentations Chair.
