by Kathy Knudsen
November 1996

Being a medical student today, I crave those summer vacations of old where I could travel, enjoy my hobbies, and sleep in. I’m afraid those days are gone forever, but it didn’t stop me from traveling and exploring this summer.

My summer started when I packed all my textbooks in three suitcases and hopped on the plane to Seattle. My first weekend I helped put the finishing touches on a stand for a 75-gallon tank with my fiancee Erik. Over Labor Day, we set up the whole tank.

After that, I had to settle down and study for my licensing boards. On the weekends, though, I went exploring for Mystery Apisto’s, stray unidentified Apistogramma that come in amongst the bags of other fish at the local stores. Finding macmasteri and regani group strays was quite fun, but after the fourth one I thought Erik would kill me if I brought home another...

During the week, I spent some time videotaping our A. nijsseni, cacatuoides, and Dicrossus filamentosus spawnings (far more fun than the aforementioned studying).

drawing by the author

After a grueling few days taking boards I moved on to Portland for a month to take an externship in Rheumatology. Here I continued to play. The Greater Portland Aquarium Society was quite fantastic! They picked me up for one of their meetings, where I proceeded to learn how to draw fish (speaker for the night), saw a bowl show, won prizes in a raffle and saw cool fish and plants auctioned off (their BAP and HAP programs require members to bring in progeny to auction). After the meeting we all went to a local pub for food and refreshment. It was great to visit and get to know the members. The best part was that the following weekend GPAS hosted a behind-the-scenes tour of the Oregon Coast Aquarium (a brisk 2 hour drive from Portland) which Erik and I attended. The next weekend they were all going to visit David Soares (an Apisto expert) in Sisters, Oregon. I was disappointed I couldn’t make this trip.

One day I snuck out of the hospital early to see Steve Lundblad’s wholesaling business, The Cichlid Exchange. I walked down the stairs into a 5000-square foot fishroom with a tremendous variety of Cichlids. I was awed. After wandering in stunned silence, I finally returned to work, vowing to one day acquire some of the those cool fish. However, faced with commuting between two states I knew this was not the time. After all, who would take care of them in Texas when I was in Seattle for four months? I certainly couldn’t commute my fish and tanks back and forth with me.

After finishing my isolation in Portland, Erik and I escaped for a few days rafting and saw David Soares on the way home. Saying this was incredible just doesn’t say enough. I have been dying for more information on Apistogramma; after scouring the fish stores, every book I could find, and talking with local members I still had so many unanswered questions. David Soares answered most of these questions and several more...I learned about Apistogramma species that are not even in the books yet, and the latest research going on in the field. David himself had several species of Apistogramma I had never seen or heard of: smaragd, elizabethae, pulchra, piauensis, juruensis. It was hard to pull myself away; David was just phenomenal.

Well now my summer in the Pacific Northwest was over, time to go back to Texas. I even made it back without fish (well, OK, two pair of Kribs).

I arrived in Houston at 1 AM, the morning I started my Neurology rotation.

On Thursday, escaping Neurology, I was off to the American Cichlid Association Convention in New Orleans.

I drove out with my truck (already a temptation to return with gear). I figured I would buy some tanks for my eventual move to Seattle, so I got two 10’s ($5) and two 20’s ($10) and some sponge filters. The ACA Convention was a blast. Talking and discussing fish with a bunch of other Apistogramma nuts (oops, experts) was a totally new world. There was so much that I learned that it would take pages to tell. Uwe Romer from Germany discussed pH and temperature and sex determination of fry. Unfortunately, I arrived after his talk on the many species of Apistogramma, but was able to talk with him over meals. We also heard about different conservation projects and areas to collect in the wild (definitely on my list).

The best part was the new friends and connections I made. Everyone was wonderful, though how could you not have fun in a room full of people who own cichlids? New Orleans was also a great town. We even had a behind-the-scenes tour of the Aquarium of the Americas, with cichlids in a 1000-gallon tank. I will say that the nights ran late and it wasn’t uncommon to be up until 2 AM talking fish in the Club Snail Hospitality Suite or listening to jazz.

The days flew by. On Saturday I discovered a dream come true. I had been looking for Pelvicachromis subocellatus for a long time to no avail. The local stores didn’t even know where to get them.

Well... I finally found the subocellatus I’d been looking for! They were in Sunday’s auction. Also there was P. taeniatus Kienke. I had already picked up some Julidichromis transcriptus (justifying that I had to at least have some new fish to try, even if it meant shuttling them back and forth to Seattle). I decided I would go for those subocellatus AND the taeniatus Kienke...if the price was right. After all, I had those empty tanks I had just bought, as well as a 30-long at home. I set the max price I would pay and was coached by fellow Apisto friends. I was shocked when I got two pairs of the subocellatus, five Kienke, as well as the previously purchased Julies, for only half the price I’d planned.

It was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I was eager to get my fish home. After an eight-hour drive (stuck in traffic for two), I arrived home at midnight. Faced with setting up two new tanks, I questioned my sanity. By 3 AM I had seeded new tanks, set up the filters, and exhaustedly dropped off to sleep.

Three months later, my summer is over, and I’ve had to settle down and hit the books again. My new cool fish are doing great, but this is a topic for another day...

Kathy Knudsen is probably the only GSAS board member to commute to Seattle from Houston, Texas on a semi-regular basis. When not conversing with Cichlid luminaries, traveling around the country, or drooling over new Apistogramma species, she spends her spare time as a medical student.