You became involved with aquarium fish when you were six, when you saw some cichlids swimming in a lagoon shore looking curiously at you. As you said: you wondered then how those amazing creatures could survive below the water surface. Are you still so fascinated in their habitat and their behavior?

Nothing can compare to the impact that something causes you when you are a kid, the special feelings you get about things and the amaze that grows inside you when you see something that has striken your mind. And so has been the case with me about fishes. I am indeed fascinated with fish and their behavior since I was a little kid, when I would restlessly look for any information related in any print form and read it one and again trying to find any small phrase that would tell memore than what I had learned in the last reading.

Of course that time and involvement have had to develop and evolve in many ways. the interest in fish has taken me to many other related things I can say I have enjoyed as much as I enjoy the fish itself. With fish came the need to learn English so I could understand all the information that unfortunately was not available in Spanish language when I was a kid. Also the need to build one aquariums and then as many as I could fit in my room to keep them, and eventually manage the conditions so I could easy their breeding behavior. It came also the need to travel to many fantastic places to look for fishes, joining my photography hobby with fish and start taking underwater pictures of them, get in contact with many people all around the world and with the Internet and my like for computers the possibility to spread the information that was so scarce when I started with fish keeping. Fish has brought me wonderful friends and experiences, and I can say I am still fascinated with them. The incredible fact that they live in an environment so different from ours, their beauty and their fascinating evolution in so many different ways. Yes, I can say I am still fascinated with cichlids and fish as a whole.

You have steadily kept cichlids since 1978 and your great love are CA cichlids but do you remember your first species?

My first fish species was a Godlfish when I was six, being my mother the order and cleaning fanatic she is she would force me to do clean each gravel grain in the tank on a weekly basis, which was too much for me and the fish of course, I'd rather go out and play with my friends. The love for fish never ceased of course and I eventually had to return on my own to fish keeping when I had a chance to do it.

On my fever to read everything connected to fish I crossed with the Encyclopedia of Tropical fish in a fish store. I was immediately striken by the picture on the cover which is a female Thorichthys meeki (The firemouth) guarding her fry in a beautiful aquarium setting. The picture had been taken by Hans Joachin Ritcher, a wonderful German photographer from the east block. I was even more amazed to learn that the firemouth could be found in my country! At the time it was no easy for me to plan a trip to the area where they are found in the wild but I certainly placed it high in my priorities. When I learned such beautiful fish could be found in my country I started checking every single water body for fishes, a dream I had since I was a kid, and one after the other I got fascinated with the fish I was finding in every place. Because of the firemouth my special concern were cichlids, but I can say now that I am as much interested in all other Central American fish.

But back to your question, the first cichlid I ever kept even before the firemouth was actually Archocentrus nigrofasciatus, the convict cichlid, and as it has happened to many other cichlid aquarists around the world I also got in love with them the first time I saw them breeding. That strengthen my bond to cichlids forever.

Many of your fish you have collected yourself, could you tell us how do you feel diving and being able to observe that mysterious underwater world an its inhabitants? What was your most unforgettable experience connected with diving?

I can say that many years ago since I started observing fish in their natural habitats I could not stop doing it. The feeling of being there with them in their world is hard to put into words, as you are there watching them for a moment you feel part of their world and forget about anything else, just absorbed in the incredibly beauty and elaborated evolutionary balance nature has created. It is a spiritual moment when any thoughts about fears, responsibilities, stress, appointments and the like vanishes and leaves you just there, you and the fish, giving more sanity to your mind and love to your heart.

It would be hard to pin a particular diving experience as the most unforgettable one but I can list some incredible diving places that first come to mind in this moment; The Media Luna spring in San Luis Potosi, The white water lagoon in Belize, Puente de Dios in San Luis Potosí, Nututun in Chiapas, Rio Mizol-ha in Chiapas, Rio Huichihuayan in San Luis Potosí, Rio San José in Costa Rica, Poza de la Becerra in Coahuila, Cenote Azul in Quintana Roo. One particular diving I was able to observe a full spawn of a full growth pair of Thorichthys helleri in a vegetated river in the Campeche jungle, that was something to behold!

You keep your fish in a special fishroom at your home and you have built many facilities in order to make things much easier so, how many hours do you spent every day taking care of your pets?

I have to confess I am lazy, I can't remember how many hours I have put in water changes for my fish and of course I felt great because of the good I was making to them and I really enjoyed it but on the other hand as my tanks number increased it meant more and more hours every week. As I like to build my own equipment and design my filters, I decided to design a simple and yet effective automatic water changing system that would be the best to my fishes and me! It came in the way of a simple dripping system that I have been using for the last ten years with great results. Still, I need to put some time for washing the sponge filters I use in smaller tanks, changing media in bigger tanks filters and siphoning sand. Now, with the increase in my work load, I unfortunately spend a very short time everyday lately in my fish room, just to feed the fish and check on them, still, it is one of the highlights of my day! And believe me, my fish don't care as much as I do, as they keep breeding all the time.

You have written many articles about cichlids. The last one that I have read was about a real jewel found on the area of ancient Mayans civilization, from the city of Veracruz to the Northern part of Guatemala and Honduras - Thorichthys pasionis. It is a real beauty and unusual cichlid but what is your favorite one?

I am in love with all the Thorichthys genus, I have swam with and photographed all the species underwater in their natural habitats. I keep eight different species in my tanks and I just love all of them! But my favorite cichlids? you really made a difficult question but there are really five cichlids that are high in my preferences, I am very sorry but I can't just choose one cichlid, I made a good effort already

One is Herichthys labridens, the variety that inhabits the Rioverde valley in San Luis Potosí. I love the color changes and interesting behavior of this fish, as well as it strong personality. The beauty of this fish is enhanced by the beauty of its habitat in the spring of the Rioverde valley.

Another favorite is Theraps coeruleus, which inhabits the Tulija river is Southern México. I keep also this species home, it is a small no more than 15 centimeters (large males) reophilus cichlid where the female holds territories and chose a mate among passing courting males, the color changes on this fish according to reproductive phase are also something to behold.

Another of my favorites is Archocentrus nanoluteus, an incredibly beautiful small cichlid from Panama, which I also keep home. This fish is maybe the smallest Central American cichlid where males are hardly reaching ten centimeters in total length.

Another high is Tomocichla underwoodi, a cichlid of the San Juan basin in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. This leaf eating cichlid is what I call a powerful fish inhabiting the fast flowing rivers, this fish can grow to over 40 centimeters in length! The occasions where I have swam among this fish have been really inspiring, both because of the fish and its habitat.

And last but not least my first love, Thorichthys meeki, the firemouth!

Could you tell us something about your present tank set-up and about your future plans - I know that you have been working recently in your fishroom, any ideas for future tanks?

My present tank setup is composed by 28 containers. The larger tank is 800 liters, I have four 400 liters, two 300 liters, in all these I keep mainly cichlids with a few other fish, as I try to keep thematic tanks. I also keep three 250 liters containers, five 130 tanks, six 60 liters tanks and three 40 liters tanks, in those I keep mostly Goodeids, Cyprinodontids and Poeciillids, with a few Characinids as well. My tank space is presently full and there is no reasonable place for more tanks unfortunately.

It has been a dream of me since a kid to build a pool size aquarium for my cichlids. Now I have refined my dream and plan to move and build several 10,000 liters tanks for Central American geographic setups and several pools for endangered cyprinodontids and for placing some of my cichlids during the summer.

The Cichlid Room Companion has been existed for a couple of years, do you remember your first article, first wallpaper, your first steps in this field?

I think it is more in order to tell you about the origin of the Cichlidae on-line, the electronic cichlid magazine that has over 2,000 subscribers nowadays. Even since the very beginning of the availability of Internet connections for students at the local University back in 1994 I became a quick fan of Internet. I was not teaching at the University but I had contacts in there, which allowed me for a shared shell text connection. After some time in June 1995 I discovered in the newsgroups that a new chat service was just born which was created by a talented and generous computer engineer in Saint Louis Missouri, Kevin Carpenter, he created the Fishroom (http://kplace.monrou.com/), as an evolution from a MUD (Multi User Dungeon) game and orientated to fish chats in several virtual rooms, as Kevin is a marine tanks freak. I became a quick fan of the place, where I as many others spent many hours a week for several years chatting with fellow aquarists all over the world and making good friends. Soon I took over the coding of the Cichlid Room at the place and started to distribute to the attendees information about cichlids, mostly the logs of internet meetings we had organized in the place, in many of them renowned experts like Ad Konings gave on-line talks and responded to on-line questions. With time I started to distribute more material like articles, Internet link reviews and the like, and the distribution list started to grow, even outside the borders of Fishroom, that is how started the Cichlidae on-line, later I thought it was a pity the documents were just distributed to a restricted group of people and so I decided to build a home page to hold them and could be consulted by anyone and that is how the Cichlid Room Companion was born. John Benn and Petsforum have been very nice to me hosting the page for free since its beginnings almost five years ago. The Cichlid Room Companion is big now, over 3,500 files comprise it, and the page got over 1'600,000 hits last month. I haven't had the time to put on lately with the page but now I have reorganized my time, which will allow me for spending most Saturdays working on it, I understand the page will never be complete and it is a lifetime project, I am ready to cope with that.

You were also involved with " Grupo Mexicano de Ciclidófilos " and with editing its Trimestral Bulletin: Gaceta del Ciclidófilo, but I know that the association doesn't exist anymore could you tell me how, as you suppose, the cichlid aquarism in Mexico will evolve and what is its present stage?

Well yes, as you mention, the Grupo Mexicano de Ciclidófilos does not exists anymore. I tried to establish the Club back in late 1994, when I designed the publication of the Club, Gaceta del Ciclidófilo, which first appeared in early 1995.

I tried and I think I succeeded in developing a quality publication although with limited funds. Due to the limited number of issues (We were only around twenty members initially), the publication had to made by hand. So in the first issues I would glue color pictures on the bulletin pages, which text and captions were previously printed in laser with the cover printed in color. The result was satisfying, later I decided to scan and print the pictures with the help of color and laser printers (Two printings per side of the page). The result was even nicer, but the work involved in the creation of a single bulletin including translations, editing, layout, picture processing, printing, binding, putting it into envelopes, labeling and send was more than I could take out of my normal activities, although most of the work I would do it in the evenings, it would take me more than 80 hours to complete for a single number, once I had the articles and pictures at hand of course!

I sent mails and posters I made to over 120 aquarium stores around Mexico and made contact with many hobbyists and local clubs about the club. I received cheers from everywhere but very few members or help, and so after the first year and four publications I stopped for a year, just keeping a home page for the club. After that year I received many inquiries about the club and so I decided to give it another go. I published two more "Gaceta del Ciclidofilo" issues but the membership never surpassed 45 members (many of those English speaking persons even!). At the end I decided to quit on it, I was burned out! I still hold the club page (http://www.petsforum.com/gmc/) but the content is being integrated into the Cichlid Room Companion Spanish section (http://www.cichlidae.com/default-es.html) on which I will keep working to provide quality information to cichlid aquarists in Spanish language around the world.

Your future plans include writing a book about cichlids, could you tell us something more about it?

The idea of the book came from my good friend Ad Konings when I started traveling with him back in 1990 to Mexican and Central American rivers and habitats. Ad was interested in taking underwater pictures of Mexican cichlids and I offered to join him. We made trips for seven years and were able to take many underwater pictures, I told Ad about what I knew on Mexican cichlids and we learned many other things together during our trips, he thought we should write a book that would be published by Cichlid Press. I fell in love with the idea and started to work with that objective in mind. At the present time I have almost all the material I want and it is just a matter of start working decidedly in the project. I have decided I will never have all the information I would like to gather or all the perfect pictures I want to have before writing the book so I think it should be time to go ahead. The project may take some time to complete though as I have recently been putting a lot of effort into my professional development, but believe me, when the book is done (if nothing happens in the meantime) it will be the best book on Mexican cichlids for many years, with underwater pictures of all species.

And the last question Juan - Could you reveal us which wine is your favorite? We should know it as we hope to invite you to Poland.

That would be fantastic, nevertheless I am not touchy about the wine. I am sure any good Polish wine or common beverage will do just great! Just for the pleasure of being there and making new friends!