Ron Coleman at Milwaukee Aquarium Society
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Ron Coleman
Dr. Coleman is a Professor in the Biological Sciences department at California State University, Sacramento. His research, spanning over three decades, focuses on reproduction and biology, as well as behavior, of mostly the Centrachidae (sunfishes) and Cichlidae (cichlids) families of fish. He is an internationally recognized leader in cichlid research.
He got my first aquarium when he was about 10. They weren’t allowed to have cats or dogs, so he got some fish. He started with swordtails and a Brazilian ram. "Unfortunately, I also got a little puffer, and I quickly learned that puffers could eat the fins (and heads) off pretty much anything. It was my first lesson in fish compatibility."
During his undergraduate years at university (University of British Columbia), he worked at the Vancouver Aquarium, in Vancouver, British Columbia, first as a “floor boy”, meaning he cleaned up anything and everything. After about a year, he was promoted to “Guide” which meant that he started leading tours of the exhibits. This experience really opened his eyes to the incredible diversity in form and behavior of fishes. He kept a variety of fish during those years, but his obsession with cichlids began when he started graduate school. "I was studying bluegill sunfish in the wild (in Eastern Ontario), but we had a number of tanks in the lab at Simon Fraser University. I remember a 72-gallon tank that had kribensis and Texas cichlids and I was so impressed that a breeding pair of kribensis could keep half a dozen adult Texas cichlids at bay at the far end of the tank."
Dr. Coleman is a Professor in the Biological Sciences department at California State University, Sacramento. His research, spanning over three decades, focuses on reproduction and biology, as well as behavior, of mostly the Centrachidae (sunfishes) and Cichlidae (cichlids) families of fish. He is an internationally recognized leader in cichlid research.
He got my first aquarium when he was about 10. They weren’t allowed to have cats or dogs, so he got some fish. He started with swordtails and a Brazilian ram. "Unfortunately, I also got a little puffer, and I quickly learned that puffers could eat the fins (and heads) off pretty much anything. It was my first lesson in fish compatibility."
During his undergraduate years at university (University of British Columbia), he worked at the Vancouver Aquarium, in Vancouver, British Columbia, first as a “floor boy”, meaning he cleaned up anything and everything. After about a year, he was promoted to “Guide” which meant that he started leading tours of the exhibits. This experience really opened his eyes to the incredible diversity in form and behavior of fishes. He kept a variety of fish during those years, but his obsession with cichlids began when he started graduate school. "I was studying bluegill sunfish in the wild (in Eastern Ontario), but we had a number of tanks in the lab at Simon Fraser University. I remember a 72-gallon tank that had kribensis and Texas cichlids and I was so impressed that a breeding pair of kribensis could keep half a dozen adult Texas cichlids at bay at the far end of the tank."
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Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South, 6401 South 13th Street,Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Greendale, United States
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Host or PublisherMilwaukee Aquarium Society
