Juan Miguel is an aquarist in San Luis Potosí, México (the very center of it). He has loved fish since he can remember and has kept them steadily in home aquariums for over 25 years now. His main interest are Central American Cichlids and Mexican fishes, but he is also very interested in any other type of fish. Although he mainly maintains Mexican Cichlids, Poeciilids, Goodeids and Cyprinodontids.

Juan Miguel is the creator and editor of the Cichlid Room Companion. His love for computers and nature, together with the revolutionary development of Internet was too much for him to let the opportunity to create this page pass along. He has found that the maintenance of a real good home page is a life time enterprise, and he is ready to cope to that.

Juan Miguel enjoys traveling to the natural habitats of the fish he enjoys, where he obtains underwater pictures of them. He likes to observe them, trying to understand their natural history and relationships. He has managed to obtain a great knowledge on the biology and geographical distribution of the fishes in Mexico. This gives to his conferences an originality and special interest.


Juan Miguel has written several articles on Mexican and Central American Freshwater fish, mainly on cichlids, for several club and aquarium publications. He has also been honored with the invitation as lecturer in fish oriented conventions in several countries, including México, United States, Belgium, Canada, England, Netherlands, Norway, France, Italy and Germany. Juan Miguel is part of the American Cichlid Association - Marineland speakers program.

Anton Lamboj was born 1956 and has been an aquarist since the age of ten. Around 1980, he began to take a special interest in the cichlids of West and Central Africa. This interest eventually led, in 1988, to the beginning of his academic education at the University of Vienna, an undertaking made while continuing to work full-time. He was awarded his Master's degree in 1993 and his Ph.D. in 1997; both works were focused on the systematics of West African cichlids.

In addition to his "day" job, Anton Lamboj has worked as a lecturer at the University of Vienna since 1998. He teaches general biology of fishes, with the biology of perciform fishes as a more specialized goal, as well as instructing on didactics. Additionally, he works on the systematics and evolutionary biology of chromidotilapiine cichlids using morphological and anatomical methods, coupled with ethological studies and molecular methods.

Over the years, Anton Lamboj has made 13 field/collecting trips to Africa. In his works he has collaborated with several leading scientific institutions (e.g., the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Central in Tervuren). He has authored over 100 papers (both academic and hobbyist) in six languages, including two books. The above accomplishments, coupled with the numerous presentations he has made in various countries, are indications of his scientific and aquaristic competence when discussing western African cichlids.

Spencer has been active within the aquaria hobby since the age of five. A true "cichlidiot", he has been working exclusively with cichlids over the last twenty years. Spencer has been an active hobbyist within Winnipeg for a number of years. Some of his roles within the fish hobbyist community include; Co-founder of the Aquarium Society of Winnipeg (1989), Founder and President of the Canadian Cichlid Association (2000).

Spencer's ever-expanding fishroom is currently home to Rift Lake and Central American cichlids.

Spencer is currently a student at the University of Manitoba.

All of Spencer's lectures are full multimedia presentations through use of PowerPoint featuring almost entirely original pictures taken by Spencer through his years in the hobby and travels across North America. Spencer is a part of the American Cichlid Association - Marineland speakers program.

Dave has lived throughout the US and abroad and currently resides in San Antonio Texas with his wife Melinda and their two boys. An avid aquarist for many years, Dave’s interest is almost exclusively the family cichlidae. Among his favorites animals are the cichlid fish of West Africa. Dave mixes the aquarium hobby with his other passion, photography. His work has appeared in many hobby related books and magazines. He is a contributing photographer and author on the Cichlid Room Companion as well as Cichlid-Forum. He is currently working on a lexicon of “haplochromine” cichlids; part of an international project. Dave brings his knowledge of aquarium photography to us in a lecture entitled “Photography 101”. This talk includes the basics of aquarium photography and photo finishing. His speech is aimed at the novice with either ‘point and shoot' or DSLR equipment.

Profiles courtesy of The Cichlid Room Companion