emeraldking-aquatics

Introduction

Let me introduce myself...

My name is Stan de Jong, born in the eastern part of Holland in the 1960's. I was basically born and raised in this particular part of Holland. Just a 15 minute car drive from the german (Nordrhein-Westfalen) border. Most people are at least bilingual overhere. 

 

I myself am a true nature lover and have been traveling all over this globe. For I'm very interested in different cultures and  the diversity of sceneries of nature. One of my favourite time spenders is for sure going into nature. And when the opportunity occurs I will seek for a good spot to watch animals in the wild from as nearby as possible. For nature itself is one of the most remarkable phenomena the world has given us in my opinion...

As I've already mentioned, I've traveled a lot. I've also been to Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico to have a vacation but also to seek for freshwater fish and in general livebearers. I went to creeks, ponds and lakes which were more centred within all three countries. It was really amazing how a certain amount of breeds of these fish differed from their domesticated relatives when it came to their shape, colouration and size. If you ever get the chance to go to countries like these, don't hesitate and just go for it...! Just like other south- and central-american countries, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico have beautiful situated lagoons, mangroves (a lot of cichilds are to be seen overthere...), cenotes, lakes and shallow streams. Just to enjoy a boat trip across one of them (with the exception of cenotes for they're too small to use a boat) is already an adventure itself and for sure worth the trip...

 

I was raised with pets. During my upbringing and when I got my own place, I kept several aquariumfish, koi (used to breed them myself), crustaceans, birds (I've bred parrots, parakeets and finches), reptiles, amphibians, dogs and rabbits.

My parents started keeping fishtanks back in the 1960's. I was a very young boy back then... And with the exception of one year I always had fishtanks myself till this very day. So, ever since the late sixties I've been very fascinated (despite of my young age in the 1960's) by aquaristics. Throughout the years I do have gained a lot of knowledge of aquaristics. Not just by books or other specific magazines (internet during the seventies and eighties wasn't an option yet...!) but mostly by own experience throughout the years. 

 

Because of my own way of looking at aquaristics and especially breeding hybrids within the livebearer zones (did the same thing with birds by the way)... I started experimenting with several breeds which were related to other breeds. Wether their genus were close related or not. I'm most interested in how hybrids will develop and how fertile they'll be in order to develop a new strain of offspring.

 

I am active on specific aquaristic forums and I do get remarks and read  from time to time remarks of others that certain breeds can not interbreed with another breed. But when it does happen that the offspring won't be fertile by all means. I myself have come to another conclusion while hybridizing certain breeds. I have been able to cross certain fish breeds and they had fertile offspring themselves.

 

Other forum members have been mailing me that hybridizing will demolish the market. I myself do have a different point of view on that one. A lot of the domesticated aquarium fish we have today are the result of hybridization or even mutations by nature.  And I'd like to justify this by mentioning that I myself have five different influences running through my veins. Which are dutch, indonesian, german, french and portuguese... And folks let me tell you this : I'm pretty much fertile! And for sure I'm not lesser than anybody else for that matter!

 

Nowadays, I'm still keeping subtropical and tropical fish just like the years before. And my special attention goes to keeping and breeding wildforms of guppylike fish and other rare livebearing toothcarps. This website will be mainly focused on livebearers for that reason.

 

And a special note about livebearers:

When you read a book or find a website regarding livebearers, most mentioned line will be that livebearers are beginners fish and unbelievable reproductive. From my own perspective as being a serious, passionate and seasoned livebearer keeper and breeder, I can state that that doesn't go for all livebearer species. There is a serious number of livebearer species which are harder to maintain and harder to breed with even a small brood of fry. And even with a longer gestation period up to 8 weeks. Totally different than what most people would expect.