Aside from the Shedd Aquarium, you seldom see this many fish under one roof.
It was the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association’s all-species auction, and 80 sellers and 250 buyers packed an Arlington Heights hotel banquet room recently to bid on more than 1,200 bags of fish.
“These are rare fish or fish typically not seen at pet shops,” said Mark Schmidt, president of the GCCA. “You’ll see angelfish here. But you’ll also see an Enantiopus melanogenys, a Lake Tanganyika cichlid. That’s probably a fish you’ll never see come through a pet shop.”
And although the Hypostomus plecostomus and Corydoras trilineatus (algae-eaters and catfish) were represented, the stars of the show were the cichlids (pronounced SICK-lids).
Time for a quick primer.
Cichlids are freshwater fish from Africa and Central and South America. There are more than 1,000 species, ranging in length from an inch or two to more than a foot and in appearance from the graceful angelfish to the lumbering Oscar.
They can be pugnacious; there is a breed known as the Jack Dempsey, another the Green Terror. Or they can be oddly sweet; several species incubate their eggs in their mouths, where they hatch, and where the young hide when they sense danger. A tank of cichlids is almost guaranteed to entertain.
Diligent parents
“A discus has a personality,” Schmidt said, talking about the majestic red, turquoise, brown or blue pancake-shaped fish that can be eight inches across. “And cichlids have exceptional parenting skills. They’re not just fish in the tank and you’re watching them raise their fry. You’ll see an inch or 2-inch fish keeping 6- to 8-inch fish at bay.”
Marcus Couch of Arlington Heights has seen that personality on display in his tank.
“They’re very calm, very serene,” he said of his favorites. “You can even pet them in the tank when they’re feeding.”
How many cats or dogs will let you do that?
Couch and his wife, Barbara, were front-row center at the auction, hoping to snag a few more specimens for their 29-gallon all-cichlid tank. (Another tip: Keep cichlids with cichlids. Throw a cute guppy in with an Oscar, and you’re ringing the dinner bell.)
“I also think some of the attraction here is you get to meet the people who are the breeders,” he said. “And you don’t get that contact in a pet store.”
One of those breeders was Jim Gigot, who lives near Green Bay and has 28 tanks in his basement. He had spent most of the previous day bagging fish for the auction and brought others for prearranged sales to other club members. A pharmaceutical salesman by trade, he sees this strictly as a hobby.
“After electricity and food, and paying for the original breeding stock, you’re not going to make a lot of money,” he said.
Gigot and other breeders began showing up at 9 a.m., lugging plastic coolers, large plastic foam containers or cardboard boxes packed with bags of fish, plants or equipment. The auction itself started at 11 a.m. and went until midnight. And auctioneers Robin and Mike Schadle, club members from Chesterton, Ind., weren’t dawdling. They kept the bidding moving along, rapidly hammering down winners and moving to the next lot. Most bags went for $5 to $25. A few goldfish went for a buck or two. At the other end of the scale was a breeding colony of about eight Cyphotilapia frontosa that sold for $150.
A deal on a discus
Some of the buyers got great deals. Like Bonnie Wright. She and her fiance, Mark Reardon, own Guppies Galore & More in Metamora, Ill. She set her sights on a large tangerine discus and let out a whoop when she got it for $49. That’s about half of what one would cost in a pet store, she said. And he’s not going back on the market soon.
“Oh no, he’s going to me. That’s my baby,” said Wright, who has about 15 other discus and 128 tanks back home.
Jermaine Hill of Calumet City may have gotten an even better deal, four black calvus (Altolamprologus calvus) for $42.
“You go into a store for a pair, it’s going to cost you 80 bucks,” he said. “We came here for a good deal, basically.”
There’ll be more good deals at the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association’s winter swap meet, Feb. 27 at the Arlington Heights Sheraton. For more information on the meet or the GCCA, go to www.gcca.net.
