Duffill, Mark

Mark Duffill was born in 1972, and has had an interest in fish from a very young age. He got his first fish when he was 6 years old and was hooked immediately. As soon as he was old enough he became a junior member of his local fish keeping club that his parents ran and got the bug for showing fish and winning prizes. Eventually he became a valued committee member of the club and eventually was club secretary. This aside he also advanced to become an A-class judge for the North East Federation of Aquarist Societies. The hobby of fish keeping took a back seat for a while due to work commitments, however after becoming a fully qualified electrician this career was ended in 1999 when he was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and spondylosis in the spine. Since then he has channeled his time, energy and passion for fish to keeping, breeding or catching and collecting them. Mark works primarily with Loaches now along with Barbs, Rasboras and other Asian species now but has worked with African Cichlids, Characins, Corydoras, Discus, Livebearers and even at one point had nothing but Rainbows and Gobies. No matter what he was keeping he has always been drawn back to Loaches. In 2009 Mark became the founding member of the International Loach Association, formerly Loach Association of Great Britain, and in 2013 launched the Facebook group Loach Fanatics. Mark has had articles published in several magazines around the world and had them translated into numerous languages and is now travelling to clubs and conventions within the UK and around the world to give presentations on Loaches. Mark’s passion for Loaches has seen him successfully spawn around 50 species, for some time loaches were considered unbreedable but thanks to Mark and people like him, this myth has been dispelled. Species Mark has spawned include Ambastaia sidthimunki, Ambastaia nigrolineata, Botia almorhae, Sewellia, Paracanthocobitis, Pangio and Misgurnus also firsts such as Botia kubotai, Botia histrionica, Acanthopsoides molobrion and Yasuhikotakia splendida.     Programs: Loaches