Estes, Caroline

Caroline Estes has been in the aquarium hobby for over 35 years and a member of the American Cichlid Association since 1987. She co-founded Babes in the Cichlid Hobby (BITCH), which has raised well over $100,000 for cichlid conservation and research thru basically terrorizing fish guys into paying more than retail for cool fish at the Babes live auction and silent auctions of donated fish stuff. The live auctions are a sight to behold. Caroline owned Amazonia Aquariums in Austin, Texas, for 19 years; a cichlid specialty store with 500 tanks that stressed conservation, and refused to sell dyed and deformed fish. She likes to get her feet wet and she has collected fish all over Texas and Mexico. Caroline also spent two weeks on Lake Tanganyika with Ad Konigs and fellow BITCHes. Now she’s happily retired from retail, and spends her time going to see live music and dancing, working with German Short-Haired Pointer rescue groups and collecting folk art, all the while thrilled to death to be out of the retail grind and back to enjoying her Central American cichlids as a hobby, and not as livelihood. Caroline will draw on her many years of retail and hobby experience to bring us a presentation on matching fish and fish communities to the right size aquarium. Programs: What Fish Go in What Size Tank