Harlan, Ron

Ron Harlan (also known as “Piranha Ron” due to to a conspicious ornament he wears around his neck) Ron can trace his interest in tropical fish to his childhood in Rangoon, Burma. He helped a family friend, U Cho, drag a seine through streams and collect tropical fish. He joined the American Killifish Association in 1965 and was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Killifish Association during his high school years when he lived in a bedroom with 35 species of killies and dwarf cichlids. More recently he had been the resident Rivulus expert in the Southern California Killi Club and keeps a slightly more modest number of species. Professionally, Ron was a biology faculty member, department chairman, and Dean of Instruction at Glendale College for 33 years. Now retired, he is the owner of Back to Nature Filtration founded in 1985 and still provides affordable reverse osmosis to the tropical fish and orchid hobbyist. Ron has taken 6 trips into the Peruvian Amazon as well as collecting in Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Bolivia. Programs: Collecting in Bolivia What Aquarists Need to Know About Water Chemistry Collecting in Bolivian Amazon