Manuel, and the fish room.

I set up my first tank when I was nine — a ten-gallon with a pair of red swordtails that had fry before I knew what that meant. I have kept livebearers ever since.

A few years ago I saw my first Red Alpha in a European breeder’s photos: velvety black over a red so deep it looked lit from inside. Getting the colour to hold took two years of colonies, culling and notebooks. Today the fish room in Northeast Florida runs three colonies — Red Alpha, Red Ruby and Marble — in fourteen tanks.

By day I build software; evenings and weekends belong to the fish room. I breed in colonies, not pairs, and I keep only the fish that move the line forward. Every fish I list is photographed on its own, and I only sell a fish I would keep myself.