AMAZONAS’ Hans-George Evers and the Amazing L-Cats

Dr. Roy Yanong on Pet Life Radio

Most hobbyists are familiar with the common pleco, the catfish that feeds on algae and detritus and is a staple of any community tank. But most do not know that there are currently well over 600 different species of catfishes in the pleco family, the Loricariidae, many with incredible color and patterns, like the zebra pleco and the gold dust pleco, and many of which have not yet been properly identified by scientists.

My guest today is Hans-George Evers, long time aquarium hobbyist, lecturer, author, and Editor-in-Chief of AMAZONAS magazine. Join us, as we learn more about Hans, AMAZONAS, and the amazing L-Cats!


BIO:

Hans-Georg Evers lives in Hamburg, Germany and since his very early days has been an aquarist at heart. Hans’ love of nature’s aquatic realm serves as the engine for all his activities around this most beautiful hobby in the world. Starting first with a community tank, his interest and expertise soon grew to a specialization in African cichlids of Lake Tanganyika and later of West Africa. In the early 1980s his interests changed to the catfishes and today the Corydoradinae (corydoras catfish) and Loricariidae (the “plecos”) are his favourite fish, followed by tetras and. . . .all other freshwater fishes! Hans so far has bred and raised more than 300 different species of freshwater fishes in his tanks, including 106 species of Corydoras and more than 40 different species of plecos.  His recent set up consists of about 50 tanks ranging from 2 to 200 gallons in size.

Hans stays busy travelling, lecturing, and collecting specimens, is fluent in English and Portuguese and speaks some Spanish. He has visited many tropical countries in search of new and interesting fishes and invertebrates for the hobby. Countless journeys have been undertaken to the Amazon (mainly to Brazil) where he has collected fish from all of the larger effluents of the Amazon River and other parts of that large country. He has also spent time in Peru, Venezuela, Indonesia, India, and a number of other countries. During the last 5 years he has concentrated on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, where he collected fish and shrimps all over the island.

Hans has published 10 books about his experiences and findings including the “Mergus Atlas vol. 6”; the two volumes of “Mergus Catfish Atlas” together with his good friend Ingo Seidel; and the “Identification Guide to Corydoradinae Catfishes” with Ian Fuller. He has also written more than 650 articles in hobbyist magazines worldwide. In 2005 he became Editor-in-Chief of the German aquarium magazine AMAZONAS, which has recently become available in English. AMAZONAS offers a fresh look at the freshwater aquarium industry: new and spectacular tropical fishes, invertebrates and water plants are highlighted in this beautiful work.