This is one of my favorite "fishy" photographs. It was taken by Gene Wolfsheimer in the late 1950's or early 1960's when he and Dr. Richard Haas visited two legends of the pioneering killifish hobby in the US, Richard Buettner and Franz Werner (A. franzwerneri). Dick Haas (youngest man in photo) gave me this photo taken at Buettner's Oceanside, California home near San Digo. Dick was a charter member of the AKA, a founding member of the legendary Los Angeles Aquarium Society, a master breeder with a 300 tank fishroom, a professional ichthyologist focused on Nothobranchius species (he collected in Somalia in the 70's and earlier bred and helped to distribute the original N. kirki and even some of the earliest T. dolichopterus imports into the US) and worked with the UN internationally after his retirement.
Richard Buettner (shortest man in photo) was a legend in the tropical fish collecting (he went to South America many times) and retail business in NYC in the 1930's. His Empire Aquarium was the premier retail store then and he was the first to import live wild discus in 1932. He had begun as a hobbyist in pre-WWI Germany at the dawn of the hobby. His passion was killies and when he retired after WWII, he moved to California and devoted himself to their breeding. He was a master breeder of the difficult species and kept up with the leading German hobbyists of his era.
Franz Werner was a German immigrant like Buettner. He was a leading US killie breeder by the 1930's, often obtaining stock then and later from the great German killie guys like Erhard Roloff (many roloffi species in the hobby) and Karl Berthold (S. bertholdi). He like Haas and Buettner was a charter member of the AKA in 1962 and a close friend and advisor to Dr. Al Klee. He established the connection between US and German killie hobbyists long before anyone did. His standards were exacting, his knowledge vast, his photography top knotch for the era and his breeding articles were exhaustive.
Between them, these 3 men were profoundly influential in the Golden Age of the AKA and US killie hobby. Their legacy is woven through all its early years.
