Ian Alexander McDonald Fuller (born 21 February 1946) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

aquarist An aquarist is a person who manages aquariums, either professionally or as a hobby. They typically care for aquatic animals, including fish and marine invertebrates. Some may care for aquatic mammals. Aquarists often work at public aquariums. They ...

and

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Personal life

Fuller was born in Birmingham in 1946. His mother was from Scotland and his father from Norwich. He has two children and lives in Warwickshire. Fuller worked in toolmaking for much of his professional life and has admitted to becoming a self-confessed Corydoras addict in the 1970s. Fuller is related to the

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

minister

Andrew Fuller Andrew Fuller (6 February 17547 May 1815) was an English Particular Baptist minister and theologian. Known as a promoter of missionary work, he also took part in theological controversy. Biography Fuller was born in Wicken, Cambridgeshire, and ...

, being his fourth great grand-nephew.

Career and life as an aquarist

In around 1970, Fuller became interested in keeping tropical fish and this quickly developed into several tanks set up in his spare room. Beginning with a variety of fish, he began taking an increasing interest in the practice and method of care and breeding for the variety of species he kept. He began with South American

Cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

s, before going on to Barbs, Anabantids and

Characins Characidae, the characids, is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish belonging to the order Characiformes. They are found throughout much of Central and South America, including such major waterways as the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers ...

. It was not until 1973 that Fuller notes his interest in

corydoras ''Corydoras'' is a genus of freshwater catfish in the family Callichthyidae and subfamily Corydoradinae. The species usually have more restricted areas of endemism than other callichthyids, but the area of distribution of the entire genus almos ...

took off and from 1974 he has been an active breeder of the species. By 1977, Fuller had sectioned off his garage with 36 individual tanks where he bred and cared for a variety of species. He is currently in his third fish house. Fuller has been extensive on the Corydoras scene of aquarists throughout the UK and runs the knowledgebase and website CorydorasWorld.com. Throughout his time as an aquarist, he has been key speakers at conventions and conferences on the breeding and identification of Corydoras and has also served as chairperson and president of the Catfish Study Group. He has organised Cory-Vention and Cory-Fest. Fuller also administrates the CW-Coding process.

South America

Fuller has been actively involved in research and an adventure tourism business in South America with GoWildPeru. Fuller's work in South America has focused on searching for catfish species in the

Madre de Dios River The Madre de Dios River () is a river shared by Bolivia and Peru which is homonymous to the Peruvian region it runs through. On Bolivian territory, it receives the Beni River, close to the town of Riberalta, which later joins with the Mamore Riv ...

and surrounding areas having successfully contributed to the study. ''

Corydoras fulleri ''Corydoras fulleri'', formerly identified as C116/115, is a tropical freshwater fish belonging to the subfamily Corydoradinae of the family Callichthyidae native to South America where it is found in two tributaries of the río Manuripe and a t ...

'' is named in honour of Fuller, in recognition of how he has devoted most of his life to keeping and breeding Corydoradinae species. Fuller has also diversified his research interests and has produced two accounts of the orchids species of south eastern Peru.

Bibliography

References

External links

Corydoras World website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Ian Corydoras 1946 births Living people Fishkeeping English ichthyologists