Under the belly of a catfish
My name is Sean Stephens, and I own this website. I've loved aquariums since I was a child, and I've never stopped.
How it started
My parents bought me my first fish in Thailand. Since then I've moved to Africa and back to Canada, and the fish have come along for the whole ride. I started small, like most of us do: endlers, guppies and swordtails. Then I upgraded to oscars.
Now I have multiple tank syndrome, and the tanks are full of L-number plecos. I've bred hundreds of them, along with lots of kribensis and other fish.
Why catfish
I have a particular passion for catfish, because they're the most beautiful and the ugliest thing at the same time. There's no lower place on earth you can go than under the belly of a catfish. So that's where I think we should start when we decide how we're going to do things.
Built with AI
I built this site with the help of AI. There's a lot of AI in it, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. But this is a good use for it. AI can go out and gather a huge amount of scattered information, then use it to teach people why these fish matter, while we live through a radical change in our planet's climate.
Why I'm hopeful
I deeply believe humanity is good at turning things around when it has to, and I hope we do. In the meantime, humans are also good at protecting things.
So what if we kept fish with a mission, instead of just for our own pleasure? Then breeding them and sharing what we learn has a purpose. This is one of those places where AI can make life meaningfully better.
Instead of throwing some fish in a tank and hoping for the best, we have the education and the knowledge to share them, breed them and keep them going. Science has already shown it can work: as I wrote in The hidden ark, a fish that was extinct in the wild has been returned to its river from tanks. Maybe one day we'll do the same for others, once the world heals. If not, we'll keep the rare fish safe, so future generations can enjoy them the way we have for so long.
Save the little fish.