About Us

About myself:

     I joined the Army in 2003-2010 at 18 years old as an Armor Crewman and went to basic training at Ft. Knox, Ky. After basic I was stationed at Ft. Hood, Tx, 2nd Battalion 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. While at Ft. Hood, I served 3 combat tours in Iraq; 2004-2005(OIF2), 2006-2008, 2009-2010. .

     After my first tour of duty, I married the love of my life and started a family.  We decided to get an aquarium since it was something I loved to do before I joined.  Ever since then we have always had tropical fish and the tanks kept getting bigger and bigger over time! 

The Hobby:

     I have been keeping tropical fish since middle school.  I started out with just the basic tropical species (angels, neons, plecos, etc.) and it grew from there.  After the military I was formally diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety. I found out, like many people, how keeping an aquarium can help relieve stress, most of the time!😁 

    At one point I decided to try my hand at saltwater.  I had a working reef tank for a few years, but with my job at the time I didn't have the time for the amount of upkeep a reef requires.  After shutting down the reef, I still wanted fish with the vibrant color saltwater fish offer without the upkeep. I decided to set up a 125-gallon african cichlid tank after researching and realizing there is more to African Cichlids than the ones at PetSmart🤣.  I set it up as a Lake Malawi Mbuna tank, which is still running today.

Sanctuary Cichlids is born:

     Shortly after setting up my Mbuna tank, they started to breed, and didn't stop. I set up some more tanks in my basement for babies (at my wife's disapproval).  I started to run out of space and started selling to our local fish store, Sanctuary Aquatics.  This went on for a little while and it got the store owners attention enough to offer me a chance to start my own African Cichlid breeding operation.  He gave me an old mechanics shop next to the store to build up and start operations from. 

     Within a year I filled every possible spot with tanks and IBC totes.  Realizing we need more space; we decided to get a brand new 2,400 sq ft. facility which we are almost done moving into. Never comprehending just how hard and time consuming it would be to move such a huge operation.

     If you have any questions or requests for a certain type of fish, feel free to email, call, or text!

Happy fish keeping,

Jeremy