AmazonTropics.com is the culmination of over 25 years in the fish industry. Owner, Jeremy Basch, started keeping fish when he was just 10 years old! He became hooked when his father took him into a local pet shop. While at the pet shop, Jeremy just could not take his eyes off the saltwater aquarium in front of him. From there he saved his money for a big reef tank.
At the age of 16, Jeremy started working for the largest and local fish store in Ohio. While working at this store, he met a few co-workers around his age who suggested that he experiment with freshwater fish first before going all in on saltwater. Jeremy began by setting up one tank, then two and eventually he had a fish tank in 7 different rooms in his parents’ house! To this day, he is still friends with many of his former coworkers.
Jeremy spent 12 years working for the local fish store and assisted with fish husbandry, quarantine and eventually an assistant manager. This exposed Jeremy to almost every type of fish that comes into the hobby. With an average of 30-40 boxes of fish per week, he lived and breathed fish every day!
Jeremy has also been involved with the local fish club, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFÉ). With Jeremy at the helm and through club’s efforts, the club grew from less than 12 members to over 75! After 10 years as chairman, Jeremy has since passed on his duties but still assists the club with various duties. You can still catch him at regular club meetings and auctions around the Midwest.
Recently, Jeremy has traveled with several fish enthusiasts to South America in particular, the captivating country of Colombia. He has been fortunate to be able to bring home some of the fish has collected and some of these have started to breed in captivity. Some of these species of fish are likely brand new to science!
Today, AmazonTropics.com houses over 100 aquariums ranging in size from a few gallons to well over one hundred gallons! AmazonTropics.com specializes in catfish of the families, Loricariidae and Auchenipteridae from South America. In fact, Jeremy was the first person in the world to have Liosomadoras oncinus spawn! He also maintains species from the families, Callichthyidae and Aspredinidae. Along with catfish, Jeremy also keeps some species of cichlids from the family Cichlidae, the Geophaginae which include Geophagus and Apistogramma.