Bärbel Dornieden

My name is Bärbel Dornieden and I was born in Germany in Recklinghausen. I was already keeping ornamental fish when I was 8 years old. Through our aquarium club, I was able to get to know a variety of fish and research their keeping and breeding conditions. With great enthusiasm, I devoted several years to the brood care behavior of American and African cichlids. Particularly wild-caught discus fish which were my focus for many years. I was also happy to see the first Heckel discus fish hybrids with red turquoise. Contact with the discus experts at the time, including Dr. E.Schmidt Focke, helped me to delve deeper into the subject of water treatment, diseases and observation and the resulting conclusions.

During my studies, I took a break of several years and then became fascinated by the poison dart frogs of South America. Together with biologists and herpetologists at the University of Hanover, I researched their fascinating brood care behavior and also had many contacts in Brazil, Peru and Panama. There were new discoveries of dendrobatids, among others. I made videos and took countless photos and published them on the websites of the time.

After a long period of enthusiasm, I took a break from working with animals for professional reasons and devoted myself to people and became a nurse;) Here I was a manager and private lecturer for years at the training schools. I gave further training in health and nursing theory and much more.

In 2020 I started getting new aquariums with ornamental fish again and I was fascinated by the armored catfish Corydoradinae . I happened to have my first breeding success with Hoplisoma (Corydoras) panda and I was fascinated by more of these armored bottom catfish. It didn't take long for me to be able to breed additional species based on my previous experience. Through observation of water chemistry. I deepened my knowledge of biotope data. The contact about South America helped residents and exporters to get a "look" at their habitats and compared them with the keeping in the aquarium and their husbandry. Now I dedicate myself to the numerous Corydoradinae and am happy to pass on my experiences and knowledge. The collaboration of like-minded people also leads to a lot of joy in the breeding success of some rare species.