Charles Clapsaddle

Charles began his fish-keeping career at about age 6 (68 years ago) when he won some goldfish in a ping-pong toss at the Goliad County Fair. After growing the little fish to adulthood, he successfully spawned them and was hooked on fish breeding forever. Shortly after the success with goldfish, he turned his attention to locally collected, native fish Gambusia affinis (mosquito fish), Poecilia latipinna (sailfin molly), Ameiurus nebulosus (bullhead catfish), and various species of Lepomis (sunfish or perch). By junior high school, he had graduated from raising and selling fancy guppies in shops in Houston, which his doting grandparents drove him two to three hours to. As a result of raising guppies, his fascination with livebearers continues today.

Charles paid his way through college raising killifishes and Bettas to earn a BSc in Zoology from The University of Texas at Austin. During his senior year in college, Charles and a partner bought a tropical fish shop in Austin and expanded it to two locations. A few years later they sold the business, and Charles turned to pond-raising and wholesaling fish on his family’s farm in Goliad County, Texas. He also experimented with recirculating systems using plant filtration.

After moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1992 with wife Susie, they opened a greenhouse-based recirculating system raising rainbowfishes. That business was named Santa Fe Tropical Fish, Inc. In 2000, they bought the family farm in Goliad and moved the hatchery there. The company was renamed Goliad Farms, Inc.

Charles continued to refine the recirculating systems and plant filtration and expanded the hatchery to three greenhouses covering 7,500 square feet and housing over 800 vats. and holding 100,000 gallons of water in the vats, floor gutters, and sumps. Although the occupy breeds and raises many other fishes, invertebrates, and plants, it’s the development of new livebearer and cichlid strains and the improvement of existing strains that occupy his best efforts. Charles has spoken to aquarium clubs across the country on various topics relating to the hobby, his methods, and the farm’s operations. He is a prolific writer on aquarium topics (see his blogs) and authored the livebearer column for Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine for three years. Goliad Farms, Inc. has an active YouTube channel providing information on its breeding and culturing techniques and the greenhouses.