Bay Area Reefers

BAR is proud to announce Lance Ichinotsubo, co-author of the The Marine Fish Health & Feeding handbook, for our February 9th meeting. Lance will discuss acclimate procedures, diagnosing diseases, stocking a medicine cabinet, & general marine fish care.

BIO:

For over 40 years, Lance Ichinotsubo has worked in nearly all conceivable aspects of the ornamental aquarium industry. This long and successful career in the marine aquarium industry began in Hawaii. During his first year of college, Lance began working at the largest wholesale exporter in the islands. Lance later became a professional diver/collector of Hawaiian specimens, for the wholesale distribution to the aquarium trade in the mainland U.S. and abroad. You might ask him about his all-to-close experience with a very big moray eel and also his in-the-face greeting from a tiger shark while he was on a dive!

Following college, Lance moved to Las Vegas where he established Rainbow Seascapes, Inc. in the ‘80s & ‘90s with his partner and wife, Mikki, providing aquarium design, installation & service, plus a marinelife only retail division. Lance created many breathtaking aquariums in the resorts there including the 20,000 gallon marine aquarium, located behind the front desk of the new Mirage Resort.

After a successful 15-year run in Vegas, Lance was then recruited by ICM/Reynolds Polymer & moved to Colorado where he designed and installed aquariums and state-of-the-art life support systems for projects all over the world. In 2000, Lance moved to South Florida, where he worked with Living Color Enterprises (LCEI), again designing and installing large commercial and residential aquaria and travelling to many locations throughout the world. Additionally, he developed the LCEI Aquarium Care division, a professional maintenance company for their exclusive clientele. While with LCEI, Lance had the opportunity to be at the heart of the building of the largest aquatic retail store in the USA (2005)…Big Al’s Aquarium Supercenter (now AllFish Emporium) in Tamarac, Florida. It was a 2 year project and included a 5000 gallon cylinder shark exhibit.

In 2004 & 2005 Lance somehow found the time to co-author, the Marine Fish Health and Feeding Handbook with Bob Goemans. This book has become a valuable tool for many maintenance services and marine fish hobbyists in the U.S. In 2007, Lance and Mikki established Captive Seas Inc. (CSI), a professional aquarium consultation, design and installation company. Captive Seas has quickly established itself as being on the cutting edge of design technology and provides services to South Florida and the U.S. In 2010 and 2011 Lance has also participated as a guest speaker at the Ornamental Fish Disease Symposium at the University of New England, Biddeford Maine campus. Lance will be speaking there again this fall. Lance’s most exciting project at the moment is the development of Elite MarineLife by Captive Seas, a specialized reef aquarium retail company that will be opening soon.

His passion and appreciation of reef aquariums and our ocean environment has been a lifetime of learning, sharing and enjoying reef life. Lance is looking forward to the meeting of the well-known and prestigious SF Bay Area Reefers and will be available for questions or other conversations during and following the meeting.