User:Livebearerguy
“Livebearerguy” is a pseudonym for Stan de Jong (born 1967, the Netherlands). Stan de Jong is also known in the vivaristic world as “Emeraldking”. The name “livebearerguy” is only used for the uploads of images on Wikimedia Commons of his own photos. And they’re free to use for Wikipedia and other purposes. Stan de Jong chose not to use the name “Emeraldking” for Wikimedia Commons to avoid a mix up with his own livebearer website “Emeraldking-aquatics”.
Stan de Jong began his journey in the aquatic hobby back in 1972 when he got his own fishtank as a present that year. It was his parents who started off keeping fish back in the 1960’s. He got so fascinated by his parents’ hobby that they gave him his own fishtank. And he got tutored by his parents about fishkeeping.
Throughout the years Stan kept several coldwater, tropical and subtropical fish. Despite of the diversity of the fish he kept, he always had a specific fascination for livebearers and a specific focus on guppies (wild and breeding forms).
When he was in his teens, he got also very interested in other wild livebearer species. But It wasn’t until he reached adulthood that he decided to visit a number of endemic areas on this globe to observe several kinds of fish in their natural habitat. It was also then when he changed his view on the fish world by observing those fish and talk to locals from who he learned a lot more how to keep fish. His new view on things made him realize that a lot of information that was coming from books were totally incorrect. Especially the commercial books were not accurate enough. So, he decided to only work with what he was taught by his parents and what he was taught during those trips to South and Central America.
Meanwhile, Stan got asked to judge national and international at livebearer shows (the Netherlands and Germany). He’s been writing relevant articles for relevant national and international magazines. And he accepted the request to lead the Dutch national guppy working group which includes guppies and endlers (both wild and breeding forms). This is an initiative of Poecilia Netherlands (Dutch National Society of Livebearers). Stan has joined Poecilia Netherlands after a number of years by a number of members who have asked him frequently to join this society. He became part of the editorial staff within the board of Poecilia Netherlands ever since.
Stan de Jong also participates relevant vivaristic events in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium for many years. As an exhibitor he shows and offers rare livebearers (both wild and breeding forms) and gives relevant information which he calls “Livebearer infotainment”.
The website regarding livebearers which Stan de Jong has set up back in 2011 was an idea that was already thought of way earlier. But health issues and a busy schedule delayed the execution of setting up a website. But once he had to slow down because of severe health problems he found finally the time to start an informative website which showed the spirit of himself as being a serious and passionate aquarist.
In 2014, Stan suffered from a stroke a week after his birthday. One of the results of this stroke is that he’s dealing with short term memory problems ever since. This made him decide after a couple of years to stop giving lectures and workshops within the vivaristic field.