Rus entered the aquarium hobby over 30 years ago at age four, with an ill-fated (though influential) shubunkin goldfish named Peter. It wasn’t long after that he began to care for his own aquarium. By about age thirteen, he began breeding fish and various live foods. He soon began keeping and propagating aquarium plants as well. His interest is not limited to aquarium pets. In fact, he has volunteered and worked at zoos, and has had a lifelong fascination with aquatic, semi-aquatic, terrestrial, and arboreal creatures. He’s even bred and trained quite a few of them. Rus has published several aquarium articles in Aquarium Fish International and related publications.

Kelly, the daughter of retired zookeepers, grew up with furry pets, but freely admits that she didn’t know a danio from a dalmatian molly until she met Rus back in 1998.  She made up for lost time, though. Rus never acquascapes anything without consulting her aesthetic sense first. Her favorite fish include bettas, black mollies, koi and fancy- not grotesque-goldfish. She does like moors, though. Even though she thinks they are grotesque, she finds them inexplicably cute. She enjoyed being the ‘plucky comic relief’ on the Aquarimax podcast.

From 2008 to 2017, Rus and Kelly hosted an aquarium-themed podcast, the Aquarimax Audio Show. At that time, they decided to focus their efforts on their YouTube channel, Aquarimax Pets, which broadened the scope of topics to include not only aquarium, but vivarium pets such as reptiles, amphibians, and inverts.

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BELOW: Rus and Kelly on Halloween 2010 (I think)