As a small child, I caught a Stickleback in our local stream and that started my two lifelong hobbies, fishkeeping and angling. I acquired my first Bullhead catfish (Ameiurus sp.) over fifty years ago and have been obsessed by all catfish ever since. Starting in the early 1970s, I studied the family Mochokidae for about ten years, followed by the Bagridae family for ten years and then Pimelodidae for another ten. I am now researching Doradidae, which have become a favourite family and I am currently attempting a breeding program with some of the smaller species.

I am a freelance journalist, writing articles on catfishes for magazines and web-sites and I am secretary of the Southern Counties Catfish Rescue Society, whose quarterly newsletter I edit. I am a member of Practical Fishkeeping’s Panel of Experts, answering readers’ questions on the larger members of the Doradidae and Bagridae families.

I am passionate about British wildlife, especially our native fishes, amphibians, water plants and all things aquatic and I am a keen freshwater microscopist.

I live in Surrey and I share my life with my husband, Graham, two spoilt-rotten stuck-up cats, an ancient pony, twenty plus fish tanks, numerous Dorads, Bagrids and other assorted catfish, an ornamental garden pond, a wildlife pond and two heated tropical ponds.

Daphne Layley