I was born in 1976 in Czechoslovakia. I have been an aquarist from my childhood and later at university I continued with my interest in fishes. Later during my studies I became more interested into the diversity of cichlid fishes in particular and the Neotropical region in general. I concluded university education in 2005 and since then have worked at university and in the field abroad as researcher, teacher, and explorer of Neotropical cichlid diversity and evolution. 
South and Middle America has captured my heart. So far I have managed to be the author of 11 new genera and 20 new formally described species, with many more discovered but yet unpublished. Recently in one single study I and coauthors have found more that 50 new species in a single genus.

I have so far organized 28 expeditions into Middle and South America and have seen most corners of this magnificent and most beautiful region.