Joachim Knaack

Joachim Knaack (born January 2, 1933 in Potsdam ; † December 5, 2012 in Neuglobsow ) was a German biologist and physician. As a hobby ichthyologist and aquarist , he has been concerned with the scientific description of South American catfish species as well as the keeping and breeding of ornamental fish which are considered difficult since the 1950s .

Live and act

Joachim Knaack was a biology student at the University of Leipzig and Günther Sterba's first graduate . He first dealt with the local fish fauna. He received his doctorate in 1961 on the biology and parasitization of native cobitides.

In the early 1960s he described some armored catfish from the Rio Guaporé in Brazil, including the Corydoras sterbai, which is popular among aquarists . Although he was considered a leading authority on aquarium science in the GDR, political circles advised him not to publish any more scientific studies in western media. It was only three decades later, after the fall of the Wall and his retirement, that Knaack was able to travel to Brazil to the places where the fish came from that he had described at the time. On expeditions south of the Amazon, some of which lasted months, he found other catfish species that he scientifically described from 1999 to 2007. Total Joachim Knaack described 17 new species armored catfish and five catfish species. It was important to him not only to describe the fish species based on their external characteristics, but also to document their husbandry, offspring and development.

During his time in the GDR, Joachim Knaack was a successful sport diver in competitions . From 1953 until his retirement in 1993 he worked at the District Hygiene Institute in Potsdam, most recently as director. Joachim Knaack was married and had a son and a daughter.

literature

• Hans-Georg Evers: Obituary Dr. rer. nat. Joachim Knaack (* January 2nd, 1933 - † December 5th, 2012) . In: Amazon. Vol. 9 (2013), no. 2, p. 6 f.
• Isaäc JH Isbrücker: Joachim Knaack. In: DATZ . 3/2013, p. 10.
• Tom Kirschey, Uwe Mischke, Matthias Freude: We have to take a closer look! Farewell to Joachim Knaack. In: Nature magazine. 2/2013, p. 26.
• Axel Zarske: In Memoriam Dr. rer. nat. Joachim Knaack (2.1.1933–5.12.2012). In: Vertebrate Zoology. Vol. 63, H. 3, pp. 249-252 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Joachim Knaack in the catalog of the German National Library