Aquarium Expert - Eric Malolepsy

Talk to Eric Malolepsy for a while, and you’ll get an education. The man possesses a wealth of knowledge about fish and frogs. He can tell you about an aquarium’s “bioload,” poisonous amphibians, a fish’s eating habits and a frog’s mating rituals.

Malolepsy services aquariums for a living and builds frog terrariums on the side. (A terrarium is essentially a glass container for smaller land animals, with soil and plants.) He serves residents and businesses throughout Orange County, including the Orange Canyon Pet Clinic in Orange, which has a 60-gallon aquarium that Malolepsy maintains and a terrarium he created featuring geckos and frogs. 

As a child, his family always owned an aquarium. “When I graduated from high school, I didn’t get a car—I spent my money on a saltwater fish tank,” he says. Watching aquarium fish has a soothing effect, he notes. “It’s relaxing, and it’s interesting to see what the fish do.”

When he services an aquarium, Malolepsy cleans the tank, maintains the filtration system and tackles any potential problems. “Aquarium owners have different tastes,” he says. “Some like an elaborate ecosystem inside the tank; others are happy to fill their aquariums with SpongeBob ornaments.”

Ali Atapour operates Amazing Aquariums & Reefs in Orange. Malolepsy works with some of his aquarium customers. He says Malolepsy is honest and dependable. “He always follows through on what he promises to deliver,” says Atapour.

On a recent afternoon at Amazing Aquariums, the two men point out the vivid beauty inside the various reef tanks, including one that holds a Yellow Tang fish and an Azure Damselfish. “Eric and I like all these funky animals, whether it’s fish or frogs or some other animal,” Atapour says.

Reef tanks comprise about half the aquariums Malolepsy services; the rest are split between saltwater and freshwater tanks. They range in size from 15-gallon tanks to ones as large as 400 gallons. (He once serviced a 1,000-gallon shark tank in the living room of an Anaheim Hills resident.)

Malolepsy, who has his own large collection of frog terrariums, first started keeping the amphibians as a hobby in college. He only uses non-poisonous dart frogs for the terrariums he builds. Given the choice of observing fish or frogs, he says he’d choose the latter. Frogs, he notes, are a lot of fun to watch. They make noise, have territorial disputes, and they even have their own pecking order.

If you’re interested in contacting Eric Malolepsy, email him at [email protected].