Returning after >5 years...

[KMcAndre]

Hey everyone, my name is Kyle, I am 27 years old and am returning to the hobby after being away since I was in my late teens. I had my first aquarium when I was 5 or 6 and bred guppies, eventually got a pair of convicts, then planted tanks, then SW reefs. I have had a fascination with all things aquatic since.

Kept aquariums all through my teenage years and eventually worked at the LFS and even did aquarium maintenance when I was just out of high school for a couple of years. Had some "life events" happen in my early 20's and finally got to college @23 y/o. I am in last couple of semesters of earning my bachelors in Wildlife Ecology and am a research assistant involved in collecting and studying parasites in FW fish.

Loving the new tech thats been introduced such as LEDs and such (next tank will have them for sure)

Just brought my old 12g JBJ Nano out of storage. Got a couple 6700K bulbs for it, made a 100 dollar order from BigAls, ordered my dry chems for fertilizer dosing, and I feel like I am falling in love with the hobby all over again.

Will be doing a heavily planted tank (2x24W compact florescent), dosing ferts and CO2, and plan on getting a ncie pair of Blue Rams once everything is established for a while (or maybe Apistos if the right ones catch my eye)...

Nice to be back on a forum again look forward to meeting ya'll.

 

[gerald]

Welcome Kyle -- That's great, hands-on training in fish parasitology could be very useful, for your own fish and the rest of us. Apistos and other soft-water dwarfs seem to get more than their fair-share, relative to most other aquarium fish. Ask lots of questions while you've got pro wildlife biologists around to learn from! What kinds of wild fish are you taking samples from?

 

[KMcAndre]

Pretty much everything, although now since we are nearing the last year of the grant we are focusing on more specific species that we may not have found during previous trips, or that we have found unique or new species of parasites in. The dime a dozen fish have been sampled pretty well already (White Bass, Buffalo, etc) so now we are trying to hone in on fish we have caught very few of (Pirate Perch and Top Minnows for example). My own thesis is comparing the parasite loads of Fundulus sp. (top minnows) both inside and outside of the Big Thicket Preserve in TX (more parasites = higher biodiversity due to multiple host lifecycles of many parasites). Some days are better than others we have spent 6 hours out on the water before with multiple 100 ft+ gill nets set and have caught nothing (and monofilament gill nets catch EVERYTHING).

 

[Linus_Cello]

Where are you at college? Sounds like TX.
You mentioned you had a few semesters to go. You may still be able to apply for this scholarship: udall.gov/OurPrograms/Scholarship/Scholarship.aspx
If you are somewhere else (like PA): wildlife.org/pennsylvania-chapter/awards-grants-scholarships/

 

[KMcAndre]

Believe it or not I am at a small college in Southeast Nebraska (grew up in Omaha)...Previous research our professor had conducted enabled him to be awarded a National Science Foundation grant towards the research.

When I say small, I mean less than 1500 students and it is an undergrad college only so very few research students. I initially came to this school to have a go at playing football again at the age of 25 and gave it up last spring, then stumbled upon the opportunity and have returned to my roots as a fish nerd

Here is a site with more info if on it if you are interested.

http://science.peru.edu/acanths/

 

[gerald]

Cool beans! Are you looking for protozoan parasites too, or mainly the macro-parasites? Find any mussel glochidia? As aquarists we usually think parasites = sick fish, but in nature nearly all healthy fish carry some parasites.

NANFA (North Amer Native Fishes Assoc) would love to have an article on your work for their publication American Currents. Also this year's NANFA convention will be in Broken Bow, OK June 4-7 2015, if you can make it.
http://forum.nanfa.org/index.php/topic/15002-2015-nanfa-convention-broken-bow-ok/

A misspelling on your warmouth photo ... should be gulosus, not gularis (your killifish-bias is showing).

Peru ... well that explains the Apisto connection.