My Guest Blog Essay about Rainbowfish

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As you might remember, I have been busily writing guest blog articles (and an article for my column in a print magazine published by the Avicultural Society of America), but one of my "guest blog" essays has just been published for all to read at The Reef Tank. Here is a link to the completed essay, an edited version will be republished here in its entirety in one month (now that I see it published, I wanted to change a few things to make it read better, so those changes have been made to the version I have scheduled to publish here later).

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tags: guest blog essay, fishkeeping, aquariums, Celebes Rainbowfish, Celebes Sailfish, Telmatherina ladigesi, pets Adult male Celebes Rainbowfish (also known as a Celebes Sailfish), Telmatherina ladigesi. Image: Orphaned. Please contact me so I can award proper attribution. [larger view]. As…
Image: Orphaned. Contact me so I can provide proper attribution. I am still catching up with myself and all my commitments -- amazing how these things happen when you work for free, isn't it? Below the fold is the list of what I've been working on, and the progress I've made; putting the…
Image: Orphaned. Contact me so I can provide proper attribution. Despite the fact that I am experiencing my typical "post-conference blues", I have managed to remain productive, although this is a minute-by-minute battle. (Hanging out with all my cool and fun peeps reminds me of how lonely and…
tags: announcement, scienceblogs, Movable Type 4.0, MT4.0 This blog, along with all the other blogs hosted at ScienceBlogs, will be un-edit-able starting at 1300 today, and extending into the future for at least 36 hours (Saturday night). This means that, even though you can see and read blog…

Thanks a lot for sharing the information about Rainbowfish. The article was very well-written and interesting! Rainbowfish aren't fish that I've ever considered keeping, but I'll think about it in the future.

And I got to learn about a new blog, The Reef Tank, which is full of great information!

It was a great essay. I did not know that you also kept fish GrrlScientist. I kept fish as a kid and loved it, but for many reasons I no longer do it.

Although my major aquarist and professional interest is killifishes, I have kept and bred several rainbow species, including Celebes rainbows. A good friend served several terms as president of the Rainbow Society. I got species from him, as well as from other sources. I spawned them in mops and picked the eggs. I tried incubating eggs on damp peat moss (don't recall which species) and had good results.

An amusing story. When I was working on my PhD, I had a tank of rainbows which received morning sun. I would get up early and make instant coffee, using a cheap local brand. I would sit and drink several cups of this coffee while watching my rainbows spawn. I had a party and served this coffee. While cleaning up, I found many barely touched cups of coffee. The next morning, I paid attention to my coffee. It was just awful. Needless to say, I switched brands.

By Jim Thomerson (not verified) on 25 Jan 2009 #permalink

heather -- i am happy to help spread the word about fun and interesting sites that you might not otherwise run across.

JPS -- i also miss my huge aquariums of fishes, but alas, i live on the fourth floor of my building and even though it is an old (WWII) construction, i am not sure that the floor is strong enough to hold the thouands of pounds of water, gravel, pumps, filters and whatnot that a properly kept group of large aquariums would require. also, my pocketbook could not support aquariums, either. :(

jim -- i've got a huge crush on the killifishes and have always wanted to keep them -- they must be absolutely fascinating to work with! do you study them professionally? and i can completely relate to your coffee story!

Yes, the majority of my publications have been on killifish. I've been involved in description of @ twenty South American species and a couple of genera. Also some papers on Fundulus, and junior authored a book on Belize fishes. I'm a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the American Killlifish Association. My real first name is Jamie, should you care to do some googling.

By Jim Thomerson (not verified) on 31 Jan 2009 #permalink