Summer Systematics Institute at California Academy of Sciences

I have applied for entry to the California Academy’s Summer Systematic Institute internship. Hopefully, I will be able to do some taxonomical and phylogenetic work on fish at the museum.

Elephant Seals at Ano Nuevo State Park

A few weeks ago my animal behavior class had a class field trip to Ano Nuevo State Park to look at the elephant seals there. Around December-February the elephant seals come to the Ano Nuevo beaches to give birth to there pups and to also breed for the next year. There were tons of seals on the beaches and they were large. Here is some video and photos from the trip. The voices in the video are a mix of our guides as well as elephant seal vocalizations, which are rather loud.

A beautiful sunny California day to look at Elephant Seals

A group of elephant seals doing their thing on the beach

Mommy elephant seal and her pup

This male elephant seal wasn't large enough to hold a territory, so he's just lounging around by himself

Not all seal pups make it. This little guy became a coyote meal.

In the videos below, you’ll see all the elephant seals are throwing sand on themselves. They do this when it is hot out as they get very warm because of their large amounts of blubber. It’s not known if it cools them down or if it is done to prevent a sun burn. The videos are pretty bad quality and I apologize for that. They were taken on my phone.

A Visit To Lew Carbone’s Fishroom

Lew Carbone is an active member of the Ohio Cichlid Association. Lew offered to have me over to see his fish in August when I spoke to the OCA. Lew’s collection of cichlids is quite diverse with about every category of cichlid.

The first fish I noticed in Lew’s fishroom were a breeding pair of Parachromis friedrichsthalii “La Caeiba” guarding a huge cloud of fry. It was quite a site and one of the nicest pairs of Central American cichlids I’ve seen in a long time.

Parachromis friedrichsthalii "La Ceiba" guarding fry

Parachromis friedrichsthalii "La Ceiba" male guarding fry

My favorite fish Lew had though was his fantastic pair of Nandopsis tetracanthus, the Cuban cichlid. Sadly, my photo does not do his fish justice.

Nandopsis tetracanthus, the nicest one I've ever seen

Lew also keeps a fair number of Victorians. One of my favorites is the polymorphic Neochromis omnicaeruleus. The Paralabidochromis chromogynos Lew had were the nicest I’ve seen and had unbelievable colors. Again, my photography fails to show how pretty this fish was.

Neochromis omnicaeruleus OB female

Neochromis omnicaeruleus male

Paralabidochromis chromogynos

Astatotilapia sp. "tomato" aka sp. "35"

Lew also had many more cichlids. One of my favorite fish ever, Petenia splendida Lew was growing out.

Petenia splendida juvenile

Tilapia mariae

Placidochromis johnstonii male

I’d like to thank Lew Carbone for having me over to his fishroom for a tour.

Visit To Wayne Toven’s Fishroom

Wayne Tovenis a longtime member of the Greater Akron Aquarium Society and is the. Wayne has played with various fish over the years and has a fishroom full of diverse fish. Wayne Has a little bit of everything in his fishroom, from labyrinth fish, cichlids, livebearers, eels, loaches, gobies, and more.

Dave had quite the collection of labyrinth fish. I’ve never seen so many Ctenopoma in my life!

Betta rutilans

Betta bellica

 

Betta falx

 

Betta unimaculata

 

Microctenopoma ansorgii

 

Ctenopoma kingsleyi

One of Wayne's monster Leopard Ctenopoma. This thing was 8-9"!

 

Ctenopoma occelatum

 

Microctenopoma fasciolatum

Wayne had some neat livebearers!

Brachyraphis rosen, the Cardinal Bishop. A poor photo of a fantastic fish.

Heterandria formosa "gold"

 

Leopard Goodeid

 

Xenotoca variata

Catfish were abundant in Wayne’s fishroom.

Brochis splendens

 

Corydoras ehrhardti

 

Corydoras napoensis

 

Corydoras sterbai

 

Electric Catfish

 

Panaque nigrolineatus

 

Synodontis decora

 

Synodontis euptera

Cichlids were common residents of Wayne’s tanks.

Pelmatochromis buettikoferi, a very cool uncommon cichlid.

 

Ptychochromis sp. "northern red fin"

 

Jack Dempsey

 

Neolamprologus marunguensis

 

Neolamprologus falcicula

Wayne loves loaches.

Botia almorhae

 

Botia sidthumunki

 

Tiger Loach

To add to the diversity of Wayne’s fishroom:

Melanotaenia lacustris

 

A large Polypterus senegalus

 

One of the many monster tinfoil barbs Wayne keeps

A big thanks to Wayne for giving me a tour to his fishroom!

The Least Killifish (Heterandria formosa): A great little fish that isn’t a killifish!

Heterandria formosa is a nice little fish native to the Southeast United States. The common name for this petite fish is the Least Killifish, but this is somewhat of a misnomer. The Least Killifish is…well…not a killifish. It is in fact a livebearer in the family poecilidae, the family that mollies and swordtails are members of. Why this fish is called the Least Killifish when it is in fact not one, I don’t know. Heterandria formosa is an attractive fish with nice olive coloration and a red dorsal fin. Some Carolina populations are known to throw amelanistic morphs known as sometimes sold as Heterandria formosa “Gold”.

Pregnant Female Heterandria formosa. This is a very easy livebearer to keep and breed.

Heterandria formosa is very diminutive and is the smallest known livebearing species in the world. A large female would be slightly over an inch while large males are around 3/4″ in length. This makes this a great fish for nano aquariums. I keep mine in a 5 gallon tank with Red Cherry Shrimp and Tylomelania snails, both of which they get along with perfectly. While the Heterandria formosa may pick off some baby Red Cherry Shrimp, I still get new shrimplets all the time.

Heterandria formosa is a very easy fish to breed. Males can be differentiated from females by the presence of a gonopodium, a skinny and elongate modified anal fin used for reproduction. Males also stay smaller than females on average.

Heterandria formosa male. This species is easy to sex as males have a distinct modified anal fin, a gonopodium.

Heterandria formosa has an interesting breeding strategy in that it is superfetation. This is where the female is nurturing more than one fetus at a time, but the fetuses are at different stages of development. This results in females giving birth to 1-2 fry every few days. The gestation period for this fish is about 4 weeks.  The fry are extremely small, only a bout 3-4 millimeters in length. They can eat baby brine shrimp right away and grow quickly. The parents generally will not eat their fry, but it is still advised to keep plants in the tank as refuge for the young. I personally like to use Java Moss as the adults won’t swim into it but the fry will.

Tylomelania gemmifera “Yellow Antenna” Baby!

Got my first baby from my group of Tylomelania gemmifera “Yellow Antenna”. This is a very attractive snail species from the island of  Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is endemic to Lake Matano. Although it is a rather inactive species compared to some of the other Tylomelania, they are quite attractive. The shell is black with a white tip usually from corrosion and the foot is black, usually with yellow spots. This species has yellow antenna and yellow lips.

Tylomelania gemmifer has a very attractive black shell with some gray at the tip

This Yellow Antenna Snail is climbing up the glass. You can see the yellow lips this snail has.

It's pretty obvious why this is called the Yellow Antenna Snail

The babies are identical copies of mom and dad. Like all other Tylomelania snails, they are viviparous. vivipary is where the egg is nurtured inside the mother within a brood pouch. Once the baby is fully formed, the female lays the egg and a fully formed, functioning baby is born. Newborn Tylomelania gemmifera are about 1/3″ in length when born.

Newborn baby Tylomelania gemmifera are identical to the adults when born. This guy is about 1/3" long.

Presenting Poster at Natural Science and Mathematics Undergraduate Research Reception

I’m presenting a poster on my research at the NSM Undergraduate Research Reception Tonight at Sacramento State University. I get to explain and present my research on phylogenetics and ontogeny of cichlids.