I walked into the fishroom and found Ellie* looking a little upset. She'd been returning some fish to their tanks after a photo session.

"Um. I think I lost a fish," she said, sounding quite nervous.

From some people, a statement like that might send me into a rage, but not from Ellie. She's compassionate, and her appreciation of out little finned ( Read more... )

As promised.

Lungfish eating is disgusting.

Lungfish don't have true stomachs.  They have a spiral valve instead, which increases the area of absorptive surface in lieu of having a "real" stomach.  To help start the digestive process because of this, lungfish take a food item, chew it, spit it out very chewily, suck it in and chew, spit it out, suck ( Read more... )

Boss got back from Zimbabwe last Tuesday. When I walked into the lab, my first reaction was to think, "Yay! Boss is back!", but before I could finish the thought, I saw the fish box he was unloading, and darted over, ignoring Boss unintentionally, and thought, "Yay! New fish!". No sooner had I finished that thought when I heard Boss say the ( Read more... )

Gah.

I just squirted a liter of water straight down my tank top and into my bra.

At least the fish room is a nice, constant 26 C.

And at least it wasn't dirty fish tank water.

Silver linings, right?

We have an F2 from wild embryo prepared for hatching. Well, several, actually. But one is special.

It contains two perfect little fishes, in one single egg!

I've hoped to see this happen.

I can't help it, I've named them Gemini.

Photos soon.

This morning, my freezer and fridge malfunctioned. I wouldn't have noticed had it not been for the unfortunate fact that I left road trip provisions on the counter overnight. When I went to put them in the fridge, the fridge was barely cold, and the freezer was nonfunctional. Long story short, it's working now. Then I got to work....

Stanford's ( Read more... )

Sounds like the whole trip might get called off. There's lots of discouragement about bringing fish, eggs, even dirt out of Zimbabwe in any way. Hell, there's apparently concern wether one can get one's SELF out of Zimbabwe safely. Boss sounds a little concerned, even. Sigh.

I won't get to go, almost for sure. I can't feel comfortable leaving ( Read more... )

We have had a HUGE success at work today. And I did it!!

I am SO stoked. This little piece of success is a very, very big deal. The whole lab is excited. We have so many ways we can go now.... Oh ye gods, this is so wonderful!!!!

GLEEEEEEEEEEEEE ( Read more... )

Today I began genomic DNA extraction of five fish which we will use to determine if the transgenesis I have been trying to achieve has been successful ( Read more... )