Refugees and rescue

Persecution has pushed them to the edge now it is time for the comeback. Or at least that might be the goal, eventually. The goodied family has through a series of unfortunate events had to turn to the refuges offered by ornamental aquarists in order to survive. They have to rely now on their benefactors such those benevolent humans from http://www.goodeids.com/, and large aquaria around the world.

My research is being supported and hosted by the St Andrews Aquarium, where they have two species of Goodied breeding successfully.

Introducing the Good guys

I will be developing my research project soon. Nothing finalised yet, but I will probably be working on the behavioural of at least two related species of fish from Mexico. All round nice guys, you can tell from their family name: Goodieds. Like all members of the family the species I will be working on are beset by problems. End of world type problems, the kind maybe we can relate with. Many of them them are already extinct in the wild. They survive as refugees, living on handouts, in aquaria around the world. Will these underdogs of the fish world ever recover from their many perils, and will they survive persecution by one of their greatest enemies?

If all things go well, I will be developing and conducting short behavioural research program asking the question: are juvenile goodieds influenced by invasive alien species, the enemy. Diminutive and pretty, the guppy is nothing less than devastating, they are a legion and their weapon is aggressive sexual behaviour.

I intend to update the blog with updates as per the progress of the research and maybe reveal some of the fascinating, yes fascinating dammit, drama in the lives of the goodeid family as it struggles for existence in an increasingly hostile world.

Should provide some creative release for all the papers I will have to read...

Crocs!

My new profile pic is only temporary. But, I had to stick something new in to replace the Nano Logo. I failed to win Nano, but next year...

This particular picture is an appropriate replacement for several reasons. One of the projects I am working on is the crocodile survey portal*. And as there is no budget to charge regular office hours to I will therefore be working on it in my free time ( A.K.A. my writing time) I feel justified in mentioning it on my personal blog.
The data for the portal was collected as part of Daniela's masters dissertation, and will be up on the web in a few short weeks. The picture, to come around full circle, is the work of Marco- Daniela's other half and great eco and scoio-politically concious artist. Marco was also the man behind the latest Paddington Bear excursion through london.


And while still on the subject of crocs- one of the evenings when I should have been writing I saw a preview showing of
A documentary on the plight of the gharial". A very well produced little documentary, but really depressing - film showing just how precarious life can be for other species sharing the planet with us humans.

Watch it here And please do watch it. Awareness, people, it really is the first step and not to be underestimated.

*The name has not been signed off yet.

Non NaNoWriMo writing

Well not exactly NaNo word count but I finally managed to submit an 'article' to Associated Content. It is an on-line publisher of, well pretty much anything really.
And for Americans at least they pay small amounts for each article that their user base churns out. Sadly living in England I am unable to earn up front payments for content I submit. There is one way non US submitters can earn money: by being popular – you could earn an amazing $1.50 per thousand views. So yeah not exactly a get rich quick scheme and I don’t even foresee getting that lofty target of not quite enough for a coffee, but if you want to read my badly framed argument for aquaria as a way to instil awareness and basic concepts of ecology (or if you just want to help me avoid getting RSI by logging some of those 1000 clicks for me) then:

May I present:
Aquaria as an Introduction to Nature