Aquarium Hobbyist turned Systematic Ichthyologist

Hi!

I’m Angela, though I go by “Narelle” in most spaces online. Feel free to call me by either one.

I’m 32 and use she/her.

This is technically my personal/art blog, but over the course of my time on tumblr, more and more of my life has begun to revolve around fish and science, so that’s most of what I blog about nowadays. I am a systematic ichthyologist and aquarium hobbyist. My favorite broad groups are the catfishes (Siluriformes) and Southeast Asian freshwater fishes. More specifically, I absolutely love Bagrid catfishes and keep a very small collection of them.

As a scientist, my research interests are focused on understanding phylogenetic relationships among the Siluriformes, investigating common morphological adaptations to extreme acidity in fishes and how those adapations are distributed across the phylogeny, and taxonomic description of new species.

For context, since it comes up a lot in my posts, my background:

I was previously a full-time professional aquarist at a small public aquarium, where I was responsible for the care of the park’s elasmobranchs, bony fishes, invertebrates, herpetofauna, and pelicans. Most of my time was spent with those first three, especially the elasmobranchs.

I have a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, in the Fisheries option. This degree was the first step in switching career paths from being an aquarist to becoming a researcher.

I recently defended my M.S. student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, studying systematic ichthyology.

As of Fall 2024, I've started in a new PhD program. I am studying my favorite fishes and the topics that most excite me!

In January, Emily Graslie of The Brain Scoop was the plenary speaker at a collections themed breakout meeting of one of my professional societies that was hosted here at my institution. She talked about her backstory and start in museum collections and how that grew into her career in science communications.

But she got her start here on tumblr! Posting specimen pics! Absolutely wild. I checked, I unfortunately was not following her back in the day and she's taken down her original tumblr content. But I followed so many blogs like that back when I was active here. I wonder how many are in this museum collections sphere I work in now?

But its made me feel nostalgic for the tumblr days. Perhaps I'll go back to occasionally yelling into the void here like I used to. Will probably clean some stuff up if I do, though. It is my nightmare that professional connections would find this space full of oversharing about my medical struggles and arguing about controversial fish opinions.

But before I potentially scrub all that stuff, for my old tumblr friends, health update:

But its made me feel nostalgic for the tumblr days. Perhaps I'll go back to occasionally yelling into the void here like I used to. Will probably clean some stuff up if I do, though. It is my nightmare that professional connections would find this space full of oversharing about my medical struggles and arguing about controversial fish opinions.

But before I potentially scrub all that stuff, for my old tumblr friends, health update:

Those that know me will remember this as an event I attend regularly. It's held every two years. Last year was the last time the original club in the DC area was willing to host it (2022 was their 9th one), but the Tropical Fish Club of Burlington agreed to take it on this year to keep the tradition alive. (They only agreed to take on for just this year, but it sounds like someone will continue it again in 2026.)

It was great to see familiar faces again and meet new ones. I really love talking to hardcore hobbyists, especially catfish people. Compared to the scientific conferences I'm going to nowadays, hobby conventions really just hit different. A scientific conference is still a work event, so networking and appearances are still a big deal even if the people are chill. A hobby convention is just pure unbridled love of the fishes and the hobby as a whole. Catfish hobbyists, more than anyone else, really are my people.

TFCB did a great job with their first Catcon. My only major complaint is the same one I always have: It was too short! I wish I had another day or two to hang out with my cool fish people.

I'll have to read up and do a longer writeup with full citations sometime, after things settle down. If I remember. ^^;;

Anyways, in the mean time:

So anyways let me tell you about my dumb clown son.

This is Pascal:

I've found a love for medival clown fashion design? Pascal likes to sew and designs his own costumes so I get to draw lots of fun clothes for him. He makes them all kind of modular so he can mix and match pieces and be dressed differently every day.

Here's some more of his outfits. This one was party wear, for a masquerade:

We recently got winter gear which he dismantled and turned into clowny stuff, so here's his winter outfit:

I forgot his necklace and didn't color the earring in the winter one, but I was slapping this together in a rush to be able to show my party what I did with the nice practical warm weather gear they bought for me. ^^;;

Odds are low my party will ever see this, but just in case - MASSIVE SPOILERS below the cut! Pascal's got hella secrets!

But its got me wondering about the biggest modern conservation blunders? Anyone know any they can share?

I need to get my proposal formally submitted by next week, then be done with the whole actual thesis by the end of the month. Defend early June. Conference mid July. Move before the end of summer?? Start the new PhD late August?

I just finished the proposal, other than any last minute revisions I need to make after my committee reviews it, so that's one thing done. But I'm still actively collecting data and adding more specimens?? So much work left to do. 💀 So little time.

My PI that I am doing the MS with is excellent, a fantastic mentor. I'm really happy to have gotten to work with her. She was exactly who I needed coming out of that bad situation.

If all goes well, I should be defending my MS thesis early this summer. Afterwards I'm scheduled to attend a conference and present on the same project.

I have been accepted to a new PhD program starting Fall 2024, so I'll also be moving again this summer. The PI I will be working with there is great. I think this time I'll have both a good research fit and a good mentorship fit. We already planned my dissertation chpaters out during recruitment (this usually happens over the course of your first year of the program so big deal that we knocked it out before even being officially admitted) and discussed making trips to Southeast Asia to sample fishes!

My MS was a detour into American Poeciliids, but I will be back to catfishes and Southeast Asian freshwater fishes when I start PhD take 2. I'm super excited!!

I need access to an article that's locked behind a membership to Killi-Data. I'm hoping to find someone that already has access so I don't have to join.

Here's the one I need:

Huber, J. H. 2019 (31 Aug.) A nomenclatural and systematic analysis of livebearing Cyprinodontiformes (Acanthopterygii: Anablepsinae, Goodeinae, Poeciliidae). Killi-Data Series 2019: 4-155.

[Link]

(All I actually need is the bit on the Poeciliidae.)