My PI Dr. Ron Coleman (as in Principal Investigator and head of the lab I'm working in, not Private Investigator haha) discusses some of my favorite, and coincidentally most unique, fishes in the lab - two species of Crater Lake Cichlids (Stomatepia pindu and Pungu maclareni). I have to hello to the pindu every day - they are so beautifully and completely jet black and have the funniest mouths. Dr. Coleman's colony is at least 10 years old and going strong! Learn more about the lab's research at his Cichlid Research website.

I came to Philadelphia this weekend to interview for the Knowles Science Teaching Fellowship. I decided to come a day early so that I could hang out with Mark Denaro, an amazing hobbyist turned business fish person who is the current president of the Labyrinth Fish Association and past president of the International Betta Congress! He has extensive experience in almost every kind of fish adventure - in fact, he has me convinced that I need to try salt water some time in the near future :)

Mark picked me up at the airport and proceeded to whisk me around Philadelphia. I ate an AMAZING Nick's roast beef sandwich (with broccoli rabe and italian hot peppers), fresh-baked Terminis canolis, and also visited Mark's Natural Pet aquarium store and Reef to Rift. We ended the night by checking out the Buck's Aquarium Society, where I met up with some awesome fish hobbyists (some who recognized me!) and came away with some awesome Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazines!

Had another great livestream with Joep today! We discussed "treat" (trait) selection in selective breeding. We covered our thought processes for selecting fish to breed and also quite a lot of betta genetics!

Joep and I are teaming up to start a new YouTube livestream series on Selective Betta Breeding! Our first livestream focused on "How to Make a Line". Subscribe to my YouTube channel so you don't miss our next one! We love getting questions from our audience :)

Also don't forget to check out Joep's website at www.bettaterritory.nl!

Jackie and I started a new livestream series based on the best possible topic - hanging out and talking bettas! Check out our first livestream below :)

Also don't forget to check out Jackie's Youtube channel, Moon River Bettas! I'm trying to get her to post more content ;) The YouTube fish community is great!

I had SO much fun livestreaming that I decided to do it again the next day. I really can't make this a habit! It's just too addicting!

Anyways, I do want to start "Q&A Demonstrations" - that is, in the livestream I will be doing something, and then people in the chat can ask questions and I will answer them as I get to them. I again had technical issues (skip to 12:00 minutes in lol) but otherwise I thought it went well. It was really fun to share some of my fish room doodling with other fish addicts on a Saturday afternoon :)

Second half of the lovely interview with Cory from Aquarium Co-op! We talk about salt and tannins in the water, minimum tank size, sexing young Bettas, keeping groups of Bettas, etc, etc. :) I highly recommend subscribing to Cory's YouTube Channel - I love putting it on autoplay while doing water changes or tinkering around with my fish. I've learned so much and always get new ideas! My other favorite channel is Rachel O'Leary's YouTube Channel, which focuses on nano fish :)

I always love going home to Seattle :) I was able to visit my family a couple weekends ago and had a great time.

One of my good fish friends, Cory from Aquarium Co-op, absolutely grilled me during an interview on his Aquarium Co-op YouTube channel. It was awesome!! You can view the video below :D Can't wait to go for round two!

I'm also really excited - I was able to get a small group of Parasphromenus tweediei from Lawrence K. I'm really excited to try a new species and to contribute to their conservation. They are still small, but I'm looking forward to being a part of the Parosphromenus Project! Wish me luck with this delicate species >,< I'm also looking forward to getting a pair of P. linkei in the near future...

I'm SO excited to give a talk at the Greater Seattle Aquarium Society on Tuesday,  January 12! Kathy Olson has been an amazing contact for the society and I feel so well taken cared of. I am really looking forward to meeting the society members. I will be giving a introductory talk on Bettas ("The Wonderful World of Bettas") and will be covering everything from general husbandry, the local and international organizations and standards for the shows, and my experience with rubra and burdigala. I'm going with the shotgun approach and hoping that it's not too much info!