Having been a 'lurker' awhile on the site, and finally joined in order to throw my spanner into the works (many thanks for the positive comments Mark, Fuzzy) I thought I should introduce myself. Other people have websites to do this bit (lovely site, Mark). Of course, it would have been more polite to do this the other way around...
I'm only relatively recently a fish person. I studied animal physiology and nutrition at university, took a break to work in various places (racehorses, zoos, kennels) then went back for a Master's in wildlife management (specialising in reptiles), worked in southern Europe a bit, had a motorbike accident and spent 2 years herding computers while I recovered, and am now writing a PhD in community ecology of tropical birds. I keep a pair of boa constrictors and some other small snakes, and have been running an acid (pH 6.6 - 6.
community tank several months now (M. ramirezi, B. splendens, and a couple of shoals of tetras). The fish hobby grew from my love of complex systems (nutrient cycling, shoaling behaviour, social interactions, you name it, it's all going on in there!).
When I'm not working or playing at home I ride my bike (Honda FireBlade), go to race meetings during the European season, and often spend weekends catching birds in various places around Wales and the Midlands in other people's research projects. It's not work if it's someone else's project! I don't own a TV so I also read, paint, make historical costumes and sundry other things.
I'd like to say thanks to the owners, administrators and contributors of this site: it's a great source of information, discussion and informed opinions (which is what the Internet is for, after all!), has been hugely interesting and valuable to me and long may it continue!
