So often we talk about a fish species. But what is a species. What defines it, why they sometimes are changed after years of study and other questions will be answered. Our speaker is Eric Thomas and here is the story:
When is a Species Not a Species?
An explanation of how new species are named and described scientifically, and coverage of various informal hobby naming systems (including L-, C-, D- and A- numbers) for organizing
undescribed species.
Bio for Eric:
Eric Thomas started keeping fish around 1970, at about 8 years old. With his older brother Bill, Eric kept and bred mouth-brooding cichlids (Geophagus and several Lake Malawi mbuna including Labeotropheus trewavasae, Maylandia zebra and Melanochromis auratus), along with Steatocraneus casuarius... and
convict cichlids (who doesn’t start with convicts?). Eric and Bill were members of the now-defunct Tri- City Aquarium Society of Southern California.
In college, Eric studied captive husbandry of vertebrates;
with his mentor Professor Rudolfo Ruibal at UC Riverside, in 1978 Eric was the first person to breed the Budgett's frog lepidobatrachus laevis in captivity. In Dr. Ruibal’s lab, Eric learned about and began studying skin glands and their function. Eric went on to earn a Ph.D. under Dr. Paul Licht at UC Berkeley,
studying reproductive endocrinology and the influence of sex hormones on frog skin glands. Currently, Eric is an associate professor of Biology, co-chair and director of graduate studies for the Biological Sciences Department at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Eric’s research is split between
reproductive pheromone production Hymenochirus frogs and self-poisoning in Corydoras catfishes, and recently he’s started studying Microglanis bumblebee catfishes in Peru.
At home, Eric’s interests are keeping and breeding catfish, primarily Corydoras, Loricariids, Auchenipterids, and most recently keeping Microglanis. Between home and work, Eric runs up to 27
aquaria and currently has over 40 species of catfish. Socially, Eric operates a YouTube Channel (Bekateen) and FaceBook page (Bekateen’s FishRoom) for sharing his knowledge and experiences with fellow fish keepers; he is also the program coordinator for the Sacramento Aquarium Society and a moderator on PlanetCatfish.com.
Event Venue
3039 Meridian Avenue, San Jose, CA, United States, California 95124
