The Ichthyology Collection

We have 150 gallons of fish living space in 5 tanks.  Neon tetras dart and algae shrimp clean in Ev's big tank.

In Clem's tank corydoras, upside down and glass catfish lurk beneath rocks and dangle in the plants under the watchful eye of a nine inch long plecostomus.
Clementine mapped the origins of all her catfish: tropical freshwater rivers from the Amazon to Indonesia.

Clem discovered upside down catfish at the California Academy of Sciences aquarium. It is a terrific aquarium and my only gripe is how little information is on display. Lots of cool fish, very little about them. We jumped at a chance to go behind the scenes and meet researchers studying seahorses. Little did we know we'd also get a glimpse at the Ichthyology Collection.

We were introduced to David Catania, Manager of the Ichthyology Collection, who led us through security doors to a concrete room filled with rolling stacks. When we came to the gap in the stacks this is what we saw.

Row upon row of dead fish in jars.

Heaven.




I just love the variety of jars, some from the 1800s.


Almost a quarter of a million jars in this library.

This is a circulating collection.  Researchers can request the loan of a pickled fish and the fish librarian will pull it out of its jar, wrap it in gauze, plunk it in a ziploc and mail it across the world.

David Catania opened up a number of jars and pulled out fish for us to look at.  Some highlights.

Stained to show muscle and bone.

An anglerfish.

Our guide took a look at this and said, "Whose going to be that for Halloween?"
Clem said, "I already have been!"

On the belly of this female Triplewart Seadevil is her mate (between thumb and forefinger).

He attached himself to her and now he's just a hanger on.

A remora.

Flashlight fish.  You can see small live ones in the aquarium.

That light-colored thing is the fish's flashlight.  It glows all the time but pops into a cheek pocket to "turn off."

I love this pic.  Poor guy can barely fit in his jar.

Very strange relative of the seahorse.

 Every family has a strange relative, right?

On their best behavior.

The Icthyology Collection gave me an idea.  I could turn a negative into a positive!  One of the downsides of keeping pet fish is that they die with depressing frequency.  But what if we began an ichthyology collection?

The very morning after our tour one of Clem's corydoras catfish turned up dead.  I scooped him up and stuck him in a jar that was already home to platy eyeballs.  Then I remembered Evelyn's hatchet fish in the freezer.  We were hoping to "return" them, since they died of ich and shared it with all their new friends, but we never got around to it.

So here it is.  The beginning of our very own ichthyology collection.  I surely hope we aren't such poor fish custodians that we end up with a quarter of a million jars like the California Academy.  But I take pride that one of the jars actually came from the Academy.  The one on the right.  No, we didn't steal it from the collection.  We got it at the cafe.  Before the hatchet fish it held some really delicious Scharffenberger chocolate pudding.

I'd like to say that the girls share my enthusiasm, but they think it is disgusting.  Can you blame them when these were once their beloved pets?