Pinned Post!
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!
I’m always down to talk about fish, but I can be hit or miss with responses. School keeps me very busy and I have a chronic illness that causes me to fall behind on everything in life with little notice. Apologies if I fail to respond to something you’ve sent! Feel free to give me an extra nudge if it’s been awhile and you’d like a response. I respond best to direct @’s on posts, for whatever reason.














