Me? I'm 52, been keeping fish most of my life. I like the little freshwater guys - fishes, snails, shrimps, frogs, turtles, had a couple of tiny clams once. Had some hydra once but you can bet that was not on purpose. Plants? You bet.

Through the years I've accumulated the magazines Tropical Fish Hobbyist, Freshwater and Marine Aquariums, Aquarium Fish magazine, Anabus (early Labyrinth enthusiasts newsletter) - and some newsletters from NANFA (native fish), the Apistogram, the Amerian Livebearers Assn newsletter.

This reflects my favorite fish - wild livebearers, Apristos and other Dwarf Cichlids, native fish and so on. I really like just about any tiny (less than 3 inches) fish.

After all the years of work with fish, I think it is time to turn toward Species Maintenance programs. I lost so many fish a few years ago when I moved to Topeka. Then I got hit with an ice storm that cut my power for 3 days and nights. I got all my little parrots through the cold but the fish did not make it.

I work the average 40 hour Monday to Friday week as a Medical Librarian at the local Veterans Hospital. I enjoy research - my end of the job involves looking for sources of information.

Uniquaria gives me a great reason to practice searching the Internet for information.... and fish stuff is always more interesting than livers or clinical guidelines. :-)

And I do love to talk fish. My interests always involve behavior. I am clueless when it comes to any equipment more hi-tech than a sponge filter.

I also like to goof around with murder mysteries (books I mean) antiquing, I'm dabbling in genealogy, gardening, playing cards and traveling. I have a few small parrots and a couple of sweet little lap dogs.

I never have enough free time (who does?) and I probably will never go on a collecting trip down the Amazon. Not even sure I still want to - it's humid down there! A marine tank or 2 (with seahorses and/or pipefish and shrimps) is still on my to do list. I want to play with freshwater inverts - shrimps... snails and stuff.

I just learned that Missouri has a native crawdad that gets no larger than 2 inches. This I gotta see.