Hi! I’m Burt!

Hi there! My name is Burt. I’m an African cichlid fish – Astatotilapia burtoni. It’s nice to meet you! You may not know this, but fish are kinda awesome. I decided to start a blog to talk about how great we are and tell you some cool biology facts about us. My friend Toni may occasionally help out too! Here’s a picture of us at the recent #SwimForScience event.

First, let me tell you a little about myself. Although I was raised in the Maruska lab in good ole Baton Rouge, LA, my ancestors are originally from Lake Tanganyika in eastern Africa. Back in the 1970s a group of researchers realized how awesome we were and decided to study us. Gradually my family spread out around the world. Now, some of us live in Austin, TX, Palo Alto, CA, Portland, OR, Baton Rouge, LA, College Park, MD, New York, NY, and even Europe! Using my family, researchers over the past 40 years have discovered some pretty cool stuff about fish sensory systems and how fish brains function during behaviors. Keep checking my blog to learn more about some of this awesome research.

Notice my bright colors? Not to brag or anything, but I’m colorful because I’m a dominant male. You see, I live in a social hierarchy. At any given time, only about 10% of the males are dominant and hold territories. Here’s a picture of me after I got my new home. This home is really important to me – it’s where I eat, hide from those crazy people with nets, and even where I bring the ladies (Toni loves my new home). But other males are constantly trying to take it away from me. Some people think I’m mean, but I’m just defending my home (more on that later).

Anyways, I gotta swim! Some jerk keeps swimming a little too close to my territory for comfort. Be sure to come back!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fish Have Feelings Too!

Image
Hey guys, Tyrone here! I’m feeling down lately because I’ve been dealing with bullying a lot, especially from Burt. So, I’ve been trying to figure out how I should act when he inevitably decides to be mean to me again. Fortunately, the scientists in the lab care about my behavior and want to figure out what makes a fish susceptible or resilient to bullies like Burt! To cheer myself up, today I want to tell you all about the fun way the scientists study my behavior after repeatedly being bullied in a resident-intruder experiment (if you don’t remember the details check out my previous blog posts about this!). The scientists start with videos of these experiments to quantify our behavior. They specifically want to see how the intruder (like me, Tyrone) reacts to aggression from the resident (like Burt). By using a cool program called BORIS (which stands for B ehavioral O bservation R esearch I nteractive S oftware) they are able to see just how often and for how long we display certa...
Read more

Immune System to the Rescue!

Image
Hey guys! It's Burt back again with another exciting post. Sorry it’s been a while! I’ve been busy taking care of Toni as she has been sick for the past few weeks. I hope you all have been able to stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surprisingly, we get sick just like humans, although our response to a pathogen is a bit different. You see, our immune systems are split into two types of responses; innate and adaptive. Innate immune responses are the body’s general immediate response to a pathogen, while the adaptive response works more slowly and is more specific. This means that adaptive immunity mounts responses that are specific to the type of pathogen attacking the body while the innate immune response generally fights pathogens the same way regardless of the type or class of pathogen threatening it. If we compare innate and adaptive immunity to COVID-19, the innate response would be similar to the first responders, like doctors and nurses that work extremely hard to trea...
Read more

Time Fries When You’re Growing Up!

Image
Hi everyone, Pia here! I’m a fry, which is just a fancy name for a baby fish. You might remember that my mom Toni is a mouthbrooder. That means she protects us fry in her mouth while we grow up! Before we get released from her mouth, we have yolk sacs that we use to feed ourselves and we don’t get to see or do too much – we just stay nice and protected inside mom’s mouth until we’re big enough to swim and eat on our own! Once we’re released, there’s SO much to do and see! We have to find our own food, communicate with other fish, and escape from predators back to the safety of mom’s mouth. Plus, there’s lots to see around our tank like our fancy clay pot shelters and the scientists when they come to visit! Because the environment is so different inside and outside our mom’s mouth, the scientists wanted to see which brain regions we use before and after we leave. They looked for a molecule in our brains called pS6 which tells them which neurons were “turned on” or “activated” while we w...
Read more