[RML] not another intro again ?

richard.mleczko at cit.act.edu.au
Fri, 24 Jan 97 16:09:48 EST

Ok, it's my turn.

In comparison with many other members on this list I probably had a
very deprived childhood - we didn't have an aquarium ! We kept dogs
and budgies. I didn't become an aquarist until about 1994 when my
girlfriend (now wife) bought me a small aquarium for Xmas after we saw
mudskippers at the National Aquarium in Canberra. It was about a year
later that I actually bought some mudskippers. I started off with some
fish that I caught near Batemans Bay NSW. They were eastern jumping
blennies that I caught in a rock-pool. They lived for about 6 months.

I was born in Wangaratta, Victoria in 1962, but grew up mostly in
Geelong, Victoria. I have also lived in Germany and the Northern
Territory (Groote Eylandt). I did my BSc and MSc at Deakin University
in Geelong and got a job with the CSIRO, Division of Atmospheric
Research, in Melbourne. When my contract was up I moved to Canberra in
1991 to work on a seismic research vessel with the Australian
Geological Survey Organisation. When I got sick of travelling all over
Australia (and McQuarrie Is.) I quit and got a job with the CSIRO
Centre for Environmental Mechanics in Canberra. When that contract was
up I got a teaching position with the Canberra Institute of
Technology, where I am presently.

To find out more about the hobby I started looking on the internet,
and found news-groups like "rec.aquaria", "alt.aquaria" and
"sci.aquaria". They had almost nothing about brackish aquaria so I
joined the "brackish mailing list". This is where I first came across
Dr. Bruce. Not long afterwards Andrew Boyd invited me to join the RML.
Last year I joined ANGFA ACT.

My current interests include :

catching gobies in brackish areas,
writing web pages (on gobies) for the internet,
photographing my gobies (for the internet),
creating a computer-controlled tidal aquarium,
doing a literature search on mudskippers (for the internet),
I have found dozens of papers already.

I you are interested in gobies have a look at my web site at :

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~thebobo/goby.htm

Anyway, thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Richard Mleczko.