Relax

Day 13 June 4 – Relax

Today was wonderful; woke up late, no plans, just relax. I finally updated the blog today, the only internet connection is a USB cell phone connection. While very convenient it is also slow.

In the afternoon I went across the street to the catfish farm and repeated the process of artificial spawning. Then we cut off their heads, dug in their brains and pulled out their pituitary gland. I think I could do the process myself now! I was also assigned the following task. After a few hours replace the acetone the pituitary glands are in, repeat after another 12 hours, then dry for 2 hours, then refrigerate

I learned about this a while ago but just realized I never talked about it. I don't know exactly, but about one in a thousand catfish are called jumpers. Jumpers are catfish that grow dramatically larger, faster than others their age. They grow so much faster than their brothers and sisters that they end up eating them. This is a problem because every fish that dies is money down the drain. So every few days they catch all the jumpers and move them to a new tank with the other jumpers, jumpers don't eat jumpers. They have to do this every few days because "jumping" is a social, not genetic, trigger. Think of it like a wolf Alpha male, if one is removed another will always take its place. So when the 1st group of jumpers are removed other begin to grow more quickly.

At sunset I took the daily tour – check of the farm with Dr. Ishmail. We checked the fish and shot at some metal fish feeders with his S&W 9mm, with the added benefit of scaring away the wild dogs that steal fish.

The catfish in my hand are the same age and have been raised in the exact same conditions.