Eric Thomas at the Milwaukee Aquarium Society
Schedule
Fri, 15 May, 2026 at 07:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South | Greendale, WI
Eric will be giving the presentation, Killer Aquariums! Microbial infections lurking in fish tanks.Most aquarists spend a lot of time with their hands immersed in their tanks. Several disease-causing bacteria live
in aquaria and they present a significant health risk to humans. This talk introduces the bacteria, the diseases and
the stories of patients who’ve struggled, sometimes for years, to find answers and get effective medical care.
Biography:
Eric Thomas started keeping fish around 1970, at about 8 years old with his older brother Bill. From 1970-1978, they
kept and bred mouth-brooding cichlids (Geophagus and several Lake Malawi mbuna including Labeotropheus
trewavasae, Maylandia zebra and Melanochromis auratus), along with Steatocraneus casuarius and convict cichlids
(who doesn’t start with convicts?). Eric and Bill were members of the now-defunct Tri-City Aquarium Society of Southern
California. In college, Eric studied captive husbandry of vertebrates; with his mentor Professor Rudolfo Ruibal at the
University of California, Riverside, in 1978 Eric was the first person to breed the Budgett's frog Lepidobatrachus laevis in
captivity. In Dr. Ruibal’s lab, Eric learned about and began studying skin glands and their function. Eric went on to earn a
Ph.D. under Dr. Paul Licht at UC Berkeley, studying reproductive endocrinology and the influence of sex hormones on
frog skin glands. Eric is an Associate Professor of Biology (and former Co-Chair and Director of Graduate Studies) for the
Biological Sciences Department at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Eric’s research is split between
reproductive pheromone production Hymenochirus frogs, self-poisoning in cory catfishes, and recently he’s started
studying the taxonomy of Microglanis bumblebee catfishes in Peru.
At home, Eric’s interests include keeping and breeding catfishes, including Corydoradinae, Loricariidae, Auchenipteridae,
and Pseudopimelodidae (mostly Microglanis); Eric is perhaps best known for having bred some oddball catfish, including
the South American banjo catfish Bunocephalus coracoideus, the African bumblebee catfish Microsynodontis sp.
`Nigeria,` the marbled talking catfish Amblydoras nauticus, and the Burmese moth catfish Erethistes minusculus.
Between home and work, Eric runs about 35 aquaria and currently has over 40 species of catfish. Eric operates a
YouTube Channel (Bekateen) and a FaceBook page (Bekateen’s FishRoom) for sharing his knowledge and experiences
with fellow fish keepers. Eric served seven years as the program coordinator for the Sacramento Aquarium Society, and
he is currently a moderator on PlanetCatfish.com.
Where is it happening?
Crowne Plaza Milwaukee South, 6401 South 13th Street,Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Greendale, United States
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