I've encountered something at the university this past year I've never seen before. A student who works in our Chemistry stockroom is deathly afraid of fish. Someone brought in a live goldfish in a bowl to the stockroom counter, and she ran screaming down the hall. Another student in my intro biology course was badly shaken in lab because we asked the students to measure preserved sticklebacks as part of a lab exercise; when he saw the fish uncovered in trays he turned pale and started to shake, although he was able to stay in the room. Has anyone else seen what we're calling ichthyophobia, fear of fish?
Ichthyophobia?
Started by
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, Jan 30 2009 02:38 PM
21 replies to this topic
#2
Guest_farmertodd_*
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 03:04 PM
I'm going to guess these are further symptoms and mainfestations of Nature Deficit Disorder. If you had substitute an Ambystomid salamander, I'd bet you'd have the same response. Perhaps it requires some experimentation? evil_grin
Todd
Todd
#3
Guest_fundulus_*
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 03:22 PM
I think you're on to something, Todd. I've had students in the past start sobbing when they see preserved rattlesnakes in glass jars on shelves in our teaching labs. But fish?!?
#4
Guest_nativeplanter_*
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 03:41 PM
I've seen something similar - Lepidopterophobia. My student ran screaming from a butterfly in a population lab. Apparently, it turned on her. 
#5
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 03:45 PM
Perhaps they were mauled by vicious carp when they were young.
#6
Guest_critterguy_*
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 04:11 PM
Well I've seen batrachophobia, but never fish?!
Supposedly this lady had a frog jump onto her face when she was little. Treefrog apparently, and the more her parents tried to pull it off the tighter it clung. I talked to her and she did want to get over it, but when I mentioned what was required we quickly switched topic.
I'm in with Todd. But why take bio if you are afraid of fish?
Also, I've come to believe that with the current population of humans ophidophobia and arachnophobia are the norm. If you are not scared of a snake or a spider, you are weird.
Supposedly this lady had a frog jump onto her face when she was little. Treefrog apparently, and the more her parents tried to pull it off the tighter it clung. I talked to her and she did want to get over it, but when I mentioned what was required we quickly switched topic.
I'm in with Todd. But why take bio if you are afraid of fish?
Also, I've come to believe that with the current population of humans ophidophobia and arachnophobia are the norm. If you are not scared of a snake or a spider, you are weird.
#7
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 04:21 PM
I know more than a few people who are afraid of fish. One girl won't even eat fish because she is so freaked out by them. I have also walked a stream killing Loosestrife for an organization with a girl who screamed and ran out of the water everytime a minnow school swam by.
I am afraid of snakes and spiders too.
Andy
I am afraid of snakes and spiders too.
Andy
#8
Guest_bart_*
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Posted 30 January 2009 - 07:42 PM
What is it called when you have the opposite problem and freak out when you aren't near fish?
Great stories guys, very bizarre.
Great stories guys, very bizarre.
#9
Guest_BTDarters_*
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Posted 31 January 2009 - 02:06 AM
What is it called when you have the opposite problem and freak out when you aren't near fish?
Good one!
Brian
#10
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Posted 31 January 2009 - 02:09 AM
What is it called when you have the opposite problem and freak out when you aren't near fish?
I think it's called LackOfPiscineCompanyOPhobia.
Brian
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#11
Guest_farmertodd_*
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Posted 31 January 2009 - 08:00 PM
But why take bio if you are afraid of fish?
Coz we make 'em
Our nursing department even works with our ecology department to use Biodiversity 2260 for their "screening" class before they even bother with them going through inorganic chem. Some students, however, are just trying to get out of doing something. I figured this out pretty quickly in my first TA assignment. I told them it would be fine for them to sit out on dissections, but they 1) had to write a report and 2) it was due at the end of the lab period (ie not at your leisure). Amazingly, we had all students present for dissection
Todd
#12
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Posted 31 January 2009 - 08:30 PM
Ha ha, you guys have to deal with totally unprepared nursing wannabes too! An unfortunate joke is that every hairdresser in Huntsville is planning to become a nurse anesthetist. But they often reconsider after barely scraping out a D in Chemistry 101, basically a remedial high-school chemistry class. And I also wind up as a gatekeeper in my Biology 1 course. The core nursing curriculum is much more challenging.Coz we make 'em
Todd
#13
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Posted 31 January 2009 - 10:16 PM
I've taken ichthyology students out that do everything not to get their feet wet. One way or another, we don't let that happen for too long at all. The craziest ichthyophobia I saw was when I worked at an LFS. We had a big black belt cichlid that was a "puppy dog" type fish that was very interactive. When she wanted food, she'd thump the lid of her tank. I was doing a water test for a woman that was a little jumpy, and Bertha hit her lid, which sent the woman hollering and running straight out the front door. Man, it was weird. We also had a cat in that store, and I've seen mre than one person run out the door when they found out we had a cat. That store was kind of an alternative universe. All throughout my undergrad work, there were people that we wondered how the heck they ever landed in advanced bio their fears of bugs, fish, lizards, birds, dirt, water, grass, etc. Shoot, I still wonder that sometimes in grad school...
#14
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 11:59 AM
It's kind of become my job whenever we get a new grad student or undergrad assistant to break them of their fear of snakes (almost every one of them has been at least afraid to handle them, while a few have been full-blown ophidiophobes). We had one guy who was terrified of spotted salamanders, of all things.
#15
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 01:02 PM
It's kind of become my job whenever we get a new grad student or undergrad assistant to break them of their fear of snakes (almost every one of them has been at least afraid to handle them, while a few have been full-blown ophidiophobes). We had one guy who was terrified of spotted salamanders, of all things.
When I first started my graduate research at the Savannah River Ecology Lab, my ever-so-wise advisor brought all of us out to the outreach building where the outreach guy kept the snakes. The main point was to show us the venomous ones so we will recongnise them, seeing as we spend the whole day in the swamp. I'm not afraid of snakes in general (handling them is just fine), but I must admit I was a tad nervous with 5 of us in a small room with venemous snakes let loose on the floor! The most memorable part of the day, though was getting to hold the baby alligators. Man, I cherish the time I spent at that facility.
#16
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 01:08 PM
You worked at SREL? I must admit I'm envious.
#17
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 06:03 PM
You worked at SREL? I must admit I'm envious.
I did. And I was extraordinarily fortunate to have had the opportunity. My research was in Carolina bays. The facility is top notch, the faculty and staff motivated and highly collaborative, and the study sites were supurb, in part because they haven't been disturbed in over 50 years, and one can set up permanent plots without fear of them being vandalized. Unfortunately its funding has been severely slashed over the past few years, and it is only a small fraction of what it once was. The people remaining are still outstanding scientists, but a lot of good scientists were let go. This was one of the premier research institutions for ecology. For those interested who are not familiar with it, the website is http://www.uga.edu/~srel/. A summary of the recent funding problems is here: http://www.savesrel.org/
#18
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 06:13 PM
SREL is famous in the herp community for the long-term herp ecology studies done there by Whit Gibbons and many others. They've really changed approaches to determining abundance and density of herps in the field. I was disgusted when DOE cut funding to the project.
Edited by Newt, 02 February 2009 - 06:13 PM.
#19
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 06:43 PM
Oddly enough I've seen two cases of this from people who worked in aquaria:
One was a keeper who worked with marine mammals but was afraid of fish (yet worked in a major public aquarium!), and slowly got over her fear by acclimating to them, even to the point of diving in the tanks being surrounded and mauled by fishes during feedings...
The other, a much sadder case, was a freshman marine biology major who came to intern with us for one day: we went about our daily routines, hopping in all of the tanks to skim leaves off the surface, remove uneaten food, et cetera...but this new student abjectly refused to enter any of the tanks in the exhibit, finally I decided to "help" her with her fear and I convinced her to get in a small pond with a waterfall that disturbed the surface to the point that it prevented you from being able to see the fish...after she had cleaned out the tank she noticed something moving around her legs, and asked what it was... I thought my response would embolden her, and help her get over her fear, but: "congratulations you are in a tank with piranha" instead made her turn white as a sheet and emit an earsplitting shriek while jumping out of the tank, and running far, far away from her internship...never did understand why she was studying marine biology with a deathly fear of fish!
...I don't get it, but then again I don't get a lot of what makes people tick (fish are so much easier to understand!)
One was a keeper who worked with marine mammals but was afraid of fish (yet worked in a major public aquarium!), and slowly got over her fear by acclimating to them, even to the point of diving in the tanks being surrounded and mauled by fishes during feedings...
The other, a much sadder case, was a freshman marine biology major who came to intern with us for one day: we went about our daily routines, hopping in all of the tanks to skim leaves off the surface, remove uneaten food, et cetera...but this new student abjectly refused to enter any of the tanks in the exhibit, finally I decided to "help" her with her fear and I convinced her to get in a small pond with a waterfall that disturbed the surface to the point that it prevented you from being able to see the fish...after she had cleaned out the tank she noticed something moving around her legs, and asked what it was... I thought my response would embolden her, and help her get over her fear, but: "congratulations you are in a tank with piranha" instead made her turn white as a sheet and emit an earsplitting shriek while jumping out of the tank, and running far, far away from her internship...never did understand why she was studying marine biology with a deathly fear of fish!
...I don't get it, but then again I don't get a lot of what makes people tick (fish are so much easier to understand!)
Edited by BLChristie, 02 February 2009 - 06:46 PM.
#20
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Posted 02 February 2009 - 06:56 PM
BLChristie, I see N. Tx. in your profile... You're not talking about the Dallas World Aquarium, are you? I love that place, but haven't been there in years.
edit Nevermind, I just read under your post the Dallas Aquarium. Is that the Fair Park aquarium?
edit Nevermind, I just read under your post the Dallas Aquarium. Is that the Fair Park aquarium?
Edited by rjmtx, 02 February 2009 - 06:58 PM.
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