University of Findlay, Ohio Zoanthid Research Project: WE NEED YOUR HELP!
 

Hi everyone!

My name is Jessica, and I am an undergraduate biology student at the University of Findlay in Findlay Ohio. I have a 20 gallon long reef tank (the largest we are allowed to have on campus unfortunately) with many zoanthids, mushrooms, and other soft corals. I have a few fish as well.

Anyway, a few friends and I are working on starting a research project on the phylogeny (or family tree) of zoanthids.

We want to classify available species and find their genetic relationships between various zoanthids and other corals.

Our research project has been approved by the university, and we have received grant money to complete our research. I will post a couple links to articles that we are basing our project on.

We will be analyzing the DNA of many zoanthids by extracting their DNA, completing a PCR reaction, and running a gel electrophoresis. This will allow us to separate their DNA and place it into our new DNA sequencer our university just bought. All of the results will be published on GenBank, and our final manuscript will be published (HOPEFULLY)in a scholarly journal!

HERE IS WHERE YOU COME IN: We need as many samples as we can get! We have a very small budget, but we understand these things aren't free.

We are willing to pay for shipping of any samples along with a small amount for each zoanthid. We would need a minimum of 2 polyps per sample. It is really that simple. You will be cited as a source of samples in our paper which the whole world can see (unless you don't want your name to appear in our paper of course) I am really hoping some of you will contribute. This is a great opportunity to get recognized.

All zoas and palys are welcome no matter how common or where you got them from. You can even use 3 day shipping to cut down on costs. Zoanthids are very hardy. If you live in the Findlay-Lima-Toledo area, we would be more than happy to come pick up corals. Also if you are in the Canton-Akron, Ohio area we could arrange a pick up in December. If anyone live in the Bay-Area, California, we could arrange a pick up in December as well. (this is Christmas break when we all go home for the month)

For further details please fell free to email me!

My email is my username (gordonj1) @findlay.edu please put ZOANTHIDS in the subject of the email. Serious offers only please.

You can also reply to this post.

Please don't use my email for anything other than this. :)

Our Research advisers are Dr. Jessica Wooten and Dr. Michael Edelbrock

here you can read the abstract of the paper we are basing our research on

http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2108/zsj.25.1253

Thank you everyone!

We ordered our primers on Friday,and we are getting ready to start our research on Wednesday of this week. I will keep everyone updated along the way. We are all so excited!

<a href="http://s1323.photobucket.com/albums/u599/jgordon1findlay/?action=view&amp;current=155148_423587294357514_41179182_n_zps3072defb.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1323.photobucket.com/albums/u599/jgordon1findlay/155148_423587294357514_41179182_n_zps3072defb.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

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Just a few Pictures of my little tank. Enjoy =]

That is awesome. I'll try and help out. I'll email you in the coming weeks about shipping you some from Va

Why not ask your local club to help out or go to a LFS and buy from their frag tank?

This would be the same as shipping costs.

This si really awesome! I hope you get help! I would love to help, but I JUST bought my first Zoas the other day and they are sooooo tiny!

I agree finding your local club will be the best bet for this.

Agree, local reef clubs always best bet. Local - less shipping issues plus you can meet the folks face to face. Meet new friends etc.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=536

There used to be a reef club here in Findlay called FARC however it doesn't exist anymore. There weren't enough members and no one had the time to put into it. I would love to buy out every store around but the problem here is limited selection and ridiculous pricing. We are working with a locally owned saltwater store, but there is only so much he can do.

We wanted to reach out to the online community to get more of a variety and morons from all over the country that were collected all over the world or have been aquacultered for years. We are looking at speciation and mutations that have occured, a large number and variety of samples is very important for the research we are conducting.

Here is a reef club that might help, just post on the site and see?

http://www.worcreef.org/

The you so much for your interest! I look forward to hearing from you! :)

Awe, thank you. But yes please let them grow! Zoanthids are so awesome.

I will definitely try it out. Thank you very much :)

Im in north olmsted ohio and have many different zoas. does anyone ever come up toward cleveland maybe you could stop by!

This thread has been moved to the current forum.

I moved your thread to this club forum gordonj. At the very root of it this is a WTB thread so not really appropriate to be placed in the discussion forums. It is able to be posted here though. :)

I am in the Akron/Canton area if you want to meet in December I have some Zoos that I will donate to your research project.

I am in cleveland and have probably 12-15 different types of zoas. If you are ever in cleveland please stop by ;)

Definitely! If we t enough people in the Cleveland area we will stop by for sure. Thank you so much! I will keep in touch with you.

I just got back from findlay, wish I would've seen this earlier. Do you have a date you will need them by? I will be back out there within a week or two if that would work. I should have quite a few I could spare. My brother is a professor at the university, so I should be able to get them to him and you guys could meet up.

We are actually in East Canton for our fall break. Where exactly are you located? Maybe we can meet up today? If not, I will be home again for. Thanksgiving break in a month.

Thank you for your interest! I look forward to heraing from you.

I leave later in the afternoon today to head back to Findlay. If anyone is near rt30 west from canton to Findlay let me know! I willl stop by.

It seems like we will be running samples all year now. As soon as you can get samples to us the better :) we always have to ran an even number because we have to balance the centrifuge, so I may hold off for a little while before I run the first sample.

Who is your brother? I'm curious. Findlay is a very small university, I know or at least know of everyone by now lol.

We would really appreciate you bringing samples here when you visit!!! Thank you so much! Feel free to email me or Dr. Wooten.

:) awesome!! There is another person in the cleveland area who has a few also. Maybe we could work out a day that we could come get zoanthids from both of you? I really appreciate your willingness to donate to our research project! You rock!