Lead Aquarist - Melissa Torch '22

Alumnus overview:

Melissa is the lead aquarist at the Electric City Aquarium & Reptile Den in Scranton, PA. At the aquarium, Melissa has many diverse duties. She oversees several employees and the care and husbandry of aquatic animals including sharks, eels, giant pacific octopus, stingrays, coral, and more. She gives educational talks and tours for visitors and school groups, and she oversees any projects the aquarium is working on. Day to day, Melissa makes schedules to monitor the animals by checking their water quality (using various instruments to test temperature, specific gravity, pH, alkalinity, magnesium, nitrate, calcium, etc.), performing exhibit maintenance, and feedings.  Melissa coordinates installation of controllers to exhibits that alarm when any chemical changes occur within those exhibits. She plumbs exhibits and new filtration systems and even dives into exhibits to do routine maintenance and to feed the animals. Melissa also works with coral propagation, fragging colonies of corals to swap or send to other facilities such as Shedd Aquarium and Kansas City Zoo. Melissa works very closely with sharks, training them to go to targets when being fed to allow for closer looks and veterinary checkups.

 

Advice to current & future MU biology students:

“Follow your dream and don’t let anyone stop you from doing what you love. Learn something new every day. Push yourself everyday to learn something new and to be better. Pushing myself everyday got me a lead position at an aquarium just shortly after a year working there.”