Have you seen
http
/www.asih.org/pubs/ichjobs.htm ? Just one of many sites that came up on Google after searching for "ichthyology and career" That URL above has a list of univeristies that have ichthyology departments, I'm sure there are people to email there to ask more specific questions to.
I think a question you have to answer for yourself is what kind of job you would want in ichthyology? If you want to work at a fish farm and/or aqua farming I think a 4-year degree is sufficient. Probably in agricultural economics with a fishery speciality.
On the other hand, if you want to research and study/catalog new species of fish a graduate degree is going to be necessary. At least a masters degree (6 years+) and more than likely a PhD will be needed (8 years+). A fairly significant time investment. The study of fish seems to be broken into three major categories: systematics (catloging and describing new species, deciding which family they belong to, etc.), behavior and ecology.
Best of luck on the new career choice, I have always told people that it is far more important to do something you are going to enjoy doing and be happy with than to make a lot of money doing something they hate.
p.s. just in the interest of full disclosure, I have a gradute degree in engineering not biology or ichthyology, so I can really only talk about generalities. But both are sciences, so if you have general questions about study in science I'd be happy to help if I can.
