aquarium adventures

Sea Star-Eating Nano Shrimps

2011-11-02T19:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite aquariums is my 10 gallon nano reef aquarium. It contains only corals, crustaceans, and other invertebrates, so it's easier to keep clean. Some of the most interesting crustaceans in this tank are the sea star-eating shrimps: Harlequin shrimp Hymenocera elegans and Bumblebee shrimp Gnathophyllum americanum.

Bumblebee shrimp are a perfect livestock choice for a nano reef. They don't eat corals, are safe for fish, and grow less than an inch long. When it comes to feeding, they are not as picky as Harlequin shrimp or Bongo shrimp. They are carnivores who love to eat the tube feet of echinoderms like sea stars and urchins, but will also eat some small bits of frozen mysis or Cyclop-Eeze. If you provide enough sea stars, they will easily survive the attentions of a pair of Bumblebee shrimp. It's also a good idea to stock your nano with some Stomatella snails, as the Bumblebee shrimp snip pieces from the Stomatellas to eat without killing the snail. My Bumblebee shrimp is often seen harassing one of my many quickly-reproducing Stomatella snails.

Harlequin shrimp make are a great "showy" creature for a nano reef. Their beauty is surpassed by few other crustaceans. Harlequin shrimp are large enough that they are easy to spot, but small enough (only a couple inches) that they can be kept in a nano aquarium. They can be kept singly, but it's much more interesting to keep a pair. They seem to use their giant, paddle-like chelipeds to communicate with one another, perhaps coordinating their sea star attacks.

It is very easy to sex Harlequin shrimp. Females have tiny, color-spotted swimmerettes on the underside of the tail. Males have a clear, colorless underside. Two males or two females should not be housed together, but males and females pair easily and without aggression.

Unlike the Bumblebee shrimp, Harlequin shrimp consume the whole star, not just the feet. They use their large front claws to pinch and pry the legs of sea stars from their substrate, then force the sea star onto its back where it is helpless. They can keep a sea star alive for long periods of time while feasting on them.

Harlequin shrimp only eat sea stars. They don't eat brittle stars, however. The most readily available food sources for Harlequin shrimp are the tiny, hitchhiking Asterina stars, Chocolate Chip or African Knob, Linkia, Fromia, or Sand sifting stars. Linkia and Fromia stars are difficult to keep in captivity and more expensive. Remember, though, that the hardy, inexpensive Chocolate Chip and African Knob stars are not reef safe. It is possible to house a few Chocolate Chip stars separately from your nano aquarium and cut a leg off to feed the Harlequin shrimp, then allow the removed legs to grow back.

Hawaiian Harlequin shrimp are the most colorful, but they command pretty high prices and are more rare. The Indonesian variety is a little less expensive and may be purple, blue, or a combination.

Bongo shrimp are related to Harlequin shrimp, and eat both Sea Stars and Brittle stars. They are much smaller, growing to only an inch. They're also much more rare and command a price between $100 - $130 a pair. Here is a video by Liveaquaria.com of Bongo shrimp eating brittle stars.

Mark M's aquariums

2011-10-23T14:35:00.001-07:00

DSC_0331, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

I recently photographed my friend Mark's African Cichlid, South American Cichlid, and nano reef aquariums. Enjoy the photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feliciamccaulley/sets/72157627595995298/

MASNA Live Interview with new BOD members, Ret Talbot on Hawaii, and MACNA wrap-up

2011-10-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

October 2011 - MACNA wrap-up, MASNA BOD, & Ret Talbot on Hawai'i

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-74311/TS-549252.mp3

I was honored to be voted in as the new Vendor Relations on the MASNA Board of Directors for 2012. Check out this interview with 4 new MASNA BOD members (including yours truly). Get MASNA Live podcasts and become a member of MASNA today!

Why should you join MASNA?

"MASNA is a non-profit organization composed of marine aquarium socieities and individual hobbyists from North America and abroad, totaling several thousand individuals.

MASNA's goals are to:

Educate our members with online and published material, the MACNA conference, and other sanctioned events
Assist in forming and promoting the growth of clubs within the hobby while ensuring a sustainable future for the marine environment
Support the efforts to eliminate abuses in collecting and transporting marine organisms through education, assistance and encouragement
Encourage the ethical growth of the marine aquarium hobby and support captive breeding/propagation efforts

MASNA operates from a central Board of Directors elected each year by the delegates from the member societies at the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America, (MACNA).

In our efforts to ensure a sustainable future for marine environments and the marine aquarium hobby. MASNA provides its members:

Access to a speaker database
A quarterly newsletter
An annual conference (MACNA) and logistical support for host clubs
Material resources to help conduct club business and found new clubs
A large repository of educational resource materials
Partnerships with funding and conservation organizations, fellowship opportunities, volunteer activities, and a scholarship fund
Links, partnerships and resources to existing breeding and aquaculture facilities and organizations
An extensive bookstore and merchandise store with discounts for members
Practical tips for saving the world’s oceans from within the hobby and through personal action
A collective voice in national and international initiatives
Strategies, resources and online materials to improve husbandry, aquarium keeping and reduce mortality
Large resources for conservation related activities and information"

Luke G's 150XH Reef

2011-10-21T15:29:00.001-07:00

Amphiprion ocellaris and Montipora hodgsoni, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

Yawning Ocellaris Clownfish

Recently I was able to photograph my friend Luke G's amazing 150XH reef. The most amazing part is he just set it up in July after moving to a new place. Luke is an Acropora fanatic and takes great care of his aquatic pets. I can't wait to see the tank more grown in. See the full album here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feliciamccaulley/sets/72157627895945034/

Seahorse Drawing

2011-10-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

A special thanks goes out to one of Felicia's Aquarium Adventures' young readers, Jonathan, for this beautiful seahorse picture. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

Liomera sp.

2011-10-03T07:04:00.001-07:00

Liomera sp., a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

Strawberry crabs are considered to be reef safe "with caution." As far as crabs go, this species is one of the more coral safe crabs.

This little crab was found as a hitchhiker at The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA. It now resides in my 10 gallon nano tank. So far it is not bothering any of the corals or its peaceful crustacean tank mates.

Naxiodes taurus

2011-10-03T06:56:00.001-07:00

Naxiodes taurus , a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

Sometimes called the Soft coral crab or decorated horn crab. Commensal on soft corals, gorgonians, and sea fans. This one was found in the folds of a Leptoseris at The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA.

I put this crab in my 10 gallon nano tank. This tank has no fish in it, only corals and small, reef safe crustaceans.

McCosker's Flasher Wrasse

2011-08-12T07:15:00.001-07:00

McCosker's Flasher Wrasse, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

Hybrid Limia super male

2011-08-10T16:57:00.001-07:00

Hybrid Limia super male, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

RighPet.com

2011-08-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

RightPet.com is a site that allows members to write reviews of species and breeds of pets. This allows new pet owners to read the first-hand accounts and reviews of real people who have kept the species or breed they are interested in before they buy/adopt it. Make sure you sign up and add your 2 cents on your favorite (or least favorite) species kept as pets. Your experience could help new pet owners decide which pet is or is not right for them.

This month Felicia's Aquarium Adventures is the featured member! Check out our reviews of saltwater fish (and other critters).

http://www.rightpet.com/fish/saltwater-aquarium-fish

How to Kill Hydroids in Dwarf Seahorse and Fry Tanks

2011-07-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Recently, my dwarf seahorse tank became infested with stinging hydroids. Hydroids are very dangerous to dwarf seahorses and other fish fry. Learn how you can prevent and destroy hydroids in your fry tank or dwarf seahorse tank:

http://reeftools.com/news/how-to-kill-hydroids/

Jsoh79's Reef Tank

2011-07-13T13:08:00.001-07:00

Acan lord closeup, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

I recently took some photos of my friend Josh's tank. Here's a teaser pic, if you want to see the rest, go to the Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/feliciamccaulley/sets/72157626814724924/with/5763863666/

hybrid guppy endler pintail

2011-07-10T06:19:00.001-07:00

hybrid guppy endler pintail, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

This is one of my favorites. He is an old man now; he even moved from Wisconsin to PA with me in January. His father is an albino endler hybrid created by Adrian HD and his mother came from a line of yellow snakeskin doubleswords I'd been breeding for many years.

Athanas sp. red striped shrimp

2011-07-08T08:34:00.001-07:00

Athanas red striped shrimp top, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

Another cool hitchhiker my co-worker Bill Lowe found in a rock where we work at The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA. This one is super tiny, maybe a centimeter. He found it a couple weeks ago, and it's still alive and well in my tank!

Seahorses on Blue Zoo Radio!

2011-07-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

I was honored to be a guest on Blue Zoo Radio last month talking about seahorses. The show was recorded and can be listened to here:

http://sportstalknetwork.com/main/bluezoo/bluezoo060511.mp3

I'm the second guest, starting at about 24 minutes.

Listen in every Sunday night at 8 pm or Check out the archives

About Blue Zoo Radio:

"...Blue Zoo Radio. A show dedicated to each and every aquarist making a difference in the hobby. Blue Zoo Radio features interviews with Industry Leaders, best selling authors, manufacturers, fish clubs, other hobbyists and You.
Blue Zoo Radio is live every Sunday evening at 8pm EST. The archives are available for immediate download to your computer, iPod or Mp3 player OR you can stream them on your computer ON Demand."

Delaware Valley Reef Club Spring Frag Swap 2011 Recap

2011-07-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

If you’re like me, you’re a big fan of Ken Nedimyer and the Coral Restoration Foundation. If you missed the Delaware Valley Reef Club Spring 2011 frag swap and you still want to see Ken’s keynote speech, you can watch the video provided by DVRC on youtube:

I was honored to do my aquarium photography presentation at the frag swap. You can watch video of the presentation here:

Go to http://reeftools.com/news/delaware-valley-reef-club-spring-2011-frag-swap-recap/ for more pictures, videos, and info about the frag swap.

H. angustus x H. erectus Hybrid Seahorse fry – first ever crossing

2011-07-08T08:16:00.001-07:00

hybrid seahorse fry, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

On May 12th, my beloved Hippocampus angustus female named Marmalade and my Hippcampus erectus male named Kohala (who I raised from birth) gave birth to about 25 little hybrid fry!

Go to http://reeftools.com/news/h-angustus-x-h-erectus-hybrid-seahorse-fry-first-ever-crossing/ for tons more photos of the fry and parents.

pistol shrimp long leg

2011-07-08T08:12:00.001-07:00

pistol shrimp long leg, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

On June 14th my co-worker Bill at The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA noticed an extraordinarily long, but thin, shrimp leg darting in and out of a series of holes that appeared to be drilled through the top of the rock. He chiseled open the rock and found this pistol shrimp. The pistol shrimp had to have been growing inside the rock unable to leave since it was very young, similar to the way a gall crab grows inside a coral. If anyone recognizes this pistol shrimp and can identify it, please go to http://reeftools.com/news/unusual-pistol-shrimp-hitchhiker/ to leave a comment

Hybrid Guppy Endler

2011-07-08T07:37:00.001-07:00

hybrid endler guppy, a photo by Felicia McCaulley on Flickr.

This is one of my favorite guppies. He is a cross between a hybrid albino endler and a red guppy female. Notice the colored pelvic fins.

Coral Eating Nudibranchs and Slugs

2011-03-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

As some of you may have noticed, I'm moving my blog over to Reeftools.com. For my blogger followers, I'll continue to post updates here when I blog on Reeftools.com.

Read more here about coral eating nudis and slugs. See photos of unusual, not often seen coral eating slugs and nudibranchs like the Scolymia and Turbinaria eating slugs. This is a Phestilla melanobrachia, a Dendrophyllid eating Aeolid nudibranch sometimes found on sun corals Tubastrea spp. in captivity.

Pictures of my Livestock

2011-03-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

I recently moved from WI to Philadelphia, and these are some of the fish that came with me:

Gobiesox Clingfish Larvae at 7 days old

2011-03-04T15:11:00.000-08:00

My Clingfish larvae have made it to 7 days old. They are growing and looking great!

More Pics and story here:

http://reeftools.com/news/gobiesox-clingfish-larvae-at-7-days/

Raising Clingfish Larvae

2011-03-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to raise Clingfish larvae that I got form work (The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA). If you have any tips and helpful hints, please leave a comment.

More pics and info here:

http://reeftools.com/news/breeding-gobiesox-clingfish/

Commensal Acropora Palaemonid Shrimp

2011-03-02T09:04:00.000-08:00

What kind of shrimp is this? I thought maybe a Palaemonid shrimp of the genus Cuapetes or Palaemonella. Not sure. I found it on an Acropora millepora last week and threw it in my frag tank. I brought home this tiny Acro frag last night (from The Hidden Reef in Levittown, PA), and the shrimp has decided to host on it...The shrimp isn't hurting the frag, just really, really likes it. There are plenty of places to hide, including a dead Acro colony, but the shrimp insists it wants an Acro I guess.

More info here:

http://reeftools.com/news/commensal-shrimp-found-on-acropora/

Moving Your Aquarium

2011-02-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

I recently moved from Wisconsin to Philadelphia, and wasn't willing to part with my fish. It wasn't easy, but I got most all of them to their new home safe and sound. Here's an article with detailed instructions on how to pack your fish and corals for moving across town or across the country.

Special thanks to Mandy, I couldn't have done it without you <3

http://reeftools.com/news/moving-your-aquarium/

Tuberculatus Seahorses Perfect for a 10 Gallon Aquarium

2011-02-06T09:29:00.000-08:00

One of the questions most commonly asked on seahorse.org is, "Can I keep my seahorses in a 10 gallon aquarium?" The short answer is no. None of the species currently available to hobbyists in the United States are suitable for a ten gallon tank (except a large herd of Dwarf Seahorses H. zosterae which require live Artemia feedings.)

Hippocapmus tuberculatus courting males

Hippocampus tuberculatus is a small seahorse (~2-1/2") from Australia that thrives in smaller aquariums but is large enough to eat frozen mysis shrimp. They are commonly yellow and sport bumps on their bodies, tails, and faces that may turn bright red especially during courting. This species used to be lumped in with the temperate Hippocampus breviceps, but they differ in having a smaller size and coming from a warmer habitat. H. breviceps and H. tuberculatus are most closely related to the large, temperate H. abdominalis.

Because all seahorses, even those that are not at risk of population reduction, were placed on the CITES list, exotic wild caught seahorses are not as readily available in the United States as captive bred seahorses. Most distributors consider importing Australian seahorse species not worth the trouble because of permit costs, shipping costs, and low survivability of wild caught seahorses. Divers don't usually collect them, but if they do, there's a good chance they will not be able to identify species or even gender.

For many years I searched for a supplier of my favorite seahorse species H. breviceps. According to Rudie Kuiter's 2009 Seahorses and their Relatives, this species is numerous in its wild Australian habitat. The species' success may be in part due to the recent drop in population of large predators. Normally this species is demersal, but in recent years, large colonies of pelagic individuals that normally could not survive predation have been seen living on sea grass mats.

Last May, friends in the industry who knew I was looking for Australian seahorses found a single pair H. breviceps on a list from a distributor. Despite the cost, I ordered them without hesitation. When they arrived, at once I realized they were both males. My dreams of breeding them were dashed! After consulting some seahorse ID experts in the US and Australia, we decided they were actually H. tuberculatus instead of the similar H. breviceps.

Notice the red bumps and white forehead triangle typical of H. tuberculatus

I had a ten gallon chilled temperate aquarium set up for the Breviceps, but raised the temperature to 68F for the Tubercualtus (H. tuberculatus isn't fully tropical and should only briefly be exposed to higher temperatures of 75F maximum). After a couple days of acclimating to captive life, they began eating enriched live adult brine shrimp. They weren't gaining weight very easily, so they also went through a delicate but successful de-worming process. Within a month, they were eating frozen Cyclop-eeze along with the adult brine, and by the end of June were eating frozen mysis and fattened up nicely.

The most endearing thing about my two Tuberculatus that I named Lemony and Snicket was the way they "crash-landed" into a hitching post. Most seahorses swim to a hitch and wrap their tails around it to land. These Tuberculatus almost always swam at a hitch at full speed and then landed with the neck first, then body, then wrapped the tail around the hitch.

H. tuberculatus first day in his new aquarium

Lemony and Snicket did well in captivity, eating frozen mysis and courting each other constantly. Even though I couldn't breed them because they were both males, I prized my rare-in-captivity Tuberculatus and doted on them. Unfortunately, five months later, one of the Tubers died for seemingly no reason that I could determine. In November I lost the other. He died still hitched to his hitching post without a mark on his body and a full belly. I've found that wild caught seahorses are much more difficult to keep than captive bred since they are more likely to be exposed to pathogens and diseases that are difficult or impossilbe to identify and/or treat.

My hope is that in the future the highly desirable Hippocampus tuberculatus will be collected and imported in larger numbers so captive breeding in the United States can begin and make this species available to hobbyists. This beautiful, unique species is worth the trouble because it is the perfect seahorse for most hobbyist's aquariums - small enough to fit in a 10 gallon tank but large enough to eat frozen mysis shrimp.

Coral Eating Nudibranchs

2011-02-05T08:59:00.000-08:00

I found this Zoanthid eating nudibranch my friend's tank the other day along with the Turbinaria eating slug pictured last. I also found a Blue Eyed Crab eating his Pocillopora. If you ever find a hitchhiker in your aquarium, and you're not sure what it is, feel free to send me a photo or the animal if you can catch it.

a Zoanthid eating Nudibranch minus some cerata lost in transit

Anatomy of a Nudibranch

Zoa eating nudibranchs are a type of Aeolid nudibranch. Notice the black specks behind the first two "antennae?" Those are the eyes. The finger-like appendages on the back are called cerata. The dark tips of the cerata are called cnidosacs. A Zoa eating nudibranch can consume immature nematocysts from its prey and store them in these sacs for protection against predators. The nudibranch gets its coloration from its prey, and may also be photosynthetic.

Most reefers kill the nudibranchs to save their Zoanthus colonies. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, as some people culture the nudibranch and feed it Zoanthids!

Reefers have had success eradicating the Zoa eating nudibranch with Salifert's Flatworm Exit in high doses. Obviously, you have to be careful using this method. It's best to take affected colonies out of the tank and treat them in a bucket of tank water with an overdose of Flatworm Exit. If you have a lot of hidden planaria (which release toxins when they die) in your main tank, it could crash. Have several pounds of carbon on hand when using Flatworm Exit. Since Flatworm Exit won't kill the eggs of the nudibranch, you need to repeat the treatment four days later.

http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/zoonudis.html

This is only the second Turbinaria eating slug I've ever seen. Removal is not difficult since they are relatively large and don't seem to reproduce in captivity. Both specimens were found on Turbinaria peltata, the Pagoda Cup Coral.

NWRS/UPMMAS 2010 Frag Swap - Reminiscing

2011-02-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Has it really been almost a year since the last annual Northern Wisconsin Reef Society/Upper Peninsula Michigan Marine Aquarium Society frag swap? I know it's hard to believe, but land-locked Rhinelander, WI is a reefer's mecca (Liveaquaria and NWRS, one of the best small reef clubs in the country, are stationed in town.) Last year's annual swap was amazing. The frags and corals at this swap were high quality and priced low. You could find any type of coral you could possibly want from big-time online vendors to basement fraggers. I got a huge frag of Reverse Superman Montipora for $20 from House of Corals. I'm really bummed out I'll miss the swap this year. If I was still living in the area, you can bet I'd be there.

To all my NWRS and UPMMAS friends, hello, and I miss you!

Midwest Saltwater corals

Jim's Reef Zoas

Northern Corals Trachyphyllia Brain

Northern Coral's Frogspawn

Chuck and Lynn's Cyphastrea

John and Dawn's fluorescing Goochsters

Liveaquaria's Diver's Den donated awesome LE frags for the silent auction

NWRS club tank

House of Corals

Jim's Reef

Midwest Saltwater

Northern Corals

Chuck and Lynn's tank

JohnandDawn's

OntosRob's tank

Discovery World

Custom Color

T & Z Aquatics

UPMMAS club tank

MORE HERE

Overlooked Gems at the Hidden Reef

2011-02-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

My husband and I recently moved to Philadelphia, PA from Rhinelander, WI and are finally starting to settle in. While it was really hard for me to leave Liveaquaria's Diver's Den, my husband was offered a job here that we couldn't refuse.

A couple years ago, I read an article about Philadelphia area's largest aquarium specialty store, The Hidden Reef in TFH magazine. I remember thinking how cool it would be to live near an amazing LFS like that one! If you are an aquarium hobbyist living around Philadelphia, come say hi.

My favorite fish right now is the Hawaiian Red Leaf Fish Taenianotus triacanthus. This fish has been in the store since before Christmas and is very well acclimated to aquarium life. It doesn't seem to fear humans, but is always sure to act like a leaf swaying in the current so as not to blow its cover to potential prey. This species is an ambush predator, so a little teamwork helps get the job done during feeding time. We've got a system - I encourage the prey to swim close to the Leaf Fish while it slowly "leafs" toward the area I'm corralling the prey. This fish is slightly venomous like other members of the Scorpaenidae family.

This Snow Onyx Clownfish has been in the store for quite a while, as well.

This next fish is another venomous fish and a bit of an odd rarity - the Cross Eyed Squirrelfish, aka Cardinal Soldierfish Plectrypops retrospinis.This fish is very tame and eats anything, including flake food from the fingers of doting employees.

Reefers and Acro fanatics will be interested in this fantastic Acropora loripes. It's been in the store for a couple weeks and is coloring up nicely.

Fat, healthy Copperband Butterflyfish Chelmon rostratus are hard to find, but look no further. This one is eating live and frozen brine shrimp like a pro and showing interest in other foods as well.

Engineer Gobies aren't rare, but their behavior is really interesting, and I just really wanted to show off this macro shot.

NCPARS/That Pet Place frag swap 2011

2011-01-30T12:33:00.000-08:00

North Central Pennsylvania Aquarium Reef Society and That Pet Place had their annual frag swap yesterday. Hundreds of reefers, dozens of fraggers, and nine speakers (including Tony Nista of UPG and Randy Reed of Reed Mariculture), showed up for the event.

Let's start with some eye candy from the swap right away.

Jason Fox's frags are hot right now. There are a lot of online frag stores nowadays that are selling "LE super radioactive insert made up trade name here" for boatloads of money, so I'm always skeptical of designer frags. I always say, "You can't photoshop in person." Well, Jason Fox doesn't have to; his frags might really be radioactive.

Here's your eye candy. Jason Fox Fruit Loop Zoas

The Jason Fox tank was a big hit!

Dan Rigle, the president of NCPARS had huge crowds around his gorgeous frags

my new setosa is the one on the far left

Red Planet Acro

Montipora setosa the Orange Setosa were HOT sellers. I got one!

Tricolor valida

TFP was crawling with hundreds of reefers

Reed Mariculture's new Mysis Feast. Can't wait to try it on my seahorses


UPG's new Reef Capable LED lights. LED's are the future of our hobby!

Seachem products

Two Little Fishies products

Brightwell Aquatics products

Brightwell and PE Mysis vendors working hard

The rest of these photos are display tanks and live stock from That Fish Place/That Pet Place. They had a lot of nice freshwater fish, a pretty nice selection of saltwater fish (that room is expanding), an impressive reptile room, and probably the best selection of small animals/rodents I've seen.

That Pet Place entrance

A Cardiff bullet tank at TFP. Remember my old Cardiff reef?

TFP Red Head Goby

Another TFP display tank

Closeup of the clownfish inside above tank

TPP has amazing reptile and small animal rooms

TFP Periclimenes imperator

rare Australomussa coral

Meat coral Acanthophyllia deshayesiana

Maxima clams

clownfish hosting in long tentacle anemones

Garden eel Heteroconger cobra

Green carpet anemone Stichodactyla haddoni

Corythoichthys pipefish

Powder blue tang Acanthurus leucosternon

TFP Plum Crazy Acro look alike

TFP Red Planet acro look alike

TFP had some nice freshwater fish too

Chocolate Chip Mollies

Rainbows

OB Peacock Cichlid

Peacock Cichlid

Albino Kribensis cichlid

TFP Ray petting tank

Pinto Seahorses may lose dramatic coloration

2011-01-25T04:27:00.000-08:00

According to ORA's blog, their Pinto Seahorses may or may not keep their unique coloration. Seahorses are known to change color, even Pintos.

Thank you, Elf, of seahorse.org for letting me use your photos to demonstrate this color change in your gorgeous Pinto seahorses from seahorsecorral.com.

before

after

before

Seahorse Video

2011-01-19T18:55:00.000-08:00

An older video of my seahorses goofing off, wrestling, and just being cute.

I moved from Wisconsin to Philadelphia lately, and my seahorses are staying with a friend in WI until I am ready for them. I miss their little faces, but this video helps.

"Pinto" Seahorses

2011-01-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

ORA® recently posted a blog on their new site about a "Pinto" mutation seahorse they have been selectively breeding. "Pinto" is a type of piebald color mutation that occurs in Hippocampus erectus seahorses and is easily one of the most highly sought after seahorses in the United States.

This mutation first occurred over ten years ago at Ocean Rider in Hawaii who was selling them for $950 EACH. Within the past couple years this mutation also occurred spontaneously at the Seahorse Corral aquaculture facility in Florida. Originally, they didn't charge extra for the "pinto" type seahorses, but when demand exceeded supply, they raised the price to $160 each.

ORA® mentions in their blog that the "pintos" may not keep their coloration. The Seahorse Corral "pintos" have also been known to lose their unusual coloration. Not much is known about the Ocean Rider Pintos. I suspect that not many have been sold over the years to preserve their purported rarity. Hopefully ORA® will produce large quantities of this color form so hobbyists have better access to them.

As a side note, Seahorse Corral was not allowed to market their seahorses as "pintos," because Ocean Rider has sole rights to that name. I'm unsure at this point if ORA® will be able to market theirs as "pintos" or if they will have to come up with a new catchy name for them.

Clownfish Aquarium Photos

2010-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

I recently went to visit a friend of mine and photographed her aquarium. Enjoy the photos! These are best viewed large on Flickr (click the photo then choose "view all sizes" in the "actions" drop down box).

Support U.S. and Local Seahorse Breeders

2010-12-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

Support U.S. bred seahorses and your own local seahorse breeders. Encourage your local fish store to buy locally bred/U.S. bred seahorses and support them when they do. If your local fish store only carries "tank raised" Asian-bred seahorses, you can order seahorses directly from a local breeder or a reputable breeder online.

SUPPORT THESE U.S. SEAHORSE BREEDERS

Seahorsesource.com in Ft, Pierce, Florida
Professional family run business for over five years
Current availability: H. erectus, H. barbouri, H. zosterae and a limited amount of H. reidi. H. ingens should be available again in January. Ships to all 50 United States.

SeahorseCorral.net in Riverview, Florida
Current availability: H. erectus. Ships to United States.

Peka's Ponies in Lake in the Hills, Illinois
Current availability: H. erectus. Coming soon: H. reidi and H. barbouri. Ships to lower 48 United States.

Mandy R. in southern Wisconsin
H. erectus coming soon. Can ship to lower 48 United States.

Kim at CritterHeaven in Raleigh, North Carolina
Current availability: H. reidi and H. erectus. coming soon H. barbouri and H. zosterae. Can ship to lower 48 United States.

Brenda F. "Reef99" in Illinois
Current availability: H. erectus. Can ship to lower 48 United States.

Felicia's Saddled Seahorses in Philadelphia, PA
H. erectus coming soon.

FishTalPropogations Availability: H. erectus coming soon

If you are a seahorse breeder in the United States and you want to be added to this list, please email me with your web address and/or business contact email address, your location and if/where you ship to, your current availability, and seahorse species you will have available in the near future. If you are looking for the most current seahorse availability from local breeders, check the Seahorse.org Trading and Classifieds forum regularly.

The reasons to buy true captive bred seahorses instead of wild caught seahorses are obvious, and I won't go into much detail here. Wild caught seahorses have as many as four long, stressful journeys before they reach your home and almost always carry life-threatening pathogens, many that can't be cured with over the counter medications available to hobbyists. Wild caught seahorses only eat expensive live foods and are difficult (and sometimes impossible) to train to eat frozen food. The choice is clear; buy true captive bred seahorses.

Why buy seahorses from a hobby breeder or a breeder who specializes in seahorses?

from Seahorsesource. photo: Jim Bremner DesertUSA.com

Breeders specializing in seahorses are more likely to offer multiple/different species of seahorses
Seahorse specialists are able to devote more time and research to seahorse-specific care
Small operations can pay more attention to quality and health
Many offer lifetime customer support
Some offer seahorse-specific products that can't be found anywhere else
Seahorses purchased directly from hobby breeders are often less expensive than wild caught seahorses

Asian bred seahorses are cheaper than U.S. captive bred seahorses, but the quality and health of the seahorses suffers. Asian bred seahorses are sold younger and smaller than U.S. bred seahorses and are raised in unfiltered natural sea water, exposing them to parasites, disease, and bacteria. Asian bred seahorses are fed live foods found in the natural sea water, further cutting costs by not having to buy frozen food. U.S. bred seahorses are usually started on frozen foods at a very early age, which makes them less likely to revert to live foods when they are under stress. Not all Asian seahorse breeders use these methods, but the majority of Asian-bred "tank raised" seahorses found in local fish stores were raised this way.

young Asian bred "H. kelloggi" in a WI pet store. Photo: Dylan of seahorse.org

Why buy seahorses bred in the U.S. over seahorses bred overseas?

U.S. bred seahorses have a much better history of success in their new homes
Less stressful transit time compared to seahorses bred in other countries

Asian bred seahorses may be packaged and shipped 3 or 4 times before getting to the hobbyist

ex. breeder > transhipper > wholesaler > fish store

Local seahorses have shorter fasting (withholding food) times prior to and during shipping
More accurate identification
No accidental, unknown hybrids

Asian breeding programs do not commonly separate by species, putting many different species in the same vats together. Seahorses may even hybridize with species naturally found in surrounding waters

Seahorses bred in the U.S. are bred in filtered or synthetic sea water, while most Asian-bred seahorses are raised in unfiltered natural sea water.

U.S. bred seahorses have less exposure to parasites and disease found in NSW
U.S. bred seahorses are already adapted to captive aquarium environment
U.S. bred seahorses are raised on foods readily available to hobbyists

Most Asian bred seahorses are raised on live foods found in NSW to save money and are offered frozen foods later in life. May or may not be trained to frozen food.

U.S. bred seahorses are larger, older, and more mature, thus more likely to survive

Asian bred seahorses are sold younger and smaller to save money

young Asian bred seahorse. Photo from reefhotspot.com

How can you tell if the seahorse at your local fish store was bred in Asia?

The seahorse is small, usually three inches or smaller
The seahorse is identified only by common name or color (they are often identified this way on wholesale lists)
Scientific names commonly used for Asian bred seahorses are

Hippocampus kelloggi (none are CB in the U.S. to date)
Hippocampus sp. (responsible breeders know what species they have)
Hippocampus kuda
Hippocampus comes

The fish store doesn't know what country or breeder the seahorse came from, only knows that it was "tank bred" or "tank raised"
Since Asian bred seahorses are so inexpensive for the LFS to buy, sometimes the price is very low (between $30 - $50 each)

You can expect a true captive bred seahorse to be between $50 and $75 or more depending on the species

Because of the restrictions put on importing wild caught seahorses by CITES, fewer species are available in the United States today than were available 10 years ago. For example, Australian seahorses such as H. breviceps and H. whitei are completely absent from the U.S. market, and wild-caught H. elongatus and H. angustus are imported in extremely low numbers, fetching very high prices with low survival rates. Many of these beautiful Australian species were available as captive bred in the U.S. as recently as a few years ago, but it is theorized that these higher priced exotic seahorses couldn't compete with the cheap Asian bred seahorses that were flooding the U.S. market at the same time. If we do not support seahorse breeders in the United States, in the future the only species available will be Asian-bred seahorses and the few species native to our country that can still be sold as wild caught.

Seahorse Tank - Keep It Clean!

2010-12-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

When I first started raising seahorses I got probably the best piece of advice from Dan U. of seahorsesource.com. Dan told me not to let the seahorse fry eat food that had settled on the bottom of the tank by adjusting the flow to keep the food in constant motion."Dead" food like frozen mysis shrimp start to decay immediately and can collect large amounts of bacteria shortly after hitting the floor of a tank. The theory is that seahorses never evolved the GALT (gut-associated lymphoid tissues) in the gut to be able to eat decaying food and can suffer from bacterial infections as a result of eating frozen food diets combined with improper conditions.

seahorse fry who eat food off the floor are more likely to die before reaching the juvenile stage

"A hypothesis is discussed that the adaptive immune system of vertebrates evolved in the gastrointestinal regions of primitive jawed fish (placoderms) due to increased localized injuries and infections which were inadvertently brought about by the novel jaw structures and the predatory life style...Initial study of the seahorse (Hippocampus) indicates that the gut-associated immune tissues may be absent in this teleost species, suggesting an evolutionary link between the adaptive immune system and the jaw structure or eating habit."

-summary of Jaw Hypothesis and the Seahorse by Matsunaga T., Rahman A.

In the wild seahorses do not eat dead, decaying food; they only eat live food. Seahorses obviously have some sort of immune system but do not have the gut-associated immune tissue that protects from bacteria that naturally settle on decaying matter (frozen mysis shrimp). Both benign and infectious bacteria (such as Vibrio spp.) are always present in even the cleanest aquariums and in nature. Once a piece of frozen mysis shrimp comes into contact with the bottom of the aquarium, bacteria begin to colonize and break it down almost immediately. When a seahorse eats a piece of frozen mysis shrimp that has been sitting on the floor of the tank too long, it may not get sick right away. The bacteria passes through its gut and is present in the feces which may then contaminate the next meal. Any seahorse that eats the resulting feces-contaminated food is at high risk for bacterial infection. This is why it is important to siphon before and after each feeding.

Keep your seahorse tank clean, and keep the temperature below 74°F

It is much easier to keep a bare bottom seahorse tank clean than a reef-style seahorse tank. A pair of seahorses in a very large tank are less likely to come into contact with their feces, and the clean-up crew usually takes care of any uneaten food. The more seahorses in an aquarium, the more important it is to keep it clean. Scrub the floor and walls of the aquarium daily to prevent buildup of organic material settling there. Siphon feces before each feeding, and siphon uneaten frozen foods immediately after feeding. Clean filters and all tubing at least once a month. keep concentrations of nitrates, phosphates, and organics as close to 0 ppm as possible, as these favor the growth of infectious bacteria and cause stress on the seahorse immune system. Using a UV sterilizer, Protein Skimmer, and strong filter can also help keep the water clean. Have enough current and water flow in all areas of the tank so that "dead zones" of little or now flow are not allowed collect organics and grow bacteria.

You can do a lot to prevent bacterial infections in your seahorse aquarium by keeping temperatures lower than 74°F. Vibrio spp. bacteria become more virulent and aggressive at higher temperatures, while significantly slowing growth at temperatures below 68°F. Vibrio bacterial infections are now one of the leading causes of captive seahorse deaths. If Vibrio can be spread through frozen food that sits on the aquarium floor too long, this may be why seahorses who are fed a diet of live foods are more likely to survive in aquariums with higher temperatures than seahorses who are fed frozen foods.

Further reading:

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/rayjay/temperature.html

Keeping multiple species thread on Seahorse.org (sign in to view topic)

Seahorse Heater Burn

2010-12-11T18:09:00.000-08:00

A Felicia's Aquarium Adventures reader, Jim Bremner of www.desertusa.com (very cool website, worth a look), was kind enough to share the story and photos of his seahorse that was badly burned by an aquarium heater. Jim is an avid aquarium keeper, but is fairly new to seahorses. In all his extensive research, he never found advice about not keeping a heater in a seahorse tank. Truly, this small but very important piece of advice is often left out of seahorse care articles.

Aquarium heaters can and do burn seahorses, and it is a life-threatening situation. Most seahorse aquariums do not require aquarium heaters, as seahorses do best in temperatures lower than 74°F. If you need a heater in your seahorse tank to raise or stabilize the temperature, use an inline heater, a heater guard, or place the heater in a sump.

Jim was able to successfully keep his seahorses in a tank with a heater for a couple months without incidence. But perhaps with the onset of cooler weather in December, the heater was turning on more often and running hotter. The male seahorse must have been hitched to the heater for too long while it was running particularly hot, and he got a very bad burn on his tail and part of his pouch that were touching the heater.

This is what a heater burn looks like. Notice that the skin has been burned away but is not swollen or infected. With any kind of burn or injury, Vibrio bacterial infection can set in very quickly and aggressively, so it's best to get the seahorse moved to a hospital tank with a controlled temperature no warmer than 68°F. Have the proper antibiotics on hand (Triple Sulfa or Furan-2 combined with Neomycin) and keep a close eye on the burn for sings of infection. If the white area gets larger or changes in appearance, start treating with anti-biotics. Use the full course of antibiotics, even if the seahorse appears to be fully healed. Give the seahorse soft airline tubes to hitch on (if he will hitch), keep the lights dimmed, and avoid sudden movements around the tank. If the seahorse stops eating, offer live mysis or enriched live adult brine shrimp.

Jim did everything he could to save his seahorse, but unfortunately, the seahorse did not survive. Thanks again to Jim for sharing his photo and story with us. Maybe his experience will help save the lives of other seahorses.

Dwarf Seahorses - Seahorsesource.com makes it easy

2010-12-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

Dwarf Seahorses Hippocampus zosterae are sturdy and easy to keep, but there is one drawback - they require live food. The easiest live food to grow for them is baby brine shrimp, but it should be decapsulated (remove the outer shell) and enriched before feeding to seahorses. The outer shells of baby brine shrimp can carry pathogens and ciliates that you do not want to introduce into your Dwarf Seahorse tank. Also, the shells can become lodged in the digestive tract of a Dwarf Seahorse if accidentally eaten.

a male Dwarf Seahorse

I used to decapsulate my own brine shrimp, but I found it messy, time consuming, and wasteful. I found already decapsulated brine shrimp on Seahorsesource.com and decided to give it a try. The decapsulation is done in a lab under a microscope to ensure quality and high hatch rate, so it is MUCH cleaner and less wasteful. When I started using Seahorsesource's decapsulated brine shrimp, I actually saved money. One bottle of the decapsulated brine shrimp lasts me about six months feeding small batches of erectus fry and dwarf seahorses. I'll never go back to decapsulating my own brine shrimp.

A female Dwarf Seahorse

Since brine shrimp (Artemia) are not from a marine environment, they are lacking in essential highly unsaturated fatty acids HUFA that seahorses require to live. Brine shrimp should be enriched with HUFA before being fed to the seahorses. I used to use super HUFA, which is an excellent aquaculture-grade enrichment, but it is expensive. I switched over to Dan's Feed and have had wonderful results. I even used it to enrich adult brine shrimp I was giving to my breeding pairs of Erectus seahorses, and their fecundity noticeably increased. The adults are now bigger and healthier with more muscle mass, and their fry are healthier with fewer "floaters" at birth.

Dwarf Seahorses are very tiny! The picture below shows two adult Dwarf Seahorses next to a regular toothbrush.

Dwarf Seahorses next to a regular toothbrush

If you are interested in keeping Dwarf Seahorses, check out the Dwarf Seahorse forum on Seahorse.org. There you will learn everything you could ever possibly want to know about Dwarf Seahorses, including what tank size, tank mates, and foods are suitable for Dwarf Seahorses. There is also an active community of Dwarf Seahorse keepers there who are pushing the envelope and experimenting with different Dwarf Seahorse keeping ideas.

disclaimer: I'm a big fan of Seahorse.org and Seahorsesource.com, but I do not work for them, and I'm not getting paid to tell you about their products.

Ocellaris Clownfish

2010-11-19T16:33:00.000-08:00

Want to learn more about the Ocellaris Clownfish? Read more on ReefTools.com

Seahorses and Vibrio

2010-11-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

The Vibrio bacteria that infect seahorses and pipefish are temperature dependent. Keeping seahorses in a chilled aquarium can greatly reduce the risk of infection or death by Vibrio bacteria.

Different species of seahorses from different parts of the world may be more or less resistant to Vibrio bacteria based on the temperatures of their native environments. The Atlantic Ocean is warmer than other oceans by about 16°F. Hippocampus erectus, H. zosterae, H. reidi and other seahorse species in the Atlantic may have had to adapt by developing stronger immunity to Vibrio bacteria, as warmer temperatures encourage growth of Vibrio, exposing the seahorses to a higher percentage of Vibrio bacteria in their environment than seahorses in other parts of the world. This may explain why H. erectus seahorses, one of the most common seahorse species in the U.S., have been identified as asymptomatic carriers of Vibrio, and when introduced to other species of seahorses can cause severe Vibrio outbreaks.

a beautiful temperate H. elongatus seahorse

Seahorses coming from sub-tropical or temperate zones may have little to no resistance to Vibrio bacteria, especially those strains found in tropical waters. This is why it is so important to keep cool-water seahorse species at their recommended temperature and not to keep them at tropical temperatures even for a short period. Keeping cool-water seahorses with tropical seahorses, especially those from a different ocean, can expose them to strains of Vibrio to which they have no immunity.

There are steps you can take to prevent Vibrio bacterial infections in your aquarium. Invest in one or two good aquarium chillers. Steadily maintain your main tank temperature between 68°F - 74°F for tropical species. A bare bottom aquarium will help prevent build up of bacteria. Scrub the sides and bottom of the tank. Siphon feces before each feeding, and siphon uneaten food shortly after each feeding. A slightly over sized protein skimmer will help maintain water quality.

It is not recommended to mix together different species of seahorses and/or pipefish. Vibrio bacteria can even be transferred via your hands, fish nets, containers, and feeding syringes. If you plan to mix different species of seahorses or pipefish together, you are taking a risk, but you can help to minimize potential infections by quarantining your new arrivals for at least 6 weeks, preferably several months. The new seahorses must be eating perfectly and be in perfect health before introducing them to the main tank, so quarantine for as long as it takes. A UV Sterilizer could theoretically be used to "inoculate" the new seahorses to your existing seahorses' bacteria and vice versa. There is absolutely no fail-safe way to mix seahorse and/or pipefish species together and ensure they will not succumb to Vibrio infection or other transferable disease or infection.

If your tropical species of seahorse develops white, fuzzy patches of eroded skin, especially on the snout or tail, it is likely a Vibrio bacterial infection. Immediately move the seahorse to a bare bottom, sterile 10 gallon hospital/quarantine tank (or simple, plastic Sterilite storage tub/container) with a couple plastic hitches at a temperature of 68°F. Go to the Seahorse.org Emergency forum and start a thread asking for advice; include answers to these questions. Make sure you have the necessary antibiotic medications on hand such as Triple Sulfa or Furan 2 combined with Neomycin. Aggressive Vibrio infections can spread quickly and kill in as little as 24 hours, so act immediately to resolve the issue.

Temperature Affects Marine Vibrio Bacteria

2010-11-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

Vibrio is a genus of marine bacteria found in clams, shellfish, corals, Syngnathids, and Cholera in humans (There are even benign species such as Vibrio Fischeri responsible for bioluminescence in some species of squid and fish). Vibrio cholerae infects humans, Vibrio coralliilyticus infects certain stony corals, and Vibrio spp. infect seahorses and other Syngnathids. The preferred temperature range for growth and the temperature at which virulence increases of each of these three infectious Vibrio species is strikingly similar.

The optimal temperature for Vibrio cholerae survivability and abundance is between 68°F and 86°F. Scientists fear that global warming trends may steadily increase the number of Cholera outbreak cases. It is not surprising that Vibrio coralliilyticus and the Syngnathid-specific strains of Vibrio spp. also favor temperature conditions between 68°F and 86°F.

The Magic Numbers

The recent findings of researchers at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina reported by CORAL magazine (Jan/Feb 2010) show that infectious strains of Vibrio coralliilyticus linked to coral-bleaching events of small polyp stony corals are temperature dependent. Similar to the Vibrio spp. strains that infect seahorses, Vibrio coralliilyticus does not normally cause disease in healthy coral specimens at a temperature of 75°F, but becomes pathogenic at higher temperatures. Temperatures above 80°F increase the acceleration and severity of the infection.

Not much research has been done on the Syngnathid-specific strains of Vibrio, but for years seahorse aquarists have noticed a correlation between high temperatures and Vibrio bacterial infections in their pets. In the book Working Notes – A Guide to Seahorse Diseases pathologist Martin Belli M.D. writes that strains of Vibrio found to affect seahorses did not grow well in a lab at temperatures lower than 64°F. Seahorse.org members have long advocated seahorse aquarium temperatures no higher than 74°F because Vibrio becomes more aggressive and virulent at higher temperatures. Temperatures in the low 80's seem to increase number of cases, rate of infection, and chance of death.

MORE ON VIBRIO from Felicia's Aquarium Adventures:

http://aquariumadventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/seahorses-and-vibrio.html

http://aquariumadventures.blogspot.com/2010/12/seahorse-tank-keep-it-clean.html

Photos of Adorable Newborn Seahorse Babies (Hippocampus erectus )

2010-11-09T15:40:00.000-08:00

Hybrid Limia nigrofasciata x L. vittata

2010-10-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

About five years ago I found some Limia nigrofasciata from a Canadian breeder and ordered a group of six. They reproduced more slowly than my guppies, but soon I had a nice sized breeding colony. Last year a sudden catastrophe caused all but one of my Limias to die. The only remaining Limia was a tiny fry that grew into an adult male. I tried to order more from the breeder, but they didn't have any for sale.

I decided to order some Limia vittata from Aquabid.com. All three were fry that ended up being females. They were too young to be pre-hit when I got them, so it's safe to say they were virgins. They interbred with the last remaining L. nigrofasciata male. They drop fewer, larger fry than guppies do. I normally only see one or two at a time. Only one has grown up to be an adult - this female with spots AND stripes!

As you can see from the photos, she more closely resembles her father, the Humpbacked Limia. When she was a young fry, she had stripes but very few spots. As she ages, her spots become more apparent.

While photographing her today, I noticed a tiny addition to my Limia family. It's too soon to tell if this is one of her fry, or one of her younger siblings.

Limia nigrofasciata are called "Humpbacked Limia" because of the fatty deposit mature males develop on the head. They are silver with black vertical stripes. Females have white bellies, while males usually have a yellowish tinge on the lower face and belly. Dominant males develop many dark spots on the dorsal fin, which they use to impress females. Humpbacked Limias are native to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Limia vittata, the Cuban Limia, are a silver color with highly variable black spots and splotches. Some individuals may have yellowish spots or splotches as well. Males have a larger dorsal fin than females.

My hybrid Limia may not be as beautiful as either of her parents, and hybridization is generally not recommended. These fish are for my own personal enjoyment, and will not leave my aquarium to become invasive species or to end up in the hands of another hobbyist without knowing their heredity.

Felicia's Saddled Seahorses

2010-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

My time and hard work has paid off! The baby seahorses are all grown up and ready to live in your tank.

http://www.dfs-pet-blog.com/2010/09/baby-seahorses/

How it all began:

http://reeftools.com/live/forum/showthread.php?t=240

Wartskin Angler article on ReefTools

2010-08-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

"The Wartskin Angler, Antennarius maculatus, is a strange looking fish with even stranger habits. To the untrained eye, this fish more closely resembles a rock or sponge than a fish. Colored specimens perfectly match the toxic sponges in their habitat, while green and brown specimens blend in to the substrate. Instead of swimming, this fish uses foot-like pelvic and pectoral fins to “walk” around slowly on the substrate. When alarmed, an angler can make a (relatively) speedy getaway by pumping large amounts of water into its siphon-like gills, propelling it through the water while using its tail for a rudder..."

Read more about Wartskin Angler care on Reeftools.com

Brazilian Seahorses

2010-08-08T12:07:00.000-07:00

Learn more about Brazilian Seahorses

Galloping Across the Seas by Henrique Caldeira Costa, John Moojen Museum of Zoology, Federal University of Viçosa

translated to English in Google Translator

Seahorse Sleuth

2010-05-15T09:28:00.001-07:00

Crinoid Squat Lobster Care

2010-03-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

New article on Reeftools.com about Crinoid Squat Lobster aquarium care.

My Seahorse Had Babies!

2010-03-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Juniper is a daddy! After the death of his mate, Ellis, he and Hoover have formed a very close bond. I was worried that they wouldn't because they weren't interested in each other before.

On March 15th, I found about 30 or 40 tiny baby seahorses in my aquarium's sump. Juniper is a very large seahorse, so he probably had closer to 200 babies, but most of them were probably anthias and Brotulid food. I took the survivors to work and have been trying my hand at fry raising. I have the best mentors I could possibly have helping me, though. My boss is a clownfish raising expert, and I've been getting advice from the folks at Seahorse.org. Honestly, though, I'm shocked they are doing as well as they are. I'm really excited, but trying not to get my hopes up too high. The day after he had the babies, I saw Juniper and Hoover doing another egg transfer, so there should be more babies in our future.

More pictures and updates here!

Flashing Tilefish Care

2010-03-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Check out this article about caring for Flashing Tilefish on ReefTools.com

My Flashing Tilefish, Blinky, is doing great, by the way! (That's him in the picture).

Tank Crash

2010-01-25T17:44:00.000-08:00

I've been putting off writing this blog for a few weeks. I experienced my worst aquarium nightmare over Christmas break. We were traveling a lot to visit relatives, and I wasn't giving my aquariums as much attention as I should have. We're not sure what caused the crash, but one day when I came home, I knew immediately something was terribly wrong. Three out of five of my seahorses were laying dead on the floor of the tank, and the fish that were left were breathing hard, discolored, and obviously stressed. I was quick to blame it on my sea cucumber, Pentacta anceps, but I'm not certain. I estimate that whatever disaster struck, happened right before I came home that day. The fish that died looked as though they had just died, and the ammonia was still at zero ppm.

We quickly did a 50% water change and put a pound of carbon in the filtration. Within a half hour, the fish that survived started to perk up. All in all, the crash could've been much worse. I lost most of my small gobies, 3 of my seahorses (Kuiter, Ellis, and Debelius), my Yellow-fin Flasher Wrasse, and my squat lobsters. All of the other inverts were fine, in fact, my Sun coral was open while all this was going on. My two seahorses Juniper and Hoover, Flashing Tilefish, and all 3 of my shrimp gobies survived (with their shrimp friends), Curious wormfish, 3 Brotulids, and Yellow Eye Anthias survived. Amazingly, one tiny red Eviota goby also survived. The Lionfish and Coral Croucher are in another tank.

I was most devastated by the loss of my seahorses. Seahorses have so much personality, they are truly pets and can't be "replaced" when they are lost. I miss Ellis, Debelius, and especially little Kuiter hitching on my fingers when I put my hand in the tank. I'll be getting a new, larger 120 gallon aquarium soon, so I'll wait to get any more seahorses until after that tank is set up and doing well.

Kuiter

Ellis

Debelius

Coral Guard Crabs

2010-01-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

I recently wrote an article for Reef Tools about Trapeziid Acropora Crabs and Pocilloporid Guard Crabs. The article explains the physical and behavioral differences between Crabs of the genera Trapezia and Tetralia. The article also offers some tips on keeping Acropora Crabs in captivity.

This photo shows a captive Trapezia cymodoce in an Acropora secale.

Read a more detailed version here.

http://reeftools.com/news/guardians-of-the-acropora/

Cardiff Bullet Reef Tank

2009-12-22T17:05:00.000-08:00

I've heard your requests for an updated full tank shot of the Cardiff Bullet shaped Reef tank. These tanks are really neat to see in person, but the U shape really distorts what you can see on the sides of the tank if you are standing in front of it. There is a Toadstool and another purple Gorgonian on the left side, and a Turbinaria and an orange Gorgonian on the right side that you can't see in the picture. This tank would be displayed best if easily viewable from three sides. Mine is not.

Here are some closeups of my corals:

The green polyp Toadstool

Pink Zoanthus

Super neon green Leptoseris

Pumping Xenia

Purple Blastomussa frag

Peanut Butter Cup Zoas

Green Favia lizardensis

Caribbean Blue Zoanthus

2009-12-21T17:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've taken a photo of my favorite Zoas. I got a single polyp of these Caribbean Blue Zoanthus from Sealifeinc.net in 2007 for $5! I think they sell nano frags now instead of single polyps, which makes more sense. They also have larger colonies for those of you with less patience than me.

I used to have these in my seahorse tank (before it was totally non-photosynthetic), but I had to remove algae from all around them all the time. I moved them to a coral-only tank in August, and they are doing much better. I think the lighting is better, and the water quality is pristine.

Before pic:

After pic:

For the Love of Seahorses

2009-12-18T17:20:00.000-08:00

If you haven't joined Reef Tools yet, and you are a marine aquarist, click here. Make sure you add me, "Felicia" to your friends list.

I wrote a short article about seahorse care for people who might be thinking about starting a seahorse aquarium. Check it out here. (Some of those photos might look familiar to some of you, dear readers, especially the last photo of my beloved seahorse Hoover.) I hope I didn't leave anything important out of the article. If you have any questions, please leave a comment, and I will get back to you!

Dwarf Yellow Lionfish

2009-12-16T17:33:00.000-08:00

I got a new pet yesterday, my first ever Lionfish. She is a Yellow Dwarf Lionfish, the yellow variant of the Dendrochirus brachypterus. Acclimation was uneventful, in fact, she showed absolutely no fear and was curious about what was going on (I guess I wouldn't be scared, either, if I was so venomous!) She hasn't gone into hiding at all and likes to hang out in the open, calmly watching us walk around the kitchen. She's like a puppy!

Check out Lionfishlair.com run by my good friends Renee and Greg Hix. Most of the photos on the site were taken by Renee, who is the best photographer I've ever met. Her macro shots inspire me to become a better photographer.

For more info on lionfish care, go to http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/fm/feature/

"Jawbreaker" Crab

2009-12-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

Check out this awesome hitchhiker my friend Cindy gave me. I think it's some kind of Xanthid egg crab or reef crab. I'm pretty sure it's not a good crab for reef tanks, though. I think it's pretty; it reminds me of a Jawbreaker candy. I'll keep it with my other bad crabs in my sump.

Did you know that many colorful Xanthid crabs are poisonous?

Pygmy Coral Croucher

2009-12-09T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today is an exciting day for all Caracanthus lovers! If you think Coral Crouchers are like pygmy Scorpionfish, wait till you see the Pygmy Coral Croucher. Today we found a very tiny Coral Croucher (aka Venomous Velvetfish) on an Acropora coral from Fiji. I'm pretty confident with the ID of Caracanthus unipinna because of the color and elongated tubercles. It's about the size of my thumbnail; I've never seen a Coral Croucher this tiny. It isn't spotted like the other Caracanthus, but it's pretty in its own right - the color of copper with a dark dorsal area.

I've named my new acquisition "Penny" and have it acclimating into my coral tank right now. I think that will be the best place for it because there are no other fish in the coral tank, and the water quality is pristine. This tank is crawling with Amphipods and Munnid Isopods which will come in handy while I'm trying to wean this little fish onto frozen foods. I don't want to lose this tiny fish in the comparitively huge 25 gallon tank, so I bought it a little guppy breeding box. I'll keep "Penny" in there with a (somewhat) live coral frag until it is trained to eat frozen mysis and gets big enough to go into the main tank. Click here to learn more about Coral Croucher care.

I've had pretty good luck with Caracanthus in the past, and this one seems to be in good health. It really amazes me that this miniscule creature hitchhiked all the way from Fiji to my house in the middle of the U.S. continent. I'm really lucky to have the opportunity to care for and study this little known species of Caracanthus. Wish us luck!

December 18 UPDATE: Success! Penny voraciously attacked and ate a piece of frozen mysis a few minutes ago. That means I won't have to hunt for Amphipods and try to suck them up into the feeding syringe anymore. I'll keep you updated on Penny. I wonder how much bigger it will get?

November 2010 Update: Penny never got much bigger, but was eating frozen well. I decided to put it in the main tank where it disappeared. I knew there was a good chance it was still alive, but very small and cryptic. I moved my tanks recently and was sad that I didn't find it among the many other cryptic creatures I hadn't seen in over a year.

Swimming Crab

2009-11-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned my friend Cindy from work before who likes to adopt "bad" crabs. For a long time now, Cindy has been telling me about this monstrous Swimming Crab that she has. It was small when she found it as a hitchhiker on a coral, but has since grown to over four inches wide. The crab is a confirmed female, having been gravid in the past. I've always been fascinated by this crab and had hoped to visit Cindy's home to photograph the crab and her other aquariums.

Yesterday, I was greeted at work by Cindy holding a large bag of water. She explained that the aquarium the crab was living in crashed and the crab needed a new emergency home. Being sympathetic to bad crabs myself, I of course agreed to put the crab in my sump. I thought my husband would be pleased, since he is a self-professed crustacean lover, but when I handed him the bag, he screamed like a girl. I have to admit, I'm a little scared of the crab, too. I was careful not to get my fingers too close to those claws.

It was hilarious when I poured the crab out of the bag, she is heavy! We think the crab is a Red Leg Swimming Crab or something similar. If anyone can ID this crab to genus or species, I'd love to hear from you. Since she was found on a coral that was imported for aquarium trade, she is likely from the tropical Indo-Pacific or possibly Australia.

Cindy says this crab loves to eat table shrimp and will actually use her hind legs to swim to the top of the water if she senses food. Check out these flat swimming legs.

I'm excited to be caring for this crab for a while, she is certainly an interesting specimen. She moves around a lot more than the other crabs I have, constantly walking around and eating things off the floor...probably my other bad crabs.

More Swimming Crab Pics

Squat Lobster Hosting on Seahorse

2009-11-05T16:43:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful weekend as a bridesmaid at an outdoor Halloween wedding, or "Hallowedding." Unfortunately, I got the flu and didn't even look at my aquariums for a few days. (My husband was kind enough to feed the seahorses and new Flashing Tilefish for me.) I got up this morning for work and decided to pop a cube of mysis in for the seahorses quickly. I glanced in right before leaving and saw something strange on Hoover, one of my female seahorses. I looked closer, and saw my newest Crinoid Squat Lobster hosting on her!

At first, I was shocked. This is not normal behavior. I wanted to knock the thing off or her as quickly as possible, but I had to grab a couple quick snapshots of the situation first. I think the squat lobster was smart for doing this, because as Hoover swam up to the top of the water to eat some mysis, the squat lobster grabbed some mysis, too. I don't know how it thought a seahorse was similar enough to a Crinoid to host on it, but it worked. Maybe someday squat lobsters will figure out that seahorses are better hosts than Crinoids, because they move toward the food instead of waiting for the food to come to them. It was sort of funny, because the squat lobster seemed a bit triumphant in his experiment, but also a little confused as to why his host was moving around so much. He looked like a cowboy trying to hang onto a bull.

Hoover didn't seem irritated by the squat lobster. Normally if something is on her (like another seahorse), she bucks and shakes, trying to dislodge it. Even though she was acting normal with the squat lobster attached to her, it made me really uncomfortable. So I grabbed her and shook it off of her. She went back to eating right away, and the squat lobster sunk to a crevice in a rock, where he has stayed.

Flashing Tilefish

2009-10-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got my dream fish two weeks ago - a Flashing Tilefish Hoplolatilus chlupatyi I've named Blinky. These fish are notoriously delicate and difficult to keep, but Blinky was in excellent shape when I got him. He's been eating like a pig from day one and has a nice, full belly.

For the first two weeks, though, he hid under a rock and I had to target feed him. It didn't take him long to recognize me as the mysis dispenser, and he would come out from under his rock a few inches to eat. He's even started coming out of hiding any time I walk up to the tank, hoping to be fed. Today he was comfortable enough to swim further from his hiding place and explored the whole left side of the tank. I'm really happy he's doing so well.

As you can see, tilefish and seahorses make great companions. Above is a picture of Blinky and Juniper, my adult male H. erectus seahorse, sharing a meal together. This blue color with the green dorsal is Blinky's default coloration. When he gets excited or scared, he starts rapidly flashing all different vivid colors - pink, yellow, green purple...it's incredible. My boss had one of these for years and said that after a while, it stopped flashing and just stayed blue all the time. It's still a gorgeous fish even when it gets comfortable enough to stop flashing.

One reason tilefish are difficult to keep is because they are so shy. They should have the most peaceful tank mates like seahorses and gobies. Flashing Tilefish are especially delicate because they are deepwater fish living in waters over 100 feet deep. This is what causes their higher price tag; deepwater fish are more costly because it's more risky to dive for them. Once they are collected, they have to be slowly acclimatized to lower pressure or they will die. A Flashing Tilefish will set you back about $150 or more. But if you can find a healthy specimen, they are worth it.

Flashing Tilefish must be kept in an aquarium with a tightly closed lid. Any tiny holes in the canopy or top for tubes or cords should be well covered. The number one cause of death for Tilefish after being acclimated is from carpet surfing - jumping out of the aquarium.

December Update: Blinky is doing so great, I just love him. His favorite activity is definitely eating. He nibbles on the end of the feeding syringe or my fingers when I feed. He has no fear now and swims around all the time. He has filled out really nicely and has a fat belly.

Check out these Youtube videos of Flashing Tilefish changing colors:

Squat Lobster Battles

2009-10-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Felicia's Aquarium Adventures, your number one source for pet Crinoid Squat Lobster information!

A couple weeks ago, I was happy to find a large white and yellow Allogalathea elegans that I think was a female. Similar Galatheid crabs can be sexed by the width of the carapace; females have a wider carapace than the males for carrying eggs. But another close relative, the porcelain crab, the females are significantly smaller than the male. Either way, I think there is a difference in width between male and female Crinoid squat lobsters.

The photo above is a wild gravid female Crinoid squat lobster in its host. Most of the squat lobsters I see are probably juveniles or males, so I don't often see the ones with wider bodies, like the one pictured below.

squatting lobster
Originally uploaded by Salt Water People

After seeing my black Allogalathea elegans and my Galathea inflata sharing a Crinoid, I had the idea to try to make a pair of one of my squat lobsters. I've talked to divers who say it's rare to see more than one squat lobster on a Crinoid in the wild. No one is quite sure if they live as pairs or prefer solitude. Sadly, the new squat lobster didn't live through acclimation. My dreams of having a pair of squat lobsters were dashed.

I did find another yellow squat lobster soon after, but I believe it is either a male or a juvenile. I bought him and added him to my aquarium where he started a game of musical Crinoids with the other squat lobsters.

I've never actually seen my squat lobsters battle, but I see the aftermath. There are two Crinoids in my aquarium, both are black. They've been alive, honestly, longer than I expected. One is in pretty good shape still, and it is the preferred Crinoid. The other lost the tips of its arms long ago. Darth Maul, my 2+ year old Galathea inflata, in August was sharing the good Crinoid with Darth Vader, an Allogalathea elegans who has been with us about 6 months. For a few weeks, it seemed like a truce had been struck between the two. Then one day, I woke up to find Darth Maul's molt under the good Crinoid. Darth Vader was there, but Darth Maul was missing. When I finally found him, he was in the small Crinoid and missing an arm. There must have been a feirce battle while Darth Maul was molting and Darth Vader found him in a weakened state.

Squat lobster status quo was reached and maintained until a third squat lobster, the yellow and white one my husband dubbed "Bananarama II" was added to the aquarium. This is when the game of musical Crinoids commenced. The next day, Bananarama was in the small Crinoid, Darth Maul was in the preferred Crinoid, and Darth Vader was alone. The day after that, Darth Vader took the small Crinoid from Bananarama, who I found on the complete other side of the 4 foot aquarium. Here he is next to my special-needs goby and laying claim to this empty snail shell

Chucks' addiction has a beautiful gallery of hitchhiking Galatheid squat lobsters.

Anthias Mouth Stuck Open

2009-10-14T19:31:00.000-07:00

When I came home from work today, I was shocked to see my one-eyed yellow eye anthias Pseudanthias lunulatus, Lucky, with his mouth stuck open! Unfortunately, I've heard of and seen this happen to anthias before when they are stressed out, and they usually don't come back from it. I have no idea why this happens, but I've always wondered. I think Lucky may have just been surprised by the door opening abruptly (the tank is right by the front door). Lucky is blind in one eye and often swims full speed into rocks and other objects in the tank, so it's possible he injured his mouth doing that. Luckily, Lucky was able to close his mouth after a few minutes and is eating right now.

It kind of looks like this, when an anthias' mouth is stuck open.

Here's a picture of Lucky right after I brought him home. He was still a little thin in this photo, but he's doing great now.

I've also heard of and seen stressed anthias who bend in the middle and can't straighten themselves. They usually die shortly after. Small anthias are delicate little creatures and should always be handled with great care! Don't expose them to sudden bright lighting, changes in water parameters, aggressive fish, or other stressors. Stress kills anthias.

Columnaris

2009-09-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to visit aquarium and pet stores. On a trip to Madison this spring, we picked up a few guppies for our freshwater tank. I hadn't been paying enough attention to my freshwater tanks and only had a few fish left. One was my favorite guppy, a male that was descended from a line of albino magenta pintails crossed with some neon doubleswords and some of my best friend's mutt guppies. He was the last of my guppies, and had no mates.

I added the two new females after a long, careful acclimation. I didn't bother to quarantine them, after all, they're only guppies, right? Wrong. Less than two days later, the new guppies looked like this:

I removed them to a quarantine tank, but they were too far gone. I started doing heavy water changes and maintaining a salt level of about .2% (about one teaspoon per gallon) using freshwater aquarium salt. Within days, my favorite guppy and a number of my other livebearers had succumbed to the disease. I also dosed with Mela Fix, though I'm not sure how effective it was. Perhaps without it, the mortality rate would've been higher. Everyone else has since recovered, but when I added some healthy new fish last month from a private breeder I trust, a few of them contracted what I suspect was columnaris and died shortly after I put them in the tank. Columnaris can stick around for a long time, even though my other fish are not showing symptoms.

Columnaris, Flavobacterium columnare (formerly known as Flexibacter columnaris) is a gram negative bacteria that is not easy to treat. I don't like to use medications, but some popular medications for curing Columnaris are Acriflavine, Furan, and low doses of Formalin. Neomycin and many common antibiotics are not effective. Medications must be used in quarantine tanks because the medications kill the aquarium's ammonia-eating bacteria. Ammonia is much easier to control in a bare tank than in a display tank containing substrate. If you have more than one tank, be careful not to cross contaminate with fish nets, hands, or specimen containers.

If you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to leave a comment. If you've had a Columnaris outbreak in your aquarium and successfully treated it, I'd love to hear from you!

Blue Eyed Crabs

2009-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Blue Eyed Crab

Probably the baddest of the bad crabs (for SPS tanks) is the blue eyed crab, Cymo spp. They live on stony corals like Acropora and Pocillopora sp. Unlike most symbionts, these crabs do considerable damage to their hosts. I'm not sure if it's so bad in the wild, but in captivity, these little crabs can quickly kill your prized Acropora colony. I assume they eat the coral's flesh, as they leave dead, white patches in their wake.

My friend Cindy from work shares my sympathy for all things "bad" in the aquarium world, and has adopted countless bad crabs, Stomatopods, and other weird reef-unsafe stuff. She says the blue eyed crabs will eat frozen foods if they don't have a coral to eat (though hers usually do, the spoiled brats). She has some gorgeous bad crabs in many different colors; one is the size of her hand!

red Xanthid crab

I have a 13 gallon trash can under my aquarium that acts like a sump. There's not much I can put in there, because it's so tall and narrow. I have some Chaeto and other algae in there, but not much else. I started noticing a thin layer of grossness collecting on the bottom, and decided to start collecting "bad crabs" to help clean it up. I already had one bad crab, some kind of red Xanthid crab, shown above. I moved that crab to the trash can sump and have been on the lookout for more bad crabs ever since.

I threw three blue eyed crabs into my trash can sump along with my red Xanthid crab last week. There's enough Chaeto in there to prevent territory disputes, and I'm sure enough food gets to them to scavenge. We'll see how these crabs do in my sump. I'll probably be adopting more"bad crabs" in the future. I'll let you know how it goes.

I found this blog post really interesting, along with having a great photo of one of these beasts, it says that the blue eyed crab in Singapore, Cymo andreossyi, is listed as Vulnerable. Do you need any more reason to throw your bad crabs into the sump instead of your trash can?

Hexagonaria Coral Fossil

2009-09-21T13:25:00.000-07:00

I recently got a new fossil, a 350 million year old Hexagonaria sp. coral fossil. (My husband is probably thinking, "Oh, great, now she's collecting dead corals, too.") This particular fossil was collected in the Sahara desert. It's hard to imagine that 350 million years ago, there were oceans in the Sahara and mid-west America where corals of the Hexagonaria genus thrived. It's so interesting to think about; this is the ancient ancestor (or distant cousin) of the modern closed brain corals in our aquariums and oceans. It looks so much like a Montastrea or a Prism coral. Wouldn't it be amazing to go back in time and see this coral when it was alive? What color were its polyps? What was its habitat like? Did it have any symbiotic relationships? We can only imagine.

Macro shot:

Here's a macro of the neon green Favia lizardensis in my coral aquarium for comparison:

Check out more fossil photos on my Flickr page->.

Malachite Secretive Wrasse

2009-09-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

I just had to tell someone about this fish. I photographed this Japanese Malachite Secretive wrasse for work today, and I am in love.

Not to anthropomorphize him, but this fish had a lot of personality. The first time I looked at him, he was a completely different color. It wasn't the typical stress pattern that wrasses sometimes get, he was actually bright red, blue, and white mottled all over. But when I approached him to photograph him, he turned this gorgeous yellow-orange color right before my eyes! Just like a chameleon. I've seen plenty of other orange Pteragogus wrasses, but this one was simply stunning. To top of his amazing coloration, he's got super long first and second dorsal spikes. And look at the patterns on his face. Spots and whorls! Plus that beautiful, toothy smile. Who can resist?

He's from Japan, so he prefers cooler water temperatures in the sub-tropical range. If I had a cool water FOWLR tank, this little cutie would be coming home with me. Alas, my tank is full of tiny gobies and seahorses. So I will have to cherish what little time I have left to spend with him. If you buy this fish, I hope you will send me updates on him. He is truly special!

New DFS Blog

2009-09-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

Drs. Foster & Smith has unveiled their new pet blog! And I'll be writing for it occasionally. I've written 2 posts for it so far, the first being a quick introduction to my seahorses, but you're all regular readers of Aquarium Adventures and know all about them already. The latest post is all about my 2 year old sun coral (and its babies), in which I give tips on care, feeding, and the magic of reproducing these gorgeous corals (that's right, I said reproduce, not frag).

My boss Kevin is also writing some aquarium-related posts for the DFS pet blog, check out his post on quarantine tanks. My husband Keith, who is a professional writer, will be posting about our parrots and leopard gecko. If you are into dogs, there are lots of posts about dog health, training, and agility. This blog has something for everyone, even Ferret lovers, cat owners, and small pet keepers.

Why are you still here? Go read the sun coral post and share your tips, stories, and comments!

The Deadliest Animal Planet

2009-09-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

I was recently contacted by a Mr. Stitchman from Icon Films regarding my photography on Flickr. He said that he was working on Animal Planet's series "River Monsters 2" and was interested in using some of my Sturgeon photos. At first I was really excited that my photos might be used on a huge TV network.

I'm a really positive person by nature, and I don't like to talk badly about anyone. But I can't stand Animal Planet anymore. I remember when I was a kid watching the hard-to-find nature shows on PBS, and when I heard about a new station called Animal Planet, I thought it would be more like that. Instead they have shows about how dangerous and deadly animals are to humans. Every time I turn on Animal Planet, a man with an action-movie-announcer voice is warning us about some deadliest animal in the world (whatever). With these shows, Animal Planet is not educating people as much as they are creating unjustified fear of animals and vilifying animals. It's no longer just "Animal Planet," it's become "the Deadliest Animal" Planet.

I had hoped that "River Monsters" would be different, as Mr. Stitchman said it was about "some of the biggest and most interesting freshwater fish." I Googled it and found some clips on YouTube and was instantly annoyed. Some of the titles include "KILLER CATFISH," "EUROPEAN MANEATER," and "AMAZON FLESHEATERS." I didn't contact them again about those photos. I just couldn't sell myself out. I don't want to be associated with a show like that.

Since when did Animal Planet become a network for horror films about animals? I am not interested in shows that bombard us with rare, freak animal attacks; negatively highlight the contention between humans and animals; and invoke fear of animals in children and other impressionable viewers. If I'm watching a show and hear the words "deadly," "dangerous," and "attack" within the first two minutes, I know to change the channel. Why doesn't Animal Planet show more educational shows, or shows about conservation? Some of my favorite Animal Planet shows are Buggin' with Ruud, Corwin's Quest, Growing Up..., and Orangutan Island. Animal Planet needs more shows like these that advocate conservation, learning, and treating animals with a healthy respect. Sure, those sensational shows about man-eating animals have some merits. At least now I know never to harass a Polar bear, king cobra, or great white shark, should I ever encounter one here in Wisconsin.

Do you agree, or disagree? Feel free to leave a comment and tell us how you feel about Animal Planet.

Shedd Aquarium Tour

2009-08-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

My husband and I went to Chicago this week to see one of our favorite bands, Modest Mouse, and to visit the Shedd Aquarium. We got a private tour and got to see some really awesome behind the scenes stuff.

The Caribbean Reef exhibit is the first one you see when you walk into the Shedd. It is absolutely enormous. There were a lot of large Caribbean fish in there like tangs, sharks, porkfish, parrotfish, wrasses, turtles, and a big school of Lookdowns.

I think I spent most of my time in the coral quarantine room. They had a fine collection of neon colored Fungiid corals and some of the biggest and brightest LPS I've seen. I was totally blown away by the group of gorgeous Tridacna crocea clams, soon to be on display.

What really amazed me was that the Shedd has been spawn collecting Acropora palmata corals from the Caribbean. Like all Caribbean stony corals, Acropora plamata is illegal to collect, which is why I've never seen one in person. These larger pieces pictured are about two years old.

I mentioned that it's too bad that A. palmata isn't more colorful, but at least some of the smaller pieces had green or purple colored polyps. They said that A. palmata doesn't have colored polyps in the wild, but after DNA analysis of the symbiotic Zooxanthellae algae (what gives coral its color), they found that the sexually reproduced pieces were taking in Zooxanthellae from Pacific speices of coral. That is what is giving them the colored polyps, and also makes them hardier.

Most public aquariums traditionally had fake corals in their displays, mostly because the corals were too difficult to keep, and so they could treat the displays with copper. Sure, they had reef fish and rubber coral replicas, but not much to offer the seasoned reefer. The Shedd has an exhibit called the Wild Reef, a giant room downstairs with wall-to-wall reef tanks, live coral everywhere! I was also really impressed with the Shedd's collection of Anthias.

I am a little sad that I didn't get to see the seahorse and sea dragon exhibit called "Seahorse Symphony" wich has since moved to Duluth and is now called "Seahorse Secrets." The Shedd has a small collection of seahorses, mostly H. reidi, H. kuda, H. erectus, and H. comes. Most of them were in fairly good condition, which is not bad for a public aquarium. They also had a few nice pipefish and trumpetfish mixed in with the reef tanks. It's hard to impress me with seahorses, but I did enjoy the small sea dragon exhibits. They seemed to be in good health, considering their delicate nature.

I was really upset by one of the other guests at the aquarium who was using his camera's flash to photograph these sensitive animals. There is a large sign next to the tank that says, "NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY;" I pointed at the sign and said, literally, "You're not supposed to use your flash on these. It kills them." He glared at me and continued to use his flash. I use my flash on my home aquariums all the time, but I don't do it for 12 hours a day every day. This is why I didn't use my flash at all at the Shedd. It's not good for the fish and animals there to be constantly hit with bright lights. Sea dragons are particularly sensitive to camera flash (or any bright light), it can literally stress them to death. So if you go to the Shedd, don't use your flash, please.

There are a lot of freshwater exhibits, as well. I really enjoyed the Goodeid exhibit and the planted neon tetra tank. I got to meet Steve, one of the aquarists who breeds and cares for the freshwater fish. We thought he was a really cool guy who seemed to be really passionate about his job.

See more photos from my trip on my Flickr Shedd Aquarium set. Also check out the Shedd Aquarium Chicago Flickr Group where you can submit your own Shedd Aquarium photos. THis group is frequented by the Shedd staff and other Shedd Aquarium enthusiasts.

squat lobsters sharing crinoid

2009-08-22T11:29:00.001-07:00

I still have the two black Crinoids in my aquarium, but the purple one slowly fell apart and died. The black ones are not doing bad, still extending their arms to feed.

I was surprised last night when I glanced at one of the Crinoids to find that both of my squat lobsters were hosting in it.

Darth Maul, in the lower half of the photo, is a Galathea inflata. He prefers to cling to the rocks underneath a Crinoid. Sometimes he moves to a different Crinoid, and sometimes doesn't stand under one at all. Darth Vader, in the upper portion of the photo, is an Allogalathea elegans. He is always in a Crinoid, usually in the center or on the arms.

Squat lobsters are solitary creatures, so it's unusual to find them sharing a Crinoid. These two have not been fond of one another, either. Darth Maul has chased Darth Vader from his favorite Crinoid before. But it looks like they've made a truce. There is another Crinoid in the aquarium, exactly like this one, but they both prefer this one. They are still sharing this morning, I wonder how long this will last.

Yasha Goby and Red Banded Pistol Shrimp

2009-08-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

Last night when I was feeding my fish, I was shocked to see that my Yasha goby has a friend! Kenobie, my Yasha goby, has been alone for over two years now. About a year ago, I bought her an unidentified green pistol shrimp from my LFS; I later ID'd it as Alpheus ochrostriatus. They completely ignored one another. So in February, I got a Wheeler's goby for the pistol shrimp. Kenobie was still all alone, except for her peppermint shrimp friends. In February I bought her an Alpheus randalli, red banded pistol shrimp, which is the pistol shrimp that Yasha gobies are commensal with in the wild. I heard a lot of pistol shrimp popping and shooting, and didn't see the red banded pistol shrimp after that at all. I thought for sure it was killed by the much larger green pistol shrimp. But all is well, and my Yasha has a new pistol shrimp friend!

Almost Finished Renovations

2009-08-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

I finally finished moving my aquariums around the kitchen. The 55 gallon with the 20 gallon sump is now home to all the reef fish, inverts, non-photosynthetic corals, and seahorses. The 25 gallon nano bullet tank is now a coral-only tank. The 37 gallon, which used to be the seahorse tank, is now a planted guppy and Limia tank. I usually go to bed pretty early, but some night I'll try to stay up past dark and get a shot of all three tanks with the lights off in the kitchen so you don't have to look at my refrigerator.

I had to combine the two saltwater tanks and was nervous at first about how everyone would get along. So far, there haven't been any major problems. There was a squat lobster confrontation, however, on the first day. Darth Maul, the Galathea inflata, evicted Darth Vader, the Allogalathea elegans, from its favorite black Crinoid. In the wild, Darth Vader would have been eaten immediately without the protection of a Crinoid. So it felt that it had to move quickly to the nearest Crinoid, which happened to be my newest Crinoid, a purple one. It was obvious that Darth Vader did not like the purple Crinoid much, because it made its way to the nearest uninhabited black Crinoid soon after. Darth Maul, the Galathea inflata, does not live on the center of the Crinoid like Darth Vader does. Instead, it stands on the rock underneath the Crinoid's outstretched arms.

What I found interesting is that the short, tufted antennae on either side of its rostrum were pointed toward the Crinoid the whole time it was travelling toward it. I wonder if commensal squat lobsters use those to chemically sense, or smell Crinoids. I wish I knew what those little antennae, circled in red on the picture at left, were called.

I found this pretty Zoanthus gigantus rock at my local store. Since I was good at the doctor and didn't hit the anesthesiologist this time, my husband let me buy it. For this photo, I tried out my new surface viewer while the coral was in acclimation. I think it turned out pretty well.

The light fixture I won from a raffle is kind of broken. Only some of the bulbs light up now. That's ok, since this is a non-photosynthetic tank now, and the hair algae is dying. Both the actinics light up, which looks pretty nice. Here's my sea cucumber under actinic lighting. It's still doing well and eats phytoplankton every day. It's difficult to tell since they change shape so much, but I think it has grown. It definitely hasn't gotten smaller. You can also see in the photo a small, white tuft coming out around the mouth. Since taking this photo last week, it has grown into a regular sized feeding tentacle. I don't think the animal hasn't lost any tentacles, so I wonder why it's growing new ones.

Lost my Scooter

2009-07-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite fish jumped out of the tank and died Saturday night. This isn't the first time he's done it, either. I have pond netting covering the holes in my canopy, but there is a tiny space where the filter intake pipes hang on the tank. He must have found his way through that space, because I found him on the floor just underneath the filter. He wasn't completely dried out, so I threw him back in the tank, hoping he'd revive. Unfortunately, he didn't.

I'm really bummed out about it. I liked this fish a lot. It's such a shame that he died so needlessly, because he was very healthy and fat. I had him since he was only a little more than an inch long, and he was about 3 inches when he died.

Livebearing Marine Brotulids

2009-07-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

I've always been fascinated by livebearing fish like guppies, so when I discovered Brotulids, I had to know more about this odd, cryptic fish.

The most common species in the hobby is the yellow dusky Brotulid, otherwise known as a yellow eel goby. They're easy to care for and not picky eaters. They do best in small, peaceful aquariums with easily accessible places to hide, like PVC pipes and flowerpots. They should be target fed, since they are so shy. In large aquariums with a lot of rockwork, they can't be target fed and may starve.

I bought my first yellow dusky Brotulid in March 2008. I put him into my reef aquarium with over 90 pounds of live rock where he promptly dove under a rock pile never to be seen again. A few months later, I bought another one and put her in my seahorse aquarium which has low lighting and little live rock. She lives inside of a rock that is shaped like a cave. I can easily see her, but sometimes I have to use a small flashlight. She is almost constantly in movement, hovering inside her cave while undulating her beautiful, ribbon-like fins. She has become much less shy and even pokes most of the way out of her cave to eat thawed frozen mysis shrimp alongside my seahorses. She is not picky about what she eats and took to frozen food right away. She lives with my two female Orange Eel Gobies, which are a similar species. All three of them are very social with one another and share a cave. Strangely, they also share their cave with my Curious Wormfish, who is very similar to them in behavior and body shape. She is extremely peaceful and doesn't bother any of the small crustaceans or fish that share her tank. Even the squat lobster and Trimma gobies are safe with her.

Sexing this species of Brotulid is a little different than sexing other species. The males of most Brotulid species have large, visible claspers at the beginning of the anal fin. The male yellow Brotulid has a fleshy, crescent shaped pouch which contains his rounded claspers and sexual organs. The female (pictured here) is similar to females of other species in that they have a tiny "knob" at the front of the anus. Breeding this species in captivity might prove to be as easy as breeding freshwater livebearers. The young are large and highly developed when they are born. Unfortunately, there isn't a high demand for this cryptic species, so aquaculture facilities are not breeding them. There have been reports from hobbyists that some Brotulids eat bristleworms, which are a nuisance to aquarists. If this claim can be validated, that would make this species more popular with hobbyists.

These fish have gone by many scientific names including Dinematichthys riukiuensis, Brotulina fusca, and Diancistrus fuscus. No one is entirely sure which scientific name is valid for the little yellow Brotulids that sometimes show up in the aquarium trade. According to fishbase.org, Brotulina fusca is no longer a valid name, and is replaced by and a synonym of Diancistrus fuscus. Fishbase.org goes on to say that Brotulina fusca is very rare and known only from a single male specimen. It seems unlikely, but not impossible, to me that such a rare species would regularly make it into the aquarium trade. I think that these yellow Brotulids we see in the aquarium trade are more likely in the genus Dinematichthys. I recently came across this photo of a Dinematichthys randalli while doing a Google search. This is the closest I've ever come to positively identifiying my little Brotulid.

The best information I've found on these awesome fish so far has been from a German website called www.seahorsemania.eu. This is what they have to say (translated loosely into English):

"The following photos and info on the animal, comes courtesy of Martin Reith, Freiburg - www.seahorsemania.eu

This very unusual fish, Freiburg shop "Under Water" photographs, where several rare animals for sale. The Yellow bearded Brotulid is considered "Brotulina fusca" in the aquarium trade, but the current Latin name is Diancistrus fuscus. Hardly a rarity these aquarists will have ever seen, so a few additional details:

Assignment and kinship:

The Yellow bearded Brotulid is the family of livebearing Brotulas (Bythitidae) in order Ophidiiformes (like fish entrails / male-like beard) and is therefore associated with the widely-style cod (Gadiformes) related. Fishes of the order Ophidiiformes are mainly deep-water fish and this is also the reason why most divers and aquariums are not yet familiar with members of this order. The only members of this order, the little known, are the bizarre fish viscera (Family Carapidae) in the body of live sea cucumber.

In the family of livebearing Brotulas (Bythitidae) in addition to marine fish and a few representatives that live in anchialinen caves (caves where freshwater and saltwater mix). To mention are the genera Typhliasina, lucifuga and Ogilbia from cave systems in Central America as well as in various groups of islands in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific. From the genus Diancistrus come here next to the imagined nature, even (still rare) reddish colored fish on the market. They are traded as Brotulina Erythrea, it could therefore possibly be Diancistrus erythraeus.

Verbreitung und Lebensraum:

The Yellow bearded Brotulid Diancistrus fuscus lives in the western Pacific in southern Japan, Taiwan and the northern half of the Philippines. To the south of the equator it is replaced by "Allen's bearded Brotulid" Diancistrus alleni. The Yellow bearded Brotulid was rarely observed free-living, it probably lived in shallow waters up to 20 meters in depth, well hidden in columns of coral reefs.

Posture and nutrition:

When it comes to attitude, we can only give rough recommendations because we have little experience with this species. For the welfare of the Yellow Bearded Brotulid in the aquarium, a large number of crevices and caves are needed, since the animals in nature predominantly reside in in columnar systems. Since the diet of these animals still as good as nothing is known, however, should first try to get these animals in a darkened aquarium with very little possibilities to keep hiding in order to be able to observe what food they take. The above-mentioned with the Yellow Beard related fish from anchialinen caves are known to eat several small crustaceans. Yellow Beard Brotulids may eat small copepods and Mysis shrimp. Pair or group housing would be recommended so that the very interesting reproductive behavior and the largely unknown social behavior can be observed.

Reproduction:

The animals are livebearing fish and have an internal fertilization. The males have in a belly fold a penis and pair of claspers similar to those of rays and sharks. The females live bring juveniles to the world. Perhaps Yellow Beard Brotulids are especially easy to breed.

Abstract:

The Yellow Bearded Brotulid is a rarely traded, and highly interesting from an unusual fish group, their way of life is still very little known. Even the exceptional reproduction suggests that the biologically interested aquarists, who is a Artbecken up a lot of sensational observations can be. The very hidden way of life make the Yellow Bearded Brotulid unsuitable for aquarium fish in their normal set, mixed reefs aquarists often want to see."

Quick Fix to Overflowing Sump Syndrome

2009-07-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

The first thing my boss, Kevin, who should have been a physicist (or an ichthyologist), said to me this morning was a tip on how to quickly and easily fix my overflowing sump syndrome. Drill a hole into the outlet pipe at a 45 degree angle. This will break siphon if the return pump should fail. Why is it drilled at a 45 degree angle? That way water will shoot downward out of the new hole, rather than in your face while you're doing a water change.

In the photo above, I demonstrate how even a simpleton can easily drill a hole at a 45 degree angle into a ridiculously long outlet pipe.

I need to give my aquariums a major makeover. I am sick of looking at ugly aquariums. Sure, the animals inside are beautiful, but I am ready for a change. No more DIY-without-a-book ugliness crowding my kitchen. Since it's so obvious that I need help, if you, reader, have any suggestions, I am eager to learn.

What I'd like to do is get the 37 gallon seahorse "sump" off the kitchen floor, move them to the main tank, and get a real sump for under the stand along with all my tank's equipment. I originally intended to use the 37 as an under tank sump, but was surprised when it didn't fit. That's why it's on the floor. And yes, that is a Styrofoam box holding up my skimmer.

I'd also like to move all my corals into the nano bullet tank at the right of the photo. There will be no fish, no sand, nothing to contribute to hair algae. The only critter that will require feeding is my little commensal coral hermit crab. Then I will move my freshwater plants and fish (Limias, guppies, and platies) into the 37 gallon tank. I'll be removing my kitchen table from the kitchen and replacing it with the 37 gallon freshwater tank. I plan to start this project this weekend, but there is a fossil show in Minocqua that could distract me. Look for photos of a frustrated me tearing down tanks in the future.

Don't Do This

2009-07-14T16:03:00.000-07:00

I have had a pretty terrible week so far. I spent yesterday in the hospital for a minor outpatient procedure. After explaining my severe needle-phobia to my anesthesiologist, he still managed to fail to properly insert the IV not once, but twice.

Very early this morning I awoke with alarm as my husband shook me awake saying, "Honey, you need to get up, the aquarium is overflowing." How could this happen? I admit it is totally my fault. I have the necessary check valves and clamps, brand new, in a bag under my aquarium stand. I've just been procrastinating about installing them.

As you can see from the extremely cluttered photo at the left, the return pump has no hose clamp. It is just dangling precariously from the end of the hose. Don't ever do that. It's bad. It's hard to see in this photo because it's obscured by the hose in front, but also take note of the extremely long outlet elbow. It reaches below the water level to about a third of the way down on the main aquarium. Don't do that, either, especially if you don't have a check valve on your outlet hose.

Even if you're not a physicist, you can probably tell from the photo and the description what happened very early this morning to my aquarium. The hose disconnected from the return pump, causing water from the 55 gallon main tank to siphon down into the 37 gallon sump on the floor. If there had been a hose clamp, the hose wouldn't have disconnected from the return pump. If the outlet elbow wasn't so long, it would've stopped siphoning once the water level sunk below it. If I had installed the check valve, it wouldn't have siphoned at all. I knew all of that was possible, which is why I have those hose clamps and check valves under my stand. But you can't change someone's true nature. I'm still a procrastinator, and guess what I'm doing rignt now instead of installing them...

The silver lining? the 20 gallons of water on my floor didn't do any lasting damage. It stopped inches from my computer tower and cell phone.

Pom Pom Crabs and Basket Stars

2009-06-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

The pom pom crabs I ordered have arrived! They are in perfect condition, and the acclimation couldn't have gone any smoother. I placed them next to my older pom pom crab in the aquarium, and they seemed to get along fine. As you can see from the pictures, one of the new pom pom crabs is definitely a female. Note the bright orange eggs on her abdomen. Please forgive the hair algae stuck all over the crabs, that came from my aquarium...

I'm doing a little experiment to see if it's true that pom pom crabs share their anemones with one another, then frag them to make more. I think it's more likely that they steal anemones from each other. When a pom pom crab molts, it puts down its anemones for a short time until it can shed its old exoskeleton and pick them back up again. Perhaps that is when they are most vulnerable to anemone theft! Unless I see it happening, I may never know. But hopefully my older pom pom crab acquires some new anemones somehow, because she lost hers a few months ago and has been carrying around sponges instead. It's kind of sad and pathetic.

Word has gotten around that I like Crinoids and other non-photosynthetic animals, so I was given some basket stars last week. Thanks, Joe! You're awesome!

I have no idea what species these basket stars are. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see that they are pinkish with red-orange stripes all over them. If I had to name them, I'd call them "candy-striped basket stars." They are only about the size of a nickel when they spread out. These are the smallest basket stars I've ever seen, hopefully they'll be easier to feed as a result. They came on this gorgeous non-photosynthetic orange and red soft coral, which I also couldn't ID. It reminds me of corals related to Dendronepthea sp. and Stereonephthya sp. Anyone know what this is? It wasn't attached to a rock, so I rubber-banded it to a heavy coral mariculture plug. I'm going to pin it tomorrow with a long stainless steel frag pin. The stars haven't strayed from the coral yet.

The other basket starfish I got this week is a Caribbean basket starfish, Astrophyton muricatum, similar to the one pictured. I had that one come in as a hitchhiker on a Gorgonian order a couple years ago, and it didn't last long. That is how I learned that basket starfish can crawl inside return pumps and get destroyed by the impeller. Since then, all my pumps have been covered with ugly mesh bags. The one I got this week is about the size of a large man's hand when it is stretched out. This species grows to three feet in diameter in the wild.

I hope to do better with this basket star than with my last one. Like most other non-photosynthetic marine creatures, the majority of the basket star's diet will have to come from my aquarium's refugium and sand bed. In the wild Caribbean basket stars prefer to eat pelagic copepods and other small zooplankton, so Cyclop-eeze, Cyclops, and rotifers are an ideal supplemental diet for a small to medium-sized basket star.
Here's an older article about basket stars on reefs.org http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen17.html

Aquarium Update

2009-06-18T18:23:00.000-07:00

All my aquatic pets are doing well. I'm dealing with some condensation on the glass now that summer is here and I chill my aquarium to 72 degrees. The algae is coming back with a vengeance and threatening my corals. I'm considering starting a nano tank just for my corals. I have a 20 gallon bullet tank, but it currently houses my freshwater livebearers. I doubt my husband will alow me to get ANOTHER aquarium, so I'll have to either get rid of the algae or get rid of my livebearers.

The Curious Wormfish is doing great and eating a lot. He spends most of his time buried in the sand, but when I feed the aquarium he emerges to feed. It's strange to see a tiny blue head poking up out of the sand, waiting for the perfect, calm moment to burst out and begin hunting Mysis. He's now eating the large PE Mysis, about 2 or 3 pieces a day. After dinner, he may stay out for a couple hours, then buries himself in the sand again.

I just ordered some pom pom crabs, they should be arrving soon. My pom pom crab, who is a couple years old now, lost her anemones a few months ago. Hopefully her new friends will share their anemones with her.

My yellow-fin flasher wrasse accidentally went over the overflow box and now lives in my seahorse tank. I'm not very good at catching fish, so he has stayed there. It's been a few weeks now, and my Rubriventralis fairy wrasse has turned into a male within that short time. "His" ventral fins are a gorgeous black-red color, and the blue on his tail and body glows. I promise to post better pictures soon.

The Erectus seahorses are also doing great. They are growing so big! It's hard to believe that just five months ago, they were tiny juveniles, only a few inches tall. I love this picture of Hoover, who is usually black. She turns white when I feed her or when she is being courted by Juniper or Debelius. Click on the photo for more detail.

The one-eyed goby my friend Paul got me for my birthday in April has finally started to gain some weight. Well, technically, he has two eyes, but one is severely deformed. When I first got him, I was concerned that he wasn't eating enough because he can't see anything on his right side. I try to target feed him, but if the food falls to his right side, he can't see it at all. He is less shy now and is confident enough to compensate for his eyesight by swimming in circles to look around.

Honestly, I'm surprised that my Crinoid feather star is still alive. All of its arms are intact, and it seems to be thriving. I put a fish net in my seahorse tank in an attempt to get the flasher wrasse used to it so I could catch him better. The Crinoid decided to make that fish net its home, so now I can't remove the net. The squat lobster is less shy now and is always visible on the center of the Crinoid. I'm noticing that the squat lobster doesn't steal small food particles from the Crinoid, only larger pieces (like Mysis) that fall and get stuck in its arms.

Lastly, one of my female Brotulids has slowly been getting fatter and fatter, till recently, her stomach turned dark and swollen. She definitely looked like the pregnant Brotulids I've seen before. The strange thing is that I don't have a male of the same species in the tank with her. She hasn't been around a male in almost a year. I'm not sure if they can store sperm the way that freshwater livebearers can, or if she possibly mated with the yellow Brotulid who is from a different genus and has radically different genitalia. Last week, I noticed that the front of her belly was flat, and a long black shape was still visible near her vent. The next day, it too was gone, and she now looks exactly like her sister. These fish are so ridiculously cryptic, I can only view the adults with a small flashlight I keep near the tank. Most people who buy Brotulids for their aquariums never see them again, or see them years later when they tear down their tanks. I can't help but wonder if I now have a couple baby Brotulids...

McCullochi Clownfish Breeding Update

2009-06-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

We've posted some new photos on Liveaquaria of our McCulloch's Clownfish eggs and larvae. Click here to view photos of the eggs' progression, the larvae, and the rearing set-up. I took some of these photos, but the best one is the "Day 2" larvae photo that Kevin took.

I've never seen clownfish babies before, and my first reaction was how big they are! I know that doesn't sound right, but really, they aren't that small. They were just as big as some other freshwater egg-laying species' fry I've seen. They swim a lot faster than I would've expected, making it even harder to get a photo. The first to hatch are eating voraciously and growing exponentially. They've been segregated from their smaller brothers and sisters, who are catching up to them in size now.

Any we've lost have been donated to my microscope. It's clear to me that since day three, they are starting to develop a crude tail. You can tell from the photos that they are turning black already. Some have more black than others, and it seems that the larger ones are darker. Under the microscope, you can see neuron-shaped spots of black and some smaller, rounded yellow pigments.

This is such a wonderful and exciting learning experience. I'm grateful that even in these hard economic times, Dr. Foster and Dr. Smith have enthusiastically supported this expensive experiment. It is my hope that someday, the rare McCullochi clownfish will be just as numerous as "Nemo." The best news you'll hear all week? The parents are cleaning the glass again...

06/18 Update: Unfortunately, all the babies died a couple days ago. This isn't uncommon with a first spawn, so we're being optimistic. The second batch of eggs is much larger and due to hatch on Saturday. This time around, I hope we'll be more successful.

06/29 Update: Our second batch of eggs only produced five larvae. Maybe our pair is young and inexperienced at spawning. They spawned again on Friday night; this clutch is much larger, and the eggs look healthier and brighter. Hopefully we'll get a larger hatch this time.

07/02 Update: We still have one little fry swimming around in the nursery tank. He is past the larval stage now and doing great. The newest spawn is starting to look really mature; the eggs have eyes! These eggs look great.

07/08 Update: We've got about thirty hatchlings with fat, healthy bellies and one lone ranger from the last clutch who has finally metamorphosed into his sub-adult form. He is about a centimeter long and is obviously a mini-adult. He's jet black with two white stripes and yellow fins. His eyes look absolutely enormous compared to the rest of him. He's our little mascot; I have named him Pierre. Here's a link to some photos and a video of him chowing down on some baby brine shrimp.

Oh, and by the way, they spawned again tonight. This clutch is even BIGGER than the last one!

07/14/09 The newest eggs should be hatching any minute now...

08/22/09 We now have four large babies that have gone through metamorphosis, and one getting ready to. They look completely different from the adults. The babies have three stripes instead of one, and yellow markings on their fins. Some of them are mis-barred, but you won't be able to tell when they are adults, they lose their stripes. We have about a hundred (I don't know, I was an English major) swimming around in the fry rearing tank. The parents spawned again last night, right on time. You could set your watch to them.

08/30/09 Kevin says he successfully collected the entire batch this time using his larvae collector. I can't wait to see all the babies tomorrow, I bet there's a lot! He said all of them hatched at the same time this time. That's been a major problem for us in the past. Before today, a few would hatch out before the majority of them, and would be stronger and outcompete their smaller siblings.

Interview with Dan Underwood of SeahorseSource.com

2009-06-13T12:39:00.001-07:00

I've been a member of the seahorse community for a few years now, and it's been blatantly obvious which seahorse retailer stands out among all the others. No matter which seahorse forum you visit, you'll notice that the vast majority of posters recommend buying from SeahorseSource.com.

Unlike many Asia-based seahorse breeders that mass produce seahorses and offer no customer service, the Underwoods are active in the seahorse and aquarium community. Dan and his wife, Abby, are active posters on Seahorse.org, answering questions and giving expert advice to seahorse keepers, customers or not. I also had the pleasure of meeting Dan and his daughters at IMAC last year.

As you can imagine, Dan U. is a very busy guy, but he graciously accepted when I asked him to do an interview for Aquarium Adventures.

FM: First of all, why seahorses? What (or who) was your inspiration?

DU: A few years ago, I was involved in a startup business in New England. I knew the company was to be sold soon and was looking for another venture to be involved in. While on a business trip, I stayed with my sister who was working with seahorses and she told me about seahorses and that there were only a handful of successful breeders worldwide and how difficult they were.
After several conversations with my sister, my wife and I decided that we wanted to be involved. A few months later the company sold, we sold our house and sailed to Florida. We spent a couple of years studying, keeping and observing seahorses. After figuring out how to successfully rear them, we started Seahorse Source.

FM: How many different species do you breed?

DU:Currently 6 species. H. erectus, H. zosterae, H. barbouri, H. fuscus, H. kuda & H. reidi.

FM: That sounds like a lot, is your whole family involved in caring for the seahorses?

DU: Yes. Originally it was a 2 person partnership with my wife & myself. Now both of our daughters are involved.

FM: Do you have any other pets or animals at home?

DU: Yes. 3 dogs and a rabbit.

FM: When you're not taking care of seahorses, do you have any other hobbies?

DU: Yes. Boating. We love sailing, but due to time restraints with the seahorses, that is temporarily on hold. We sold our sailboat and bought a power boat for exploring the estuaries and studying the seahorses and their natural habitats. We do sneak in a little play and chill time on the water as well.

FM: I noticed that you sometimes sell seahorses from other breeders. What do you do to ensure their health and quality?

DU: We would prefer to breed all of our horses that we sell. Space and time constraints prevent us from doing so. Also, sometimes it is more profitable for us to resell than to breed. First we take a look at the breeder and learn everything we can about them. What is their track record, what do others think about them (both professionals within the industry and their customers), what we learn from a personal interview and how well they will stand behind their product. Next
we order a sampling of their specimens. After we have observed a sampling and are satisfied, we do a trial order. From there it is based on consistency with their livestock. As long as we feel we would be personally happy with their livestock, we are willing to continue with them. We have had breeders that we have dropped due to deterioration in quality.

FM: What temperature would you recommend for most tropical seahorse species in your customers' home aquariums?

DU: 72 to 74 degrees F. This is not always possible though. Especially during the peaks of summer and winter. We consider 77 to 78 degrees the high for summer and 68 to 69 degrees the low for winter. Generally we have found that customers that maintain temperatures in the mid to low 70's have a much higher success rate in keeping seahorses long term.

FM: I've never heard of a customer giving you negative feedback. What's your customer service secret?

DU: I have a very strong sales and customer service background. I did very well in this area in previous businesses. It is more or less a carry over in philosophy. I believe if you understand what your customer wants and deliver or exceed upon those expectations, you will have a satisfied customer. We are not perfect though. It is when you make an error or fail to deliver that your true customer service shows. We admit when we have goofed or were wrong, and fix it. We are one of the few companies that if we fail to deliver what we promised, will replace our products at no charge, including shipping, instead of issuing a credit towards the next order.

FM: What do you think makes Seahorsesource.com's pet seahorses higher quality than other live seahorses on the market?

DU: First, because we are a small Mom & Pop Operation with very high standards. Our focus is on quality. Being small and hands on we have direct control over this. Secondly, unlike many of the seahorses sold today, all of our seahorses are true Captive Bred specimens from closely monitored recirculating systems.

FM: Other retailers sell their "colored" seahorses for a higher price. Why do you choose not to sort yours by color?

DU: Quite simply, because it is impossible to stand behind the product when selling by color. Seahorses can and do change colors. It is part of their defense mechanism to blend into the environment. We have no control on the décor of the customer's tank which will be the largest determining factor in their color. Selling seahorses by color is like offering green chameleons at a higher price than say brown chameleons.

FM: What do you think the future holds for the live seahorse industry?

DU: Seahorse husbandry is still very much in its infancy. There is still a ton to be learned. Presently the biggest challenge for breeders is how to become more consistent in production and how to be profitable. The profitability end is an issue for USA breeders who have to compete against foreign breeders with low over head, very little regulatory control in aquaculture and inconsistencies in defining how seahorses are bred.

FM: Do you think seahorses will continue to be popular aquarium pets ten years from now?

DU: Yes! Maybe, even more so, than now.

McCullochi Clownfish Spawn in Rhinelander, WI

2009-06-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

It's an exciting time for us Rhinelander, WI residents. Love is in the air, and Liveaquaria's super rare in-house McCullochi clownfish (Amphiprion mccullochi) pair has spawned! Amazingly, Kevin Kohen, Liveaquaria's director, was there right when it was happening and caught it on film. Check out Liveaquaria's Exclusive McCulloch's Clownfish spawning video. There's a hilarious clip near the end of a snail that got too close to the egg patch. Watch as the McCulloch's pair viciously attacks it in an attempt to move it away from their precious eggs.

The eggs were laid on Sunday, and we expect them to hatch this Monday after an eight day gestation period. I feel very lucky to have a front-row seat for this experience. I'll keep you posted when I can, so look for more updates from me in the near future.

McCulloch's Clownfish are endemic to Lord Howe island off the coast of Australia, which is a national park. One ambitious Aussie named Ryan was granted permission to collect ten pairs for breeding purposes. Thanks to him, McCulloch's Clownfish became available in the aquarium trade for the first time in nearly 30 years, since Lord Howe island became a marine reserve in 1982. Most of the F1 McCulloch's Clownfish were sold in Japan for around $5,000 U.S. each! Because of Liveaquaria's endeavors, these amazing creatures are now available to hobbyists in the Unites States. You can read Ryan's whole McCulloch's clownfish story here, or an easier to follow version here.

UPDATES HERE

Curious Wormfish

2009-06-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

I am very excited about my new pet Curious Wormfish. This fish has been on my fish wish list for many years, but I haven't been able to locate one until last Friday. I was very pleased that my fish has blue on it; some curious wormfish are more yellow and lack the blue stripe. Mine must be the true Gunnelichthys curiosus. I took more than two hours to acclimate him using the drip method. I take longer than normal because my tank's temperature is so low, and this is a delicate fish. Updates on this fish Here.

I took a top-view photo of him in the bucket, then transferred him to a specimen container to get a good closeup. In all my life, I've never seen a fish jump so much. Poor thing is too skittish to even photograph with the flash on. So I gently put him into my aquarium. Lucky for me, he decided to swim around for a few seconds before promptly burying himself in the sand, which is where he will probably spend most of my waking hours. I was able to get a couple half-decent pictures of him. You can sort of tell how he swims from the photos, undulating his whole body in an S-shape.

Curious wormfish are very shy and cryptic, but so is everything else in my aquarium. They have a poor survival record in captivity, mostly due to improper housing. These fish must be kept in an aquarium with a tight fitting lid. I'm using fine pond mesh to cover mine. They are so thin, they can fit through even the tiniest spaces.

According to wetwebmedia's FAQ, These fish are even more shy than seahorses, and shouldn't be kept with swimming fish, including wrasses. Almost any fish will easily outcompete them for food and harass them. They are surprisingly thin, and may be easily swallowed by all but the smallest, most peaceful fish. I put mine into my seahorse/Brotulid aquarium where he can be cryptic in peace.

When I came home from work today, he was swimming out in the open. I immediately thawed a cube of Hikari Mysis shrimp and put it in the tank. He ate with gusto! I tried to get a couple pictures of him, but he jumps every time the flash goes off. (I don't know how anyone could possibly keep one of these in an uncovered aquarium. The poor thing would only last 2 minutes.) And my glass has billions of Spirorbids on it from the phytoplankton feedings. I'll let him settle in more before subjecting him to the camera again. For now, check out this gorgeous photo by Keoki Stender. This is by far the best photo I've ever seen of a Curious wormfish.

December Update: my Curious Wormfish moved himself to my sump with the Brotulids a few months ago. I left him there because he seemed more comfortable in the dark with other lazy fish. He hides with them in their PVC tubes and comes out when he smells food. He is still an extremely skittish, shy fish. He seems to get along wonderfully with the Brotulids. There are several PVC pipes in the sump, but they all share one. Guess they like company.

Devonian Fossil Cluster

2009-06-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

I found this neat fossil at an art/fossil store in Minocqua, WI. They had a small inventory of fossils, mostly whole Trilobites, Ammonites, and some crystals. They had this fossil labeled as a Devonian fossil cluster, 350 - 416 million years old. I immediately assumed it was of marine origins, but now that I have it home, it occurs to me that it could be terrestrial. Any fossil afficianados out there want to hazard a guess at what these little...things are?

Click on the photos to see the huge detail version.

Squat Lobster and Crinoid Update

2009-05-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since I've had a squat lobster-Crinoid update. The Crinoid feather star is still doing well; it is extending its arms farther and more often now. So far I haven't noticed any deterioration of the arms, even with the squat lobster living on it.

The squat lobster is also doing very well. If a squat lobster could be happy, I would say this one is quite content. The photo above shows the squat lobster, named "Darth Vader," eating the Mysis shrimp prize it found in one of the arms of its feather star.

Commensal Coral Hermit Crab

2009-05-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

I've acquired a new piece of coral with some interesting critters living inside. This piece is from Australia, I believe it is a Leptastrea pruinosa. The first thing I noticed about this tiny piece was the yellow commensal coral hermit crab, Paguritta sp. It measures about 3 mm total length. It is officially the smallest pet I've ever had. It is more yellow in real life, I'm still learning how to use this new camera. I've seen bigger ones, so I'm hoping it gets a lot of plankton to eat in my aquarium and grows. What really surprised me about this crab was that it was living in a Leptastrea coral. I've only ever seen them on SPS corals like Acropora, Montipora, and Astreopora corals.

I'm not sure how difficult these are to keep in captivity. Technically, these are filter feeders. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see that the crab has feathery antennae that it uses to capture suspended plankton. Like its shelled hermit crab cousins, I've also seen it pick up tiny particles with its claws and put them in its mouth. Hopefully that means they will be easier to feed than other filter feeding animals.

When I looked closer at this coral, I noticed some tiny blue things with black markings. They are about half the size of the hermit crab. At first I thought they could be a different species of commensal coral hermit crab, but they didn't appear to have claws. I watched them during acclimation, but they didn't move much. Once I put the coral into my aquarium, I saw that the blue things lifted up and the tiny, feathery hand-like feeding apparatus of a barnacle came out of each one. There appears to be some tissue loss on this end of the coral, but I don't think it is a direct result of the barnacles living there. Click on the photos for larger views.

Update 6/20: I'm happy to say that my commensal coral hermit crab is doing well and is easy to feed. I target feed it daily with small pieces of frozen Mysis, Cyclops, and krill. Just like its shelled cousins, it holds the food (often several times the size of its body) in its claws, methodically rips small pieces off, and puts them in its mouth. It retreats when it detects movement nearby, but quickly comes out waving its arms and antennae when it senses food. I can get the tip of the syringe so close to the tiny crab that I can gently squirt pieces of food directly into its greedy claws. For good measure, I do often target some phytoplankton for its feathery antennae to catch.

Coldwater Catalina Gobies

2009-05-11T18:46:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of focus lately on sustainable aquarium livestock harvesting and responsible aquarium keeping. The Catalina goby, Lythrypnus dalli, is notorious for being kept in inappropriate captive conditions. The picture at the left shows a captive Catalina goby perched on a sea mat "glowing" under Actinic lighting.

For years Catalina gobies were marketed as tropical fish and sold to reef aquarists. When the gobies died shortly after purchase, it was assumed that they were delicate or had short lifespans. Neither assumption is true. Catalina gobies are not tropical or sub-tropical fish. They are temperate, cold-water fish. And quite hardy, if kept in the correct environment. The maximum temperature to plan for in your home Catalina goby aquarium would be no more than 65 degrees, maintained by a chiller.

Some retailers are beginning to notice that their customers are educating themselves about the habitats of the species they are keeping, including Catalina gobies. Some of these retailers have changed their stand on Catalina gobies and other coldwater stock, admitting that they are truly temperate. But they are still recommending the incorrect temperature range. Some retailers list the maximum temperature at 74 or 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Those are still tropical temperatures. It's a step in the right direction, but their temperature recommendation is still way too high.

According to fishbase.org, the maximum water temperature Catalina Gobies can be found living in is 71 degrees. This is during the hottest point in summer in shallow water. Keep in mind that our reef fishes can be found in waters where the temperatures reach more than 90 degrees during the summer. For example, in the summer Brazilian Reidi and Erectus seahorses are observed in shallow waters where the temperature is above 90 degrees. Even the least responsible keepers would never attempt to keep their seahorses or reef fish at those temperatures. Our aquariums and captive reefs are very different from the wide open ocean. In captivity diseases and parasites can reproduce unchecked by inadequate dilution and overstocking (compared to the ocean). Attempting to keep any fish at the very top of its natural temperature range is going to shorten its lifespan and weaken the immune system. 71 degrees happens to be the top of a Catalina goby's temperature range.

Public aquariums have known for years that Catalina gobies must be kept at low temperatures. The Monterey Bay Aquarium houses Catalina gobies in a chilled aquarium maintained between 58 and 60 degrees. They are able to keep their Catalinas for an average of two years each and have no problems with disease. The Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco keeps theirs at 60 degrees. Steve Weast keeps his Catalina gobies at 62 degrees or lower. He has graciously posted some fabulous photos of his Catalina gobies guarding eggs in this Reefcentral thread. The maximum temperature to plan for in your home Catalina goby aquarium would be no more than 65 degrees, maintained by a chiller.

I kept a beautiful pair of Catalina gobies in temperatures between 67 and 72 degrees for a few months. When I noticed their fast respiration and a Lymphocystis infection, I did some research then moved them to an aquarium with a temperature between 65 and 67 degrees. They recovered from the Lympho, but I was still only able to enjoy them for one year total.

There are a few more species in the Lythrypnus genus, but only two show up in the aquarium trade with any regularity. The other is the Zebra Catalina goby, Lythrypnus zebra. This species is not often collected, and the few that make it into the aquarium trade sell quickly. Not much is known about it except that its care is similar to Catalina gobies. It has a more southern range and may be able to withstand slightly warmer water temperatures. This might make it a good candidate for sub-tropical or seahorse aquariums. I've kept one in my aquarium for nearly nine months as of this post, and it is doing very well. It is eating well, as you can see from the above photo, and hasn't shown any symptoms of disease. My aquarium temperature is between 67 and 70 degrees for most of the year, but in the summer I allow it to reach 72 or 74 degrees during the hottest weeks to prevent my chiller from prematurely wearing out. I'll update this blog if anything changes.

There are tropical gobies that rival the Catalina gobies' beauty and make much better additions to a reef aquarium. Gobies from the genus Trimma and Eviota are similar in size, color, and behavior. Trimma and Eviota gobies can even be kept in small groups with less aggression than groups of Catalina gobies.

Responsibility begins with the collectors, wholesalers, and retailers, but we as hobbyists have a voice every time we purchase a specimen for our aquarium. We can educate fellow hobbyists about cold water livestock and avoid the temptation to keep them in our tropical aquariums only to enjoy them for a few months. By avoiding difficult to keep species, we can decrease demand for these animals, and fewer of them will be collected. We all play an active role in the future of the aquarium hobby.

If you are interested in Catalina goby breeding behavior, read Sex Reversal in Pairs of Lythrypnus dalli: Behavioral and Morphological Changes and Sex allocation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the blue-banded goby (Lythrypnus dalli): the effects of body size and behavioral gender and the consequences for reproduction.

If you are interested in setting up a coldwater reef or temperate aquarium, more information can be found on Steve Weast's website Oregonreef.com. Wetwebmedia has a very informative section on Catalina gobies here. These photos were taken in 52 degree waters near Channel Island, California.

Nikon D60 Camera

2009-05-07T19:21:00.001-07:00

My new (to me) camera came in via UPS today. It is a refurbished Nikon D60 with a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens. I am super happy with it. Here are a few shots I took tonight with my new camera. To get this close, I used an "Opteka 52mm 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens"

Of course, you can expect more later. Click the pictures to see the full size, detailed pictures.

Cost of Owning an Aquarium

2009-05-05T19:36:00.001-07:00

The first question many people ask when considering an aquarium is, "How much is this going to cost?" The total cost of an aquarium will depend on what types of animals you'll be keeping. It will also depend on the brands and models of the equipment you choose. In this blog I will try to make a loose estimation of the total cost of my aquarium and its current equipment and livestock. Keep in mind that I didn't spend all this money right away, it took a couple years to collect all of this stuff. I look for sales, shop online, and buy used equipment from local people.

I only wish that I had researched more before I bought certain things. I have an entire storage room full of aquarium equipment that I no longer use, but can't bear to throw away, because I paid for it!

Since I have two aquariums plumbed together with an overflow box, let's just consider them as one since they share all their equipment. The top aquarium is a 55 gallon "reef" tank. It has mostly photosynthetic Gorgonians, Actinodiscus sp. mushrooms, Zoanthus sp. polyps, a Turbinaria sp., Duncanopsammia sp., and other miscellaneous corals. It has about ten gobies, a pipefish, two small wrasses, and some small inverts. I bought it during a "dollar a gallon" sale at Petco a few years ago. I paid only $55.00! The lower aquarium is a 37 gallon aquarium with five seahorses, a pipefish, three Brotulids, non-photosynthetic corals like Gorgonians, several Tubastrea sp., a pink sea cucumber, and other inverts. This aquarium (along with tons of other useful stuff) was given to me by my friend Monica, but a similar aquarium would likely cost around $50.00 because it's an unusual size.

Syngnathids do best at temperatures lower than 74 degrees Fahrenheit, and two of the Brotulids I keep are sub-tropical to temperate species. Even in Wisconsin, it gets warm in the summer, so I needed a chiller. My chiller was one of my first aquarium purchases. I bought an off brand 1/10 horsepower chiller on Ebay used for a little over $300. After doing some research, I discovered that I could've gotten a similar model brand new for about the same price. I didn't make that mistake again.

I've had three different canister filters over the years, but my favorite so far has been my Fluval 405. I started with a Magnum 350, but got rid of that soon after nearly electrocuting myself. (it's a long story, but basically, the o-ring fell off into the canister after I reattached the lid, which caused water to spray out of the canister in all directions onto my power strip, which then started to smoke, prompting me to panic and push the little red switch...) My second canister filter was a Filstar XP3. I really liked this filter, but after a couple months, an air pocket developed a couple inches below the lid, and it started to leak a bit. Since the company is located in France, I didn't get much customer assistance. I later got a Fluval 405, which runs about $235.00, and haven't had a problem since. I do miss the perfectly square Filstar XP3, though. It was much easier to customize media.

I've also had several different lighting systems, but the one currently on my reef aquarium is a 48" Dual Satellite Compact Fluorescent fixture which costs about $270.00. My non-photosynthetic tank has a light, too, but just enough for me to view them. It's a single strip light, costed about $35.00. I also have a light on my refugium, a Coralife Aqualight Single Compact Fluorescent Strip Light. I got the 24" freshwater version (the color temperature is good for macroalgae) for about $70.00. I have countless ballasts, bulbs, and strip lights in my storage room that I won't factor into the ultimate cost.

I've had two different skimmers so far. I bought a Prism Pro a few years ago, but I removed it from the aquarium after a few months because it was such a pain to adjust all the time. I was constantly adjusting the water flow and air valve. After I started getting a lot of hair algae, I decided it was time for a new skimmer. I got (and blogged about) my Hydor Performer in January, and I love it. The smallest model runs about $320.00, but it is worth it.

I consider my refugium an essential part of my aquarium. It provides food for my pipefish and seahorses, helps reduce nitrates by growing macroalgae, and gives me a place to put really tiny shrimp and fish when they first come out of quarantine and I want to watch them closely. I have the the large AquaFuge External Hang-On Refugium for $165.00.

My aquarium stand was used, so I only paid about $50.00 for it. But you could expect to pay between $100 and $150 for a similar new one. I have a stand for my 37 gallon tank, but my leopard gecko tank is on it right now. It was given to me with the aquarium. It's not pretty, but I just have my seahorse tank on the kitchen floor (to the dismay of my husband).

There are other little things to factor into the total cost, like algae scrubbers, food, filter media, electricity, etc. Including electricity it costs approximately $75.00 a month maintaining my three aquariums. Luckily, my electricity is included in my rent.

I was really lucky when I bought my Live Rock. A friend of mine was moving to a different state and couldn't take her aquarium with her. She had about 50 pounds of dry rock left over and sold it to me for $50.00. Another friend placed on online order for premium branch live rock and accidentally ordered too much. He sold me 30 pounds for about a dollar a pound as well. If you are buying coralline algae encrusted live rock online, you can expect to pay around $4.75 a pound including shipping. If you buy from a local shop, expect to pay between $7.00 and $9.00 a pound, depending on where you live. You'll probably want about a pound or a pound and a half for a reef aquarium. Keep in mind that you'll be adding live rock later when you buy corals attached to rock.

I can't say for sure how much I've spent on livestock (fish, inverts, and corals) over the years, but it's likely to be my most costly category. I have a "thing" for weird and unusual fish and inverts. I estimate that I have more than $1,500 worth of livestock in my aquarium right now. That's not counting the animals and corals I've lost. You certainly don't have to spend that much on your livestock, though. You can get inexpensive, beautiful species and enjoy them just as much as the rare, expensive ones. No matter what species you get, make sure you are purchasing healthy livestock through reputable retailers that have guarantees. And if you are buying seahorses, make sure you buy True Captive Bred seahorses. They are more expensive at about $60 each (depending on the species) than Net-Pen raised and Kelloggi seahorses, but you save money in the long run on medicines and replacements.

So that's a grand total of (approximately, give me a break, I was an English major) $3,130.00. I know what you're thinking, that's a lot of money for the ugly tank pictured above. I could have easily spent $10,000 on a flashy Acropora tank, if I had the money.

Now that I've typed this all up, I am really hoping that my husband never reads this post. I am lucky because he is so supportive of my hobby. It also helps that I get a discount where I work!

Squat Lobster on Crinoid

2009-05-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

This is the second squat lobster-Crinoid update in a week. But I just can't get over how cool symbiosis is. While I was feeding the seahorses last night, some pieces of mysis got caught in the outstretched arms of the Crinoid. The squat lobster, who was hiding at the base of the Crinoid, practically ran on the arms of the Crinoid to get the food. I wasn't fast enough with my camera, but here are some photos of him standing on the Crinoid's arms waiting for more mana from heaven.

I am tired of my point and shoot camera. It's done well for me for five years. Most of the photos on this blog were taken with a Canon A510. But I think it's time I splurged on a better camera. So, yesterday, I bought a Nikon D60. It should come in the mail by next week! I want to thank my mom for helping me; she is always supportive of me and my dreams. Most of my experience is with the Nikon brand, so I already know how to use this camera. I'll be using the lens it comes with, the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S DX VR Nikkor Zoom Lens. It gets good reviews for a cheap lens, but it's not a macro lens. Most of the photos I take are macro photos. The specs say it can be as close as .9 feet to the subject. I've had pretty good results from the Opteka close-up lens kits, so I bought similar ones that can screw on the front of my Nikon lens. The depth of field is really small, but it's cheaper than spending $500 on the true macro lens I really want.

Little Seahorse All Grown Up

2009-05-01T15:46:00.001-07:00

My smallest seahorse, Debelius, has started developing a pouch. Click on the pictures to see a super close-up. The first photo is him in late March. The second photo was taken yesterday. The third is a photo of him when he was a juvenile and didn't have a pouch yet. You can see how his pouch has grown, and his chest is getting deeper. Even before he had a pouch, his chest started getting deeper than his sisters'.

He has always been close to Ellis, the large adult female. He constantly hitches on her and stays near her. Now that he has a pouch, he is always showing it off to her. But Ellis is not impressed. She and Juniper, the large adult male, still court once every couple weeks. They've had one egg transfer so far, but Juniper lost the eggs. He had the eggs safely in his pouch after the transfer, but as soon as Ellis came near him again, he got excited, started doing pouch flushes, and pushed all the eggs out. Maybe next time they will figure it out.

If you ever find a sheet of orange eggs in your seahorse aquarium, they are probably seahorse eggs that didn't make it into the pouch. This can happen for a number of reasons. When seahorses mate, they rise to the top of the aquarium and then slowly make their way down while transferring the eggs. If the tank is not tall enough, and they are hurrying the transfer, they may not get them in the pouch. Also, if the flow in the aquarium is too strong, it will be difficult for them to make the transfer. Sometimes a female seahorse will have eggs ready, but can't find a receptive male. The eggs will not be fertilized until they are inside the male's pouch. The eggs are a nutritious food source for the other fish and inverts in your aquarium.

Pipefish Fossil

2009-04-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

My husband has been collecting fossils since he was a child, and that got me interested in them, too. Of course, I care most about fossils of marine origins. We have a few little shells, Trilobites, fish, and a crab. But today I received in the mail my new favorite fossil--a pipefish fossil.

You can find some pretty nice, inexpensive fossils on Ebay. I got this beauty from Billbrand11. He estimates it is from the Ecocene Epoch, about 50 million years old or older. It was found 5 miles from Buellton, California in the Santa Ynez fault that runs through the Santa Ynez river valley; The fault runs all the way to the San Gabriel Fault. He says that 50 million years ago, there was a volcanic disturbance that caused a mass extinction of these pipefish.

The complete pipefish is about 6 inches long. The shape of the body and lack of a tail remind me so much of modern pipefish from the genus Syngnathus. They could very well be relatives. What I love about this particular fossil is that in the closeup photo of the head, you can see the the trigger pretty well; it's the triangular bump just under the eye.

I took a bunch of macro shots of this fossil, you can find the fossil album on my photobucket. I also have a bunch of fossils in my Flickr fossil set.

Hydor Performer Protein Skimmer

2009-04-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

I don't think about my aquarium's equipment very often. To me, it's the most boring part of aquarium keeping. After asking other reefer's opinions, I tend to just get the best equipment I can afford and hope that its quality was worth the price.

A few months ago, I got a Hydor Performer protein skimmer. I desperately needed a skimmer because seahorses are so messy and the algae in my main tank was about to take over the world. I was not looking forward to shopping for a skimmer. I've had other protein skimmers before that I ended up removing from the tank because they were such a pain. I heard good things about these Hydor Performers, so I decided to give it a try.

From previous aquarium equipment assembly experiences, I decided to set aside an entire evening so that I could put the skimmer together. To my surprise, it took me about five minutes. I hooked it up and turned it on, spent a couple minutes adjusting the air intake, and it almost immediately started working. I had dark, rich skimmate the very next morning. I was baffled. I love this skimmer.

The only problem I did have with it was that some bubbles escaped into the tank for the first few days. But that's not really a problem, just annoying when you want to see in your tank. I also want to mention that it is a myth that seahorses get Gas Bubble Disease from skimmer bubbles in the aquarium. Having a skimmer on a seahorse aquarium can actually prevent GBD by providing cleaner water conditions and increasing oxygen.

However, sometimes a silly male will get some of these tiny air bubbles in his pouch if he is displaying too vigorously. This is not GBD, and the air usually comes out of the pouch the next time he flushes it. If he needs some help, you can gently use a bobby pin to open his pouch and very gently push on his pouch to get the air out. Of course, first decide if he is strong enough withstand the stress of being handled like that. Most of the time, it's best to let him take care of it on his own as long as he is eating well and able to get around. If anything besides air comes out of his pouch (like mucous, opaque liquid, or pus), get him into a quarantine aquarium immediately and slowly lower the temperature to 68 degrees F. Then go to the seahorse.org emergency forum and ask for help!

Squat Lobster Sighted on Crinoid

2009-04-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

We had a squat lobster sighting today on the Crinoid feather star during feeding time. Sorry for the poor quality photos.

"Crinoids eat a range of microscopic particles, ranging from diatoms, foraminifera, unicellular algae, small crustaceans, larvae and detritus." from http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Fossilgroups/Crinoidea/page2.html

I recently received an email from a Biology student working with Crinoids. He says that the squat lobsters use the Crinoids, which may be toxic, to hid from predators. Squat lobsters also steal food from the Crinoid. My squat lobsters all eat large pieces of Mysis shrimp without the help of a Crinoid. I don't think they require Crinoids for survival, because I've had my Galathea inflata since November 2007, and it has increased in size by about 25%.

I think I may have seen the squat lobster "combing" through the Crinoids feathery arms. Since it is difficult to feed these sea stars in captivity, I wonder if the squat lobster will increase its chance of starvation in my aquarium. Chuck Raabe has a little section on these squat lobsters and says they are "Klepto-parasites that don't directly harm the host but steal its food." I'll have to try to think of a way to keep the squat lobster well fed so it doesn't steal too much from the feather star. Or I could relocate the squat lobster. I don't know anyone who has kept one of these Crinoids in an aquarium for longer than six months, so if I make it past that point, I will be satisfied.

I want to make a point to say that I did not purchase this Crinoid. I do not recommend purchasing animals from your local shop that have a poor survival rate in captivity. That will just encourage your local shop to order and sell more of them. It is for the same reason I do not encourage purchasing an animal from a shop just to "rescue" it from poor conditions there. I would never attempt to keep an impossible creature like this one if it was not accidentally imported (hitchhiked) and then given to me to care for.

Also check out these lovely Crinoid commensals photos.

Check out this little cutie, he looks just like my squat lobster!

Crinoid Crab in Sulawesi - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.

Crinoid Feather Star

2009-04-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

My local place found a Crinoid feather star as a hitchhiker in one of their shipments. Since I have a non-photosynthetic aquarium and dose phytoplankton, they decided my tank would be the best (local) home for it. I also think it will be interesting to see the behavior of my Crinoid squat lobster Allogalathea elegans with this Crinoid feather star. (My Galathea inflata is in the other tank to prevent squat lobster disputes...)

I've had the star for a few days now, and it is very cryptic. It hangs upside down under some of my branch rock in the exact spot where I placed it after acclimation (near the squat lobster). I'm considering getting a small lunar light so I can view it when it is most active at night. I've seen a couple arms come out during feeding time, but that's all I've seen of it. My squat lobster usually hangs out in a Gorgonian, but I haven't seen it since I put the feather star in. Maybe it's under there with the Crinoid.

To prepare for the addition of this sea star, I made sure to cover my pump intakes with fine mesh bags. I wouldn't want it getting the tips of its arms chopped off when it finds a cozy spot too close to the pump's impeller.

The other non-photosynthetic tank inhabitants are doing very well (as far as I know.) My hard tube coco worm Protula bispiralis has grown about two full inches since I got it a couple months ago! My sea cucumber Pentacta anceps still extends and "licks" its feeding arms when I dose phytoplankton. And of course, the seahorses are doing well.

I will let you all know how the Crinoid feather star does. They are notoriously impossible to keep in home aquariums and usually starve to death slowly. If you've had success with this species and kept it alive longer than 6 months, please give me some advice. Otherwise, just wish me luck.

Also, check out Echinoblog's new post about Crinoid locomotion and Charles Messing's blog about The Crinoid Feeding Mechanism.