For the Love of Seahorses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.