Monthly Archives: September 2011

 As a professional aquarist working at a coastal aquarium, I field a lot of calls from local fishermen, SCUBA divers, fish collectors, or just people out for a walk on the beach looking for help identifying some fish or other marine creature that they’ve come across.  Often the conversation begins with something like: “In all my years of fishing, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Often it ends with something like: “Yeah, that’s just a lizardfish. They’re actually quite common, but they spend most of their time buried in the sand and, around here, they usually don’t get big enough to catch on rod and reel.”  Of course my ability to identify the animal in question depends in large part, on the quality of the description or photo provided by the inquirer.  I recently received the following photo, asking if I could ID the fish that were aggregating around the lion’s mane jellyfish at the center.  Obviously it would be impossible to determine the species from the photo alone, however, I’ve spent enough time in the water with lion’s mane jellies to know that juvenile butterfish, Peprilus triacanthus, commonly take refuge under their bells and among their tentacles in much the same way that a clownfish takes refuge in the tentacles of a sea anemone.  Since I’ve never observed any other species of fish in our area exhibiting this behavior, I was, in this case, able to provide a probable identification. Local divers often tell me about the exotic tropical strays they encounter on their dives, and in some cases they are able to give me a description… More:

Of all the amazing and mysterious creatures we can find on the reef there are some that stand “out of the crowd”.  Cephalopods for example. Their high intelligence, communication skills and camouflage abilities amaze scientists to this day. But there is yet another invertebrate that is a subject of ongoing studies, one that physical build and behavior is a puzzle not yet fully understood. It is called a Mantis shrimp and it’s a member of the order Stomatopoda. The common name is misleading as it is not a shrimp nor it is related to mantids. It’s distant cousins are lobsters and crabs.Seeing one of the more colorful species of mantis shrimp, a peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) from up close … More:

For all the New England reefers, don’t forget about the big event at House of Fins this weekend, featuring our own Tony Vargas as a guest speaker, and Scott Fellman on the wheels of steel.  They have some incredible discounts on just about everything you could want for your tank, and we know HOF is no slouch when it comes to the eye candy!… More:

The typical aquarium owner is male.  The typical video game player is also male.  Aquaria is a really cool game for your iPad that can satisfy both of your addictions at once.  What’s even better?   The graphics are super cute, and your wives/girlfriends/others might actually take an interest in what you’re playing when you’re laughing your head off at the digitized versions of sea grass, tunicates, and huge open brain corals.  This is a port of a pretty popular game from the Mac OSX, and now more people can experience the lush fantasy worlds on their iDevice. LINK (Video after the jump)… More:

Several years ago I picked up an “Odd Couple” of clownfish in Colorado and shipped them home. A pair of Onyx Percula and a Black Ocellaris clownfish that had been together for a while. This pair surprisingly spawned, and resulted in a hybrid that I named the Black Photon Clownfish. There was always the inevitable question – “Are these hybrids fertile and can they produce offspring?”  I paired up some of the Black Photon clownfish siblings to see if they would eventually pair up and spawn. When the original male died shortly after I had raised a few spawns, I tried pairing the female with other black ocellaris hoping to recreate the black photons. After several unsuccessful attempts where the female ended up killing the males, I threw a few of her black photon progeny juveniles in with her to serve as detractors while I tried to add another black ocellaris male. She had her own plans, and decided to kill the others and cozy up to a black photon clownfish. Out of sheer curiosity I left the pair together. As the juvenile male matured, I started to see them go through the courting and mating ritual and gave me hope that they might spawn someday. Yes they did !! This answered the one nagging question about the fertility of the hybrid clownfish… More:

I just came to the conclusion that this hobby would be a whole lot better without a bunch of people mucking it up. Upon further introspection, I decided that I’m not doing the reefing world right if I keep all of this info to myself, so here it is, the definitive list of people who should not be involved in the world of reefing: 

• People who call corals “plants”
• People with too much money to spend. Cleaning out the LFS of all the cool new SPS only to have them die in a week in your tank only runs up the price for everyone else.
• People with too little money to spend. Don’t try to explain to me why you decided not to get healthcare after you just bought one of those fancy fingernail sized chalices for $300.
• People who think you can transport a coral in a bag with one ounce of water and no air.
• People who offer to trade you drugs for corals. Aside from drugs being illegal in most places, the notion of exchanging live animals for banned substances only really works if you carry a submachine gun to work.
• Makers of black or white frag plugs. Is gray more expensive? Are you just trying to piss us off? Said manufacturers are now using bright purple plugs to identify their frags. Do these people wear purple pants to work every day?
• Hobbyists who use kitchen tile from Home Depot to mount their frags. I don’t care how many dollars you saved by doing this, you’re still an idiot for thinking it was a good idea.
• Makers of clear acrylic plugs.
• People who mount frags in stupid positions.
• Frag Whores™

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Reefkoi had these sweet clam racks on sale at MACNA, and let me be the first to say it, what took you so long?  How many clams have we lost to them falling over, being too confined, getting overgrown, and getting too much sand on their mantle?  If I were running a store that sold clams, these things would be mandatory with each purchase.  In the same way that you must put a collar on your dog, you must put your clam on one of these unless you know exactly how to properly place it in an aquarium.  Check out Reefkoi for details.… More: