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Author Archives: Matthew Stansbery
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Goldfish Prosthetics
Fish are often times considered part of the family, like a dog or cat. So in the case of Einstein the Fantail Goldfish the same sentiment was payed towards his inability to remain buoyant or swim. A crippling disease causes some fish to loose their buoyancy as it affects their swim bladder, and most fall victim to the crippling effects of not being able feed themselves or aerate their lungs through swimming. But in the case of Einstein the Goldfish his owner (Leighton Naylor) used some recycled aquarium parts, and a bit of ingenuity, to produce a lifejacket-like device that allows the fish to remain buoyant. The genius lies in the amount of captured gas within the airline pieces; it is enough to keep the goldfish buoyant without sending him racing to surface: Read more about the story and hear some of Leighton’s comments here!… More:
Posted in Equipment, Fish, Funny, Opinion, Science, Tanks, Too Cute, Uncategorized
Tagged Aquarium, goldfish, leighton, naylor, swim bladder
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Orphek Atlantik Shines Bright at SWFMAS 6th Annual Reef Conference
There is no doubt that LED lighting is one of 2013’s hottest topics. That shined true this past weekend for Orphek’s latest release, the Atlantik LED aquarium lighting fixture. With its sleek European design, unsurpassed clean, crisp lines and enough power for any reef aquarium, the Atlantik’s turned quite a few heads this last weekend at the South West Florida Marine Aquarium’s 6th annual reef conference.
Frag Junky displayed Orphek’s flagship lights over their frag tanks at the reefing event and had this to say about the lights: “The power and color that these lights produce along with the easy controllability of these lights are incredible. We are so excited to … More:
Posted in Corals, Events, Eye Candy, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Opinion, Tanks, Uncategorized
Tagged custom leds, florida marine, lighting fixture, marine-aquarium, Zoas
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Reef Recovery and Isolation
In a joint AIMS/ARC Centre of Excellence media release a new study finds that isolated reefs can recover without human intervention or having the aid of nearby neighboring reefs that can assist in repopulation and regrowth. Despite any efforts by humans recovery at the Scott Reef off Australia’s northwest coast was comparably larger than nearshore reefs affected by a massive bleaching event in 1998. “The initial projections for Scott Reef were not optimistic,” says lead author Dr James Gilmour of AIMS “because, unlike reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, there were few if any reefs nearby capable of supplying new recruits to replenish the lost corals at Scott Reef.” Recent studies involving sunken logs in deep sea environments have shown the distribution ranges of many marine taxa to be quite large, so this study highlights how nearshore reefs affected by human presence can have a tougher time recovering from factors such as higher dissolved nutrient levels and increased algae cover. 
The previous notion of shorter recovery rates from isolation is put to rest with this latest study finding that the Scott Reef coral cover increased 35% over a 12 year span “Despite a 94% reduction in larval supply for 6 years after the bleaching.” The remnant colonies were able to colonize the reef quickly by rapidly regrowing and eventually connecting to one another; a phenomena not uncommon to the marine hobby! Putting a global perspective on their findings Dr Gilmour says: “We know from other studies that the resilience of reefs can be improved by addressing human pressures such as water quality and overfishing, so it is likely that a key factor in the rapid recovery at Scott Reef was the high water clarity and quality in this remote and offshore location.” Read the entire study here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged human intervention, nearshore reefs, northwest coast, nutrient levels, water clarity
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Anthropogenic Shade Effect on Coral Reefs
A recent study conducted by Exeter University suggests that coral reefs are encountering another change in their environment from human induced surface water aerosols. As a product of human advancement “particulate pollutions” are cited in this recent study for contributing to the decline in coral reef health all around the world. In historic times volcanic eruptions caused most if not all the atmospheric particulate pollution but scientists are now turning to carbon emissions of the human race as the number one contributor of particulate pollution on reef surface waters. Lead author Lester Kwiatkowski, a PhD student from Mathematics at the University of Exeter, states: “Coral reefs are the most diverse of all ocean ecosystems with up to 25% of ocean species depending on them for food and shelter. They are believed to be vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification, but ours is the first study to show a clear link between coral growth and the concentration of particulate pollution in the atmosphere.” 
As hobbyists we strive to eliminate surface water particulates with things like “skimmer boxes” that rinse the surface of our water through tumbling actions created when the water passes through perforated teeth and gets pulled into a down pipe. Natural reefs are not equipped with such a device so surface particulates are accumulating much quicker, and sticking around much longer, with the industrial growth of the human race. Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Queensland applies a global perspective: “Our study suggests that coral ecosystems are likely to be sensitive to not only the future global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration but also the regional aerosol emissions associated with industrialisation and decarbonisation.” Read the entire study here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Science, Uncategorized
Tagged coral growth, kwiatkowski, mumby, natural reefs, particulates
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Dont Feed the Fish
In an attempt to limit the impacts of tourism many countries are offering “interactive ecotourism” trips where travelers have the opportunity to visit relatively undisturbed parts of the world and physically interact with wildlife. This concept is supposed to be a small scale alternative to large level tourism but the impacts of bringing people to fragile areas of the world is causing some unintended biological changes in Stingray that frequent shallow warm waters of the Cayman Islands. Stingray “City” or Stingray “Sandbar” is one of the largest tropical attractions yet the practice of feeding these animals to keep them close for human interaction has drastically altered their natural behaviors. 
The practice of providing supplemental feedings to the Dasyatis americana, a southern stingray, has affected their movement patterns and spatial distributions throughout the Western Atlantic waters. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s Guy Harvey Research Institute in Hollywood, Fla., and the University of Rhode Island studied the specimens found in the Stingray City/Sandbar and found their activities were the exact opposite of stingray studied elsewhere throughout the Caymans: “Tag-recapture data indicated that a population of at least 164 stingrays, over 80% female, utilized the small area at SCS for prolonged periods of time. Examination of comparative movements of mature female stingrays at SCS and control sites revealed strong differences between the two groups: The fed animals demonstrated a notable inversion of diel activity, being constantly active during the day with little movement at night compared to the nocturnally active wild stingrays.” Read the entire study here!… More:
Naval Jellyfish Coming to an Ocean Near You
In a $5 million dollar muilti-university project Virginia Tech University unveiled a life-sized robotic jellyfish late last month. Funded by the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare and The Office of Naval Research the project was developed to explore ocean environments as well possible surveillance activities and other Naval operations. Dubbed “Cyro” (a derivative of cynea and robot) the 5 foot 7 inch 170 pound prototype of cyanea capillatta better known as the Lions Mane jellyfish, is completely autonomous and fully robotic. Modeled after the smaller “Robojelly” released early in 2012 Cyro is constructed of a rigid metal frame and a silicon body allowing it to mimic the natural movements of jellyfish. Alex Villanueva of St-Jacques, New-Brunswick, Canada, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering working under Priya on the subject: “A larger vehicle will allow for more payload, longer duration and longer range of operation, biological and engineering results show that larger vehicles have a lower cost of transport, which is a metric used to determine how much energy is spent for traveling.” Years away from testing in open ocean waters Cyro “showed its ability to swim autonomously while maintaining a similar physical appearance and kinematics as the natural species,” Priya said, adding “the operation in shallow water conditions is already a big step towards demonstrating the use of these creatures.” Read more here!… More:
Lady Gaga Buys $40,000 Therapeutic Aquarium
Amidst her recent tour cancelation the tabloids are on fire again as stories of a $60,000 aquarium was installed for Lady Gaga, simply for the time she will spend recovering from hip surgery. Installed near her bed, the aquarium, and the reported Japanese koi fish that will be housed in the aquarium, were all purchased by Lady Gaga on top of the 24 karat gold wheel chair she is currently being pushed around in. 
An unidentified source: “she had a dream about the fish so she had bought Koi from Japan and set up a massive tank close to her bed to entertain her as she recovers. The whole exercise cost over 40,000 pound which is a lot to most people but small change to her”. Read more here!… More:
A Rare Catch in Red
A fishermen dragging nets through Irish waters pulled in a rare find of the family Scorpaenidae recently. Scorpaena scrofa is one of the larger species of Eastern Atlantic scorpion fish and usually found in warmer waters like the Mediterranean, but the specimen found recently was caught in the cooler British waters of County Waterford. 
After placing the fish in the boats livewell Peter Lynch, the boats captain, contacted the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority where inspector Declan MacGabhann declared the fish a rare find. A poisonous species the Scorpaena scrofa is a predatory fish from the same family as the Lion fish and their range is extending as SFPA inpsector Declan MacGabhann states: “The seas around Ireland are getting warmer, and we are seeing an increased number of what we would classify as rare fish turning up in fishermen’s nets.” The fish will go o display at the Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium in the neighboring County Kerry, where it will join other interesting and rare taxa. Read more here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Fish, Industry, Photography, Science, Uncategorized
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Treasure Trove of New Species Found in PNG
Researchers from the NOVA Southeastern University in Hollywood Florida, have uncovered a huge collection of previously unidentified marine taxon. “In the Madang Lagoon, we went a half mile out off the leading edge of the active Australian Plate and were in 6,000 meters of water,” said Jim Thomas, Ph.D., a researcher at Nova Southeastern University’s National Coral Reef Institute in Hollywood, Fla. Thomas led a team into the waters of Papua New Guinea (PNG) consisting of researchers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, the California Academy of Sciences, and the National Botanical Gardens of Ireland. 
“It was once believed there were no reefs on the north coast of Papua New Guinea since there were no shallow bays and lagoons typical of most coral reef environments. But there was lots of biodiversity to be found” said Thomas. During a 3 week expedition, and joined by a contingent of French scientists from the Paris Museum of Natural History, the team was able to collect new species from the family of sea slugs (nudibranchs), feather stars (crinoids) and amphipods (genus Leucothoe). Ending late last year the study produced a “profound bounty” that will be further studied and categorized. Read more here!… More:
Posted in Conservation, Corals, Fish, Invertebrates, Science, Uncategorized
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Tanked Returns
The boys at Acrylic Tank Manufacturers are at it again with another season of Tanked on the Animal Planet. Airing March 22nd, 2013 the show will continue along the same lines showcasing some of the nations biggest and baddest salt water aquarium installations produced by the industries largest acrylic aquarium company. 
Wayde King and Bret Raymer of ATM have really made a name for themselves, as is evident in their forth season on the Animal Planet, despite initial backlash from the aquarium community. Check out the latest info and updates on the Animal Planet website here!… More:
Posted in Events, Funny, Industry, Tanks, Uncategorized
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Cobalt Aquatics Makes Quite the Splash
A lot of new products and a lot of new coral will be showcased at this years MACNA but one company is hitting the ground running with a complete line of saltwater related products before the event even gets started. From foods to canister filters Cobalt Aquatics has been slowly leaking products and product info over the past couple of months with each leak wetting the pallet of many aquarists. Now a distribution schedule has finally come to fruition: Shipping from Cobalt week of April 1st
- Discus “Hans” Flake
- Mysis Flake
- Mysis Spirulina Flake Shipping from Cobalt week of April 8th
- Neo-Therm 150 watt Heater
- Neo-Therm 200 watt Heater
- Neo-Stat 300 watt Temperature Controller
- Neo-Therm Heater working “POP” display Shipping from Cobalt week of April 29th
- Discus “Hans” Pellet
- Mysis Pellet
- Mysis Spirulina Pellet
- Marine Vegi Flake and Pellet Food
- Marine Omni Flake and Pellet Food Shipping from Cobalt week of June 1st
- E-X-T Canister Filter (and media)
- E-X-T inline Pump
- Oxy-Pro Air Pump
- Neo-Flow DC Circulating Pump
- Duo-Filter LED-UV (and media)
- Micro-UV 3w The Cobalt Aquatics Vision Statement: On April 26th, 2011 Viral Surati, Randy Parham and Les Wilson set off for the adventure of a lifetime. The three hardcore fishgeeks set off to create an aquatics company of their own. Based in the values instilled in them by mentors of company’s past and lessons learned from a lifetime of fish keeping, Cobalt Aquatics and it sister brand Cobalt Pond were formed. Starting with a line of koi food proudly made in the USA and Equipment made in Italy, Cobalt Aquatics will always strive to bring the highest quality products to market. Check them out here!… More:
Posted in Corals, Equipment, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Seahorses, Tanks, Uncategorized
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Australian Clams Descend From Single Genetic Line
Researchers at the University of Michigan have found another piece to the evolutionary puzzle through studying clams along the rocky Australian coast. An infrequent climatic event coupled with the unique underwater geography of the Australian coast provided the necessary conditions for three species of clam to diverge from one single ancestral line more than 13 or 14 million years ago, says researchers from the University of Michigan. Using the massive climate event called the middle Miocene climate transition, the authors suggest that during this time the Australian coast was split into different environmental zones with very different conditions. This change caused the split of one ancestral line of clam into four genetically different species. 
The Australian southern coast has three evolutionary distinct collections of marine taxon known as biogeographic provinces, and within each province species can vary morphologically as well as genetically. Co-author Diarmaid O’Foighil on the three members of clam currently classified as Lasaea australis: ”You cannot tell them apart physically, but their genes indicate that their evolutionary divergence predates that of humans from chimpanzees.” Further strengthening their findings, “This study provides important clues about how marine regional biotas can evolve, including our observation that these processes can involve major global climate change modulated by local geography,” Jingchun Li, lead author of the report and a doctoral student in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Read more here!… More:
Posted in Invertebrates, Science, Too Cute
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