The ghost of Steve Irwin haunts reef?
Former Italian Navy diver Pino Termini of Naples claims to have seen the ghost of Steve Irwin while diving at Batt Reef in tropical North Queensland. Batt Reef is a coral reef off Port Douglas in Queensland, Australia and a part the Great Barrier Reef.
“As I started my dive I saw somebody and was surprised because I saw no other boats around”, Termini explains. “Then I noticed that the person had no oxygen tank or mask, the person swam towards me and I realised that it was
Shark jumps into water slide
A 12+ year old female reef shark kept in an aquarium at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas managed to jump out of its tank and onto a nearby water slide. She slid down the slide and into the swimming pool, where she was subjected to the chlorinated pool water. The aquarium staff immediately put her back in her own tank in an attempt to resuscitate her, but it was too late. The Atlantis Resort does not keep their sharks in chlorinated water; they use filtered water from the Atlantic Ocean since it is more similar to the natural environment of these animals.
Three coral reefs discovered off the coast of Florida
A group of scientists from the Catalyst One expedition has discovered three previously unknown coral reefs 35 miles of the coast of Florida. The coral reefs consist mainly of Lophelia coral and are located at a depth of 450 metres (1475 feet).
Lophelia pertusa is a cold-water coral famous for its lack of zooxanthellae.
Can fish feel pain?
Scientists from three different European countries – Norway, Belgium and the UK – are now launching a new research project where the aim is to find out if cods can feel pain or not.
“Most people agree that mammals and birds can feel pain, but people are less sure about fish,” says project leader Øyvind Aas-Hansen of NOFIMA, an aquaculture research institute whose headquarters are in Tromsø, Norway.
New catfish, tetra and cichlid species
This post will introduce a number of new catfish species, a couple of tetras and an a few cichlid species.
Let’s start with the cichlid species. The species known as Apistogramma sp Mamore have been scientifically described by Wolfgang Staeck and Ingo Schindler and named A. erythrura. It is a small species and the largest speciemen that have been found so far was 30.8 mm SL. (just over 1.2 inch).
Post Halloween catch-up
Sorry for the silence over Halloween. Posting will now hopefully return to normal with at least one post every or every other day. This first post will be somewhat of a link post catching up on some of the fishy news that happened last week.
