Larry, a 3-foot-long Tawny nurse shark (Nebrius ferrugineus) has been moved from his cramped dwellings in a Burbank pet store to the Birch Aquarium, a public aquarium and museum capable of offering him much more spacious accommodations. The Birch Aquarium is a part of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, which in turn is part of the University of California in San Diego.

Larry’s move to a new home is the result of Burbank resident Stephanie Field spotting Larry at the Scales ‘n’ Tails pet shop in Burbank.

“I swore to him I would get him out of there”, Field said.

After discussing the situation with PETA and an animal shelter, Field went back to the store to talk to the owner Vahe Issaian. She had decided to purchase Larry and set him free in the ocean off the coast of California, but Issaian explained to her that doing so would only serve to kill the shark.

“That’s when I found out Vahe is a really good guy,” Field said.

As it turned out, Issaian had been trying to find a new home for Larry for quite some time but without any success. Issaian had first brought him to his pet store in 2001 when Larry’s owner left for military service and could care for his big fish any longer. In 2002, Larry was purchased by a couple from Valencia with whom he stayed until 2008.

“They had it for five years, and I picked it up in mid-2008 because they were remodelling their home and didn’t have an eight-foot wall for the aquarium,” Issaian said.

Since then, Larry had been living at Issaian’s other Burbank store, Millenium Pets. Trying to find a new home for a shark that can reach a length of 10 feet (3 metre) is not the easiest thing in the world since few people have enough space to devote to such a gigantic pet.

Finally, it was Field’s mother who suggested calling the Australian Consulate and this set the wheels in motion. After talking to the consulate on Wednesday morning, Field received an e-mail that same day telling her that progress had been made and that she could stop making calls.

On Tuesday, assistant curator Fernando Nosratpour picked up Larry from the pet shop and moved him to his new home. Larry will now spend two weeks in quarantine before he’s introduced to the other sharks.

Always research pets before you buy them

Adult Tawny nurse sharks can reach a length of 10 feet (3 metres) and getting a nurse shark for your hobby aquarium is not a good idea unless you have a HUGE tank. Nosratpour says that the Birch Aquarium do receive offers now and then to take nurse sharks that people have bought without first researching how large they will become as adults.

“Most public aquariums can’t take them anymore,” he said. “Pet stores can’t take them, and you can’t ship them back to where they are from. But people still buy them, and that’s a problem.”

The Tawny nurse shark is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans in a region stretching from the northern coast of Australia and almost all the way to the Red Sea. It is the only now living member of the genus Nebrius and can be distinguished form other nurse sharks by its angular fins. It is listed as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The world’s first public aquarium specialising in clownfish has now opened its door for visitors. The aquarium, which is located in Taitung County in Taiwan, will eventually house 1500 clown fish from 18 different species.

The aim of the clownfish aquarium is to educate the public about clownfish life-cycles and captive breeding techniques, and specimens will be sent to the aquarium by breeders such as the Eastern Marine Biology Research Center in Taitung.

“By meeting market needs we are helping to ease the crisis of clownfish species being endangered”, says researcher and museum planner Ho Yuan-hsing. “Due to the increasing number of artificially-bred clown fish, the fishing of clownfish is no longer seen in Taiwan’s coastal areas because it is unnecessary.”

AC comment:

The movie “Finding Nemo” made a lot of people interested in getting their own “Nemo”, but few were willing to learn how to properly maintain a saltwater aquarium. Before you decide to get a clownfish, please keep in mind that these are marine fishes. Simply adding some salt to your freshwater aquarium will not make is a suitable home for marine fish; not even for the sturdy clownfish. Even though the worst Nemo-craze seems to have cooled off now, a lot of “Nemos” still face an early death in the hands of uninformed fish keepers; deaths that could have been easily prevented.

Rocky, a snakehead living with its keeper Chris Deverso in New York State, might get a new lease on life.

Snakeheads are Asian predatory fishes capable of breathing oxygen from the air and move over land. They have been banned in the USA since they might wreck havoc with North American ecosystems if introduced to the wild.

Channa marulius caught by fisherman.
Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

Due to this regulation, the Department of Environmental Conservation wanted to euthanize the pet snakehead, but Deverso – who has owned the fish since before the ban was put into action in 2004 – refused to give up his pet and has therefore been back and forth to court and fined for owning the illegal fish.

The Department of Environmental Conservation has now offered a compromise; they will grant Deverso an educational permit, provided that he fulfils the educational permit requirements. He must:

– Install a lock on the top of the aquarium.

– Holds an open house or lecture in his home for groups interested in learning about snakehead fish.

– Pay an annual permit fee of $500.

“I never went to college; I never made much. I’m just an average guy who stood up for what I believed in and hopefully in time I’ll be granted the permit and it’ll all be worth it,” said Deverso. “I’ve taken care of him for 11 years, it’s my family pet; $500 is a lot of money but if it saves his life, it’s worth it.”

Several types of commonly used fish egg disinfectants increase the risk of swim bladder disorder in fish, a new study from Israel reveals.

In an effort to prevent fungal growth, many fish breeders use various chemicals, such as methylene blue, hydrogen peroxide, acriflavine and chloramine-T to aquariums where eggs are kept. This practise is especially common among breeders who will not let the parents stay with eggs and fry. Many fish species carry out parental care and eggs from such species often depend on one or both parents gently fanning fresh water over them and manually removing any unfertilized eggs from the batch. Without such parental care, the eggs easily succumb to fungi unless the fish breeder adds some type of fungicide to the water.

The new Israeli study, which focused on Angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare), revealed that some of these chemicals may be responsible for a swim bladder disorder in developing fish. In fish suffering from this type of disorder, the swim bladder can not inflate properly and the fry fails to develop into a fully free-swimming adult. Among aquarists, such fish are commonly known as “belly sliders” due to their peculiar way of moving around the fish tank.

Methylene blue

Eggs hatched in the presence of 1, 2 and 5 ppm methylene blue exhibited significant increases in swim bladder non-inflation (11%, 9% and 33%, respectively; none in controls).

Time of exposure to methylene blue was a key factor. Exposure for up to 1 day post-hatch did not affect swim bladder non-inflation, but exposure from 2 days onwards significantly increased swim bladder non-inflation.

Hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide at 250 ppm significantly increased swim bladder non-inflation (65% comparing to 27% in the control). Higher concentrations resulted in 100% mortality.

Acriflavin

Exposure to acriflavin at 2.25 ppm, but not 1.25 ppm, significantly increased swim bladder non-inflation (75% and 52% respectively; 20% in controls).

Chloramin-T

Chloramine-T did not significantly affect swim bladder non-inflation.

For more information, see the paper “C. Sanabriaa, A. Diamantb and D. Zilberga (2009) – Effects of commonly used disinfectants and temperature on swim bladder non-inflation in freshwater angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare (Lichtenstein)”. The paper has been published in the journal Aquaculture.

In several species of fish, such as the cichlid species Neolamprologus pulcher, it is common for subordinate females to help an unrelated dominant breeding pair raise their young. The reason behind this seemingly altruistic behaviour, known as alloparental care, has puzzled scientists for many years and one of the most widely spread hypotheses put forward has been the ‘pay-to-stay’ hypothesis. According to the ‘pay-to-stay’ rationale, the subordinate female helps out the dominant pair just to be able to stay in the group. Not being ostracised from the group augments her long-term survival chances, thus increasing the chance for her to live long enough to eventually obtain a breeding position.

Picture by: JJPhoto.dk

A new study carried out by Dik Heg and coauthors does however bring forth a new hypothesis: the substrate rationale. In their study, Heg and his colleges tested the hypothesis that subordinate female cichlids are helping dominant pairs in return for a more immediate direct reproductive benefit. After a series of experiments where the total number of eggs produced over a 30 day period by dominant and subordinate Neolamprologus pulcher females were carefully counted, researchers found that a subordinate female helping out a dominant pair was more likely to produce eggs herself compared to other subordinate females.

According to Heg and coauthors, the most likely reason for the increased reproductive success of “fish nannies” is that the subordinate female gains access to the breeding substrate.

If you wish to read more, see the paper “Heg, D, E Jutzeler, JS Mitchell and IM Hamilton (2009) Helpful female subordinate cichlids are more likely to reproduce”. It has been published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Here at AC Tropical Fish, we believe in the Jude Law-hypothesis. The dominant female will naturally snatch away the most prosperous male, but by posing as a benevolent nanny even a subordinate female can gain access to his home and hope for some of his triumphant DNA to eventually find its way into the genetic make up of her own offspring.

Switzerland has adopted new strict animal cruelty laws. The new law contains more strict rules regulating how to keep most pets and domestic animal. An example is that many animals such as hamsters, lamas, alpacas and sheep no longer can be kept alone. They need to have visual contact with other specimens of the same species. Another example is that people who want to buy their first dog have to go to compulsory classes for “want to be dog owners” before they can legally buy a dog. The law details how all domestic animals should be kept regardless of whether they are kept as pet, for scientific research or in zoos.

I will not go into depth about exactly what this new rule stipulates but I will say a few words relating to fish keeping (If you live in Switzerland and want to know more about I recommend reading the original law text or contact a local authority).

The law bans the flushing live fish. You need to kill the fish before you can legally flush it. The law does not state exactly how the fish should be killed before being flushed.

For many aquarists, the joy of keeping an aquarium is not only about watching colourful fish dart around in the living room, it is also a way of learning more about the delicate web we call an ecosystem and how dead matter and living organisms interact with each other to create an environment where life can not only exist but flourish. It therefore comes as no surprise that you can find a lot of environmentally conscious aquarists, and that many of today’s expert biologists and wildlife authorities were steered into the path of environmental science at a very young age while striving to keep the inhabitants of their fish tank alive. Keeping an aquarium can unfortunately be a problematic hobby for the environmentally conscious, but don’t loose heart – there are loads of things that you can do to make your aquarium less of a burden for mother earth. As a matter of fact, many aquarists have actually helped in preservation work, e.g. by keeping and breeding endangered fish from severely damaged habitats, thus preventing species from becoming completely eradicated.

1.) Pick species that appreciate the same temperature as you do

Keeping an aquarium heated can require loads of energy and dig a large hole in your pocketbook. Many aquarists automatically chose tropical species in need of a temperature in the 75-82ºF (24-28ºC) range, despite the fact that they keep their homes heated up to 70°F (21°C) or so. By choosing subtropical species that prefer roughly the same temperature as you do you can save considerably amounts of energy in the long run. It can however still be a good idea to keep a heater with a thermostat in the aquarium as a precaution against sudden drops in temperature. The smaller your aquarium, the more rapidly it will loose heat if the surrounding temperature drops. Choose a supplier that sells green electricity.

2.) Never release fish or other creatures into the wild

If you for any reason cannot care for your aquarium inhabitants anymore, you need to find them a new keeper or euthanize them. It might be tempting to release them into the wild, but this is a big no-no. Releasing living organisms into environments where they don’t belong can wreck havoc with existing ecosystems and must therefore be avoided. Even if you keep species that occur naturally in your local environment you shouldn’t release them back into the wild because they may have come in contact with non-native bacteria, viruses, parasites etcetera in the aquarium that could cause problems for wild flora and fauna.

Fish are so called cold blooded animals and it is therefore easy to euthanize them by decreasing the water temperature. If you need to euthanize a fish or other cold blooded aquarium creature, simply place it in a water filled container and put the container in the freezer. As the water temperature gradually decreases, the metabolism of the animal will slow down and it will fall into a comatose like state before dying.

3.) Purchase locally bred or caught fish

Instead of purchasing fish that have to be flown in from the other side of the planet, you can search for fish that are being bred or caught in your area, country or (at least) part of the world. As a bonus for you, locally bred fish are often better acclimatized to the tap water in your area and more prone to breed in captivity.

4.) Turn your back on unsuitable harvesting methods

Unfortunately, devastating harvesting methods like dynamite fishing are still fairly common within the aquarium trade. Always make an effort to find out which technique that has been used to catch the fish you’re interested in purchasing. It can be hard to find unbiased information, but it is still worth trying. Paying a little extra for fish that has not been caught with dynamite and similar can also be a very sound investment since unsuitable harvesting methods tend to cause a lot of damage to the fish and decrease its chances of survival in captivity.

5.) Participate in breeding programs

By participating in a breeding program you can help supply the aquarium market with captive bred fish and ease the strain on wild populations. You can naturally do this on your own as well, but joining a breeding program is a great way of getting information on how to breed high quality fish and avoid common pitfalls. You may also be able to purchase or borrow hard to find species to use in your breeding efforts, especially if you have had success in breeding similar species in the past.

6.) Keep the fish alive

This last point might seem like a no-brainer, but many beginner aquarists are coaxed by fish shops into thinking that four months is a perfectly normal lifespan for all sorts of aquarium fish and that you should expect to constantly purchase new fish to keep your tank populated. It is true that some species have a natural life span of less than six months, but the overwhelming majority of known fish species live much longer than this and there are actually quite a few species that will live for 10 years or more in a well kept aquarium. If all your fish goes belly up after just a few months in your tank, you’re probably doing something wrong. If aquarists all over the world would become better at actually keeping their fish alive, less energy would have to be devoted to transporting replacement fish, and it would also alleviate the strain on wild populations of desirable aquarium fish.

So, how can we increase our chances of keeping healthy and long-lived fish in our tanks? First and foremost, always read up on each species you wish to keep before you make a purchase. By learning about a species preferred environment, temperature, water chemistry, diet, tank mates, and so on, you will be more apt at keeping it alive throughout its natural life span. Do not mix species with different preferences in water chemistry, temperature and similar. You might very well be able to keep them alive, but they will not thrive and they will be more prone to health problems which increase the risk of an untimely death.

It is also important to read up on aquarium management techniques and always strive to increase ones knowledge on general aquarium maintenance. Do not hesitate to ask more experienced aquarists for advice. Today, the Internet has made it easy to keep in touch with aquarists from all over the world through aquarium forums and e-mail. If you’re lucky, there will also be a local aquarium club in your area.