300,000 pounds of rock has been stolen from the bottom of the ocean near Alligator Light and Islamorada off the coast of Florida.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office wish to hear from anyone who may have seen a boat harvesting the material from the site. If you have any information about this case, please contact FWC, the

Sheriff’s Office or call the Crime Stoppers of the Florida Keys at (800) 346-TIPS. You can also leave an anonymous tip at https://www.tipsubmit.com/.

The stolen rocks belong to Neal Novak, 51, a Miami aquarist who leases the quarter-acre site inshore of Alligator Reef from the federal government to cultivate live rock for the aquarium trade. Unfortunately, Novak hasn’t visited his farm in a year so it is hard to know when the theft took place.

Live rock consists of dead coral rock or quarried rock colonized by a profusion of marine species. Anything from tiny bacteria to large sponges can find a home in and on this type of “living” rock, and rocks covered in colourful coralline algae are especially coveted. Saltwater aquarists use live rock to make their aquariums look more beautiful, make the ecosystem more balanced, and help keep the water quality up in the tank. Live rocks are often colonized by scavenging species that will take care of any left-over food in the aquarium before it gets a chance to foul the water. According to Novak, the wholesale price for quality live rock in Florida is about $3 per pound.

Since the harvest of live rock from the wild can hurt marine environments, Florida banned it in the 1990s and state and federal governments decided to lease barren sea-bottom sites to people interested in aqua-culturing live rock for the aquarium trade.

Novak created his live rock farm by purchasing rock from quarries in south Miami-Dade County and ferrying them to his farm where the rocks have been resting in roughly 20 feet (6 metre) of water until someone took them. The rock pile, which was designated by GPS coordinates, has most likely not been moved by natural forces, because no hurricanes have been reported from the area since 2005 and a second stone pile with immature live rock was left largely intact.

With a wholesale price of $3 per pound, 300,000 pounds of rock can naturally give a tidy little profit for unscrupulous boulder thieves.

“They stole my livelihood,” Novak said. “This is devastating to my whole family. It cost me almost $150,000 to put the rock down and start the business. I spent my life savings to make this work. We could be looking at bankruptcy.”

Nova Scotia is not the only place with odd looking lobsters; the original Scotland also has some strange colour morphs dwelling in its waters.

If you visit the rock pool at Deep Sea World in North Queensferry, you can for instance encounter one electric blue lobster with white markings and one pitch-black lobster adorned with vivid orange colours that contrast beautifully against the dark areas. Picture here

The blue lobster was caught a quarter of a mile off the coast of Fife on the Scottish east-coast last year by Buckhaven fisherman Keith McKay, 47.

McKay said he had occasionally seen dark blue lobsters since he started laying creels with his father as an 11-year-old boy.

But he added: “I’ve never seen anything like this one in my life. I was surprised at how pale a blue it was. It was really brightly-coloured. I would call it electric blue. I was so surprised I pulled up alongside another fishing boat to show them what I had caught.”

Strangely coloured lobsters are the result of them being genetically different from other lobsters. In the wild, not having the normal olive-grey, mottled camouflage pattern is a disadvantage since predators can spot gaudy lobsters easily against the ocean floor, but for the lobsters living at Deep Sea World, the “genetic defect” actually turned out to be an asset since their flamboyant colours is what saved them from ending up on a dinner plate.

A rare orange-and-yellow lobster has been found off the coast of Prince Edward Island in Canada. Instead of the drab colours normally sported by lobsters, this female specimen boosts a spotted orange-and-yellow pattern. According to specialists, she’s one in about 30 million.

The colourful lobster is currently housed with roughly 100 other lobsters at Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, whose owner Nathan “Nick” Nickerson has named her “Fiona” after his girlfriend’s granddaughter. Getting a name is not the only special treatment she’s been awarded; unlike the other inhabitants of the tank her claws are not bound with rubber bands and she can therefore keep her house mates at bay. Lobsters can be cannibalistic, especially in crowded environments, but Nickerson says Fiona is “not very aggressive.”
Arnold’s Lobster and Clam Bar has not put the rare orange-and-yellow lobster on the menu.

“Gosh no!” Nickerson said. “That would be like steaming a Rembrandt.”

Instead, Fiona has gotten used to fine dining at Arnold’s – she’s kept on a diet of Yellowfin tuna of sushi quality while the other lobsters have to make do with cod fish. Nickerson plans on continuing to pamper her for a while before donating her to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster or to the New England Aquarium.

Nickerson received Fiona as a gift from his fried Michael R. Gagne, sales manager at Ipswich Shellfish Company Inc. who says Fiona is a “once-in-a-lifetime lobster”.

1According to Michael F. Tlusty, director of research at the New England Aquarium, Fiona’s distinctive coloration is caused by a rare genetic mutation. He estimated she might be 7 years old based on her weight, but how she managed to survive for so many years in her eye-catching garb is a true mystery.

“If you’re swimming over a muddy bottom, it would be much easier to see a yellow lobster than a normal-colored lobster,” said Tlusty, who has been studying lobsters for 10 years.

“Why was she able to survive with her coloration?” Tlusty asked. “That’s something we’re not quite sure of.”

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.

Eleven of the 18 freshwater stingrays living at the U.S. National Zoo died over the holiday weekened, together with two arowanas. All dead fishes were residents of the zoo’s Amazonia exhibit; a 55,000-gallon (208,000 L) aquarium designed to replicate a flooded Amazon forest. Zoo officials are now suspecting low oxygen levels to be behind the sudden mass death.

Picture of Motoro Sting Ray, Ocellate river stingray – Potamotrygon motoro. Not one of the dead rays.
Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

As soon as the deaths were discovered 7 a.m Monday morning, zookeepers tested the water and found low levels of dissolved oxygen. They immediately started supplementing the aquarium with reservoir water and no more fish have died so far. In addition to stingrays and arrowanas, the Amazon aquarium is also home to discus, boulengerella fish, and a large school of guppies. By 10:15 a.m. Monday, the oxygen levels were back to normal but zookeepers continue to monitor the health of the surviving fish just in case.

Necropsies performed on the dead fish did not unveil any definite cause of death, which makes low oxygen levels even more likely, according to National Zoo officials. They do not believe human error caused the oxygen drop, since all protocols and checks were properly followed Sunday night.

Insufficient levels of dissolved oxygen in the water are one of the most common causes of fish mass death, in the wild as well as in captivity. Last year, 41 stingrays died at the Calgary Zoo in Canada due oxygen scarcity in the water.

Four Pacific Angel sharks have been born at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco, USA. The pups weighed between 115 and 120 grams at birth and measured 21-24 cm.

“We’re thrilled to have these rare births at Aquarium of the Bay,” said Christina Slager, Director of Husbandry at the Aquarium. “Very little is known about the reproductive behavior of these beautiful sharks, so the information we gather from these pups will be really valuable.”

The Pacific Angel shark (Squatina californica) is found from South Eastern Alaska to the Gulf of California and the San Francisco birth coincides with the pupping season for many local shark species.

The newborns have been moved from the exhibition to more secluded nursery tanks where they will be able to enjoy some peace and quite while being monitored by the husbandry team.

The Aquarium of the Bay is the only nature centre to consistently exhibit, study and care for Pacific Angel Sharks. The Aquarium of the Bay Foundation is currently funding a research project related to Angel sharks, where the collected data on breeding patterns and migration will be made available to government agencies, with the hope of protecting the animals’ habitat.

As reported earlier this week, Danish television presenter Lisbeth Koelster was put on trial after deliberately pouring diluted anti-dandruff shampoo into a fish tank housing 12 guppies. The aim of the “experiment” was to demonstrate the level of toxic material in the shampoo. After being subjected to the shampoo, all but one of the fishes died and a Danish veterinarian who watched the show decided to press charges.

Koelster had pleaded not guilty, but the Glostrup court found her guilty of violating animal protection laws. Judge Thomas Lohse said Koelster had “deliberately committed an act of cruelty to animals” and violated animal protection laws. She was however not found to have violated any laws regarding experimentation on animals.

Koelster will not have to pay any fine since the event took place in 2004; four and a half year from now. The judge found this amount of time unreasonable and therefore decided not to fine her.

To demonstrate the level of toxic material in a brand of anti-dandruff shampoo, a Danish television presenter poured diluted shampoo into a fish tank on a 2004 episode of the consumer affairs show she fronted.

Lisbeth Kloester, a television presenter on the Danish public channel DV1, is now on trial for causing unnecessary suffering to animals.

After being subjected to the shampoo, all but one of 12 guppy fish housed in the aquarium died within four days and a veterinary practitioner watching the show decided to press charges. Under Danish law, causing unnecessary suffering to animals is an offence and Kloester could face a fine if convicted.

Kloester has pleaded not guilty and her lawyer Tuge Tried said he expected his client to be acquitted at the trial on Tuesday.

“The allegations are this experiment caused the fish’s fear and suffering…but expert witnesses told the court on May 12 that this was not the case,” he said. “Fish are killed by suffocation in industrial fisheries and we throw live lobsters into boiling water, but we don’t press charges against fisherman or restaurant owners.”

A new cichlid species has been described from the Río Negro and Río Tacuarí basins in the Uruguay River drainage by Uruguay ichthyologists Iván González-Bergonzoni, Marcelo Loureiro and Sebastián Oviedo.

The fish has been given the name Gymnogeophagus tiraparae (picture here) after María Luisa Tirapare, a Guaraní woman who founded the town of San Borja del Yí (no longer existing) close to one of the collecting localities for this fish.

Gymnogeophagus tiraparae is found in larger rivers with clear water over both sandy and rocky bottoms where underwater vegetation is scarce. The fish is decorated with two horizontal series of moderately elongated light blue dots between the dorsal fin spines, and a series of light blue stripes between the soft rays, sometimes merging with the second series of elongated dots. Between the series of dots, the body of the fish displays a red ground colour. On this spotty fish, the caudal fin is also adorned with dots, which are vertically aligned on the distal border. The body has no transversal bands at all. Another important characteristic is how the adipose hump on the head is located deeper than the upper border of the dorsal fin.

The description was published in the most recent issue of the journal Neotropical ichthyology.

González-Bergonzoni, I, M Loureiro and S Oviedo (2009) A new species of Gymnogeophagus from the río Negro and río Tacuarí basins, Uruguay (Teleostei: Perciformes). Neotropical Ichthyology 7, pp. 19–24.

* Guaraní is a group of culturally related indigenous people of South America who speak the Guaraní language. They are chiefly found between the Paraguay River and the Uruguay River.

In a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa, researchers Gertrud Konings-Dudin, Adrianus Konings and Jay Stauffer have described and named three new species of cichlid from the genus Melanochromis; two of them being fairly widespread among aquarists keeping African cichlids.

All three species hail from the eastern shore of Lake Malawi and belong to the group commonly referred to as Mbuna cichlids among fish keepers.

The fish you may have been offered under the name Melanochromis sp. “northern blue” (picture here) has been given the full name Melanochromis kaskazini. Just like its old trade name suggests, this Malawi cichlid hails from the northern part of the lake and the word kaskazini was choosen since it is the Kiswahili word for “northern”. (Kiswahili, also known as Swahili, is an African language spoken along the continent’s eastern coast.)

The “blue” part of its old trade name is a reference to the colour of the males; they are cobalt blue, while the females are white with a yellow or orange anal fin. Melanochromis kaskazini looks quite similar to its close relative Melanochromis lepidiadaptes but the latter one sports a suit of mensural characters not seen in Melanochromis kaskazini.

The Mbuna cichlid previously sold in fish stores as Melanochromis sp. “auratus elongate” (picture here) is from now named Melanochromis mossambiquensis. The fish is named after the country Mazambique since it is found along the Mazambique shore of Lake Malawi; a lake shared between the countries Mazambique, Malawi and Tanazania.

In Melanochromis mossambiquensis, the female fish is adorned with yellow stripes on the belly and a midlateral and dorsolateral black stripe that is narrower than the submarginal black band in the dorsal fin. The yellow stripes do not cover the entire lower abdomen, and the caudal fin features black spotting. The male fish is brown/black with white dorsolateral and midlateral stripes, and he displays a suite of mensural characters.

The third Mbuna cichlid, which does not have any trade name, has been given the scientific name Melanochromis wochepa due to its small size. Wochepa means “small” in Chinyanja, also known as Chichewa, a Bantu language spoken in south-central Africa.  I have not been able to find a picture at this time.

Melanochromis wochepa males are blue without any white striping, while the females sport a submarginal dorsal band that is wider than the mid-lateral and the dorsolateral stripe, thin abdominal yellow stripes never covering the entire lower abdomen, and a suite of mensural characters. The vomer is steep-angled in both sexes.

For more information, see paper published in Zootaxa: Konings-Dudin, G, AF Konings and JR, Jr Stauffer (2009) Descriptions of three new species of Melanochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) and a redescription of M. vermivorus. Zootaxa 2076, pp. 37–59.