Sea Hare - Aplysia californica - Photo by Genny Anderson

It has been discovered that ink which is squirted out by sea hares makes them less appetizing to other predators. This discovery was published by  researchers at the Georgia State University.

The study’s focal point was the sea hare’s (in the scientific world known as Aplysia caifornica) defense mechanism. The findings of the study were just recently published in the well respected journal Animal Behavior.

When a sea hare feels threatened, much like an octopus, it will release a purple colored ink and white opaline. This colorful mixture also happens to contain amino acids, feeding deterrents and some other compounds which may make the would be predator think twice on chowing down on the sea hare.

Two researchers, Charles Derby and Matthew Nusnbaum, were examining this extraordinary defense measure in the sea hare, and how it deterred a Bluehead wrasse (known in scientific circles as Thalassoma bifasciatum) as the guinea pig.

They carried out a live feeding assay, in which the hapless Blueheads were offered either a complete sea hare, or one which had had their ink sack removed.

They also monitored the number of times the bluehead attacked the sea hare, if ink was in fact released, and the amount of injury the sea hare took in the process.

They then proceeded to do a bunch more tests, and the final outcome? They ultimately found that the ink has many qualities which predators just don’t like.

Above you can see a fascinating video of squat Urchin shrimp and below you find some basic information about this tiny shrimp.

The squat Urchin shrimp, known in scientific circles as Gnathophylloides mineri, is quite a fascinating invertebrate that many aquarists would often look over, or even never see.

This fascinating little creature is only milometers in length, and it survives in its own little world, not seeming to care about how the rest of the Sea Urchins live. These Sea Urchins actually live ON TOP of other Sea Urchins!

The Squat Urchin Shrimp is incredibly tiny, often never reaching more than 6mm in length, and it often orients itself parallel with their hosts spines, which not only protects it from becoming lunch for some other sea critter, but also makes it nigh on impossible to see, some would even say it’s effectively invisible to the naked eye. Colonies of these little guys often have numbers ranging from a few to a half dozen will share the same host Sea Urchin. Not only does it seek protection from its hosts spines, it actually feeds on them, proving once again just how successful this tiny creature is at surviving. This is a rather odd kind of parasitism, as it does not have any ill effects for the host.

The Squat Urchin Shrimp also will take every chance they get to feed upon the detritus that the host sea urchin picks up off the ocean floor on it’s travels.

Female scissortail sergants allow potential mates to fertilize a small batch off eggs and then monitor their parenting skills to decide if they are good enough to deserve a full clutch.

When studying filial cannibalism* in scissortail sergeants, ecologist Andrea Manica** of the University of Cambridge noticed that some females approached a male’s nest, deposited a small amount of eggs, and then left.

This aroused his curiosity and he decided to provide the males with ceramic tiles to use as nest sites. Once a female has deposited a small clutch on a ceramic tile, Manica either left the eggs alone or rotated the tiles to move the eggs.

The tiles that were left alone turned out to be popular; two-thirds of the females returned to deposit a full clutch of eggs later. The tiles that had been rotated by Manica were much less desirable and only a quarter of the females returned to lay a new batch.

Overall, this method of testing potential fathers seems to be rather rare in the population researched by Manica. Out of 421 females, only 7.4 percent laid test eggs before depositing a full batch. Manica also noticed that the method was used mainly at the onset of the breeding cycle. Later in the cycle, the amount of eggs already inside a nest seemed to suffice as indicator.

“The female fish probably use these test eggs when they don’t have much to go by. As a strategy, to me it makes lots of sense. There are probably lots of other species that do that,” said Manica.

The Scissortail sergant (Abudefduf sexfasciatus) is a large damselfish native to coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific. Also known as the Striptailed damselfish, it can be recognized on its black striped tail and sides. In this species, the eggs are cared for by the male fish who must not only resist the urge to eat his own offspring but also be brave and skilled enough to protect them from being eaten by other predators.

The study has been published in Animal Behaviour.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/622782/description#description

* Filial cannibalism is when an adult eats the young of its own species. In many species of fish, adults won’t hesitate to eat even their own immediate offspring.

** http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/manica.html

Ballast water is great for stabilizing a ship in rough waters. Unfortunately, it is equally great at carrying all sorts of aquatic organisms across the world before releasing them into new ecosystems where many of them become problematic invasive species.

The cost of invasive species in the Great Lakes of North America have now reached $200 million a year and scientists predict that this number will increase sharply if the dreaded fish virus known as VHS manage to hitchhike its way into Lake Superior. Considering the number of international shipping vessels that arrive to this river system each week, it is probably just a matter of time unless drastic measures are put in place to stop the costly carrying of disruptive stowaways.

Is ballast treatment the solution?
On-board ballast treatment systems have been proposed by parts of the shipping industry as well as by many scientists, but so far, no one has been able come up with an efficient, cost-effective and safe solution that will work in both freshwater and saltwater. Researchers from the Lake Superior Research Institute* in Superior are now trying to change this.

“The question is how clean is clean? Zero would be great, but is it achievable?” asks Mary Balcer, director of the Lake Superior Research Institute.

Balcer, her research team and students at the University of Wisconsin-Superior are currently analyzing a long row of different solutions developed by private companies to see if any of them could help protect environments such as the Great Lakes from the threat of marauding newcomers.

The goal is to find a solution that will eliminate as many living organisms as possible before the ballast water is released. The treatment must also be safe for the ecosystem into which the water will be released.

Freshwater more demanding
Last month, researcher Tom Markee and several students tested using chlorine to eliminate organisms such as tiny worms, midges and water fleas growing in fish tanks in the university lab. Carrying large containers of chlorine on a ship is naturally dangerous, so Markee and his team instead opted for a solution where the treatment system produces its own chlorine by exposing saltwater to an electric current. The goal for Markee et al is now to find the ideal dose of chlorine as well as make sure that the system works in different types of water.

“They’ve tested it in saltwater and it works fine, but when you get to harbors or a river system, that’s when it becomes less effective,” Markee explains.

Other examples of techniques that are being explored by the research institute are the use of ultraviolet light, ozone and even lethal inaudible sound.

Balcer says her research team hasn’t yet found any viable treatment system that would kill all the living organisms in a ballast tank, but she’s happy with the progress that’s been made.

“Everyone’s behind getting the problem solved,” she says. Eventually we’ll be able to find something that really works.”

* Lake Superior Research Institute, http://www.uwsuper.edu/wb/catalog/general/2006-08/programs/LSRI.htm

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.

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.”

Remember the strange fish discovered by divers off the Indonesian coast in January 2008? This fish has now been scientifically described and given the official name Histiophryne psychedelica. Well, what else would you call a fish that that looks like this and moves like it was permanently and irrevocably under the influence?

Histiophryne psychedelica, also known as the Psychedelic frogfish, was scientifically described by Ted Pietsch[1] and Rachel Arnold[2] of the University of Washington, together with wildlife photographer David Hall[3].

The University of Washington has released videos where you can see the Psychedelic frogfish swim, or rather hop, skip and jump, over a coral reef. http://uwnews.org/article.asp?articleID=47496

Each time the fish strikes the reef, it uses its fins to push off while simultaneously expelling water from tiny gill openings on the sides of the body to aid in propulsion. The fish is well suited for life on the reef and has for instance been blessed with protective thick folds of skin that keeps its gelatinous body out of harms way among the sharp-edged corals. Just as on the other members of the frogfish group, the fins on both sides of the body have evolved into elongated protrusions more similar to legs than fins. Histiophryne psychedelica does however distinguish itself from other frogfish species by having a flat face with eyes facing forward.

Frogfishes are a type of angelfish, but unlike most other anglers Histiophryne psychedelica does not have any lures on its forehead to tempt its prey with. It also seems to keep its vibrant colours in all sorts of environments, unlike most other anglers who prefer to adapt every inch of their body (except for the lures) to the surroundings in order to stay undetected by prey. According to Hall, the psychedelic colouration might be a way for the fish to mimic corals.

When a Psychedelic frogfish is killed and preserved in ethanol, it looses its lively colours and patterns within a few days and takes on a dull white appearance. This made Pietsch curious about two specimens sent to him in 1992 and he decided to take a closer look at them in a microscope. In the newly caught specimen, the distinctive striping of the fish could still be seen through a microscope and this prompted Pietsch to re-examine the two preserved ones in search of patterns. As it turned out, these two fishes had the same characteristic striping as Histiophryne psychedelica – Pietsch had been storing two specimens of the psychedelic fish for 17 years without realizing it.

If you wish to learn more about this mesmerizing fish, check out the paper Theodore W Pietsch, Rachel J. Arnold and David J. Hall. “A Bizarre New Species of Frogfish of the Genus Histiophryne (Lophiiformes: Antennariidae) from Ambon and Bali, Indonesia.” Copeia[4], February 2009. The study was funded by the National Science Foundation.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Antennariidae
Genus: Histiophryne

New species: Histiophryne psychedelica

Zoology Prof. Yossi Loya at the Tel Aviv University in Israel has discovered that corals changes sex to survive periods of stress, such as high water temperatures. By observing the behaviour of Japanese sea corals he discovered that stressed female mushroom coral (fungiid coral) change gender to become males, and that male corals are much better at handling stress and fare better at surviving on limited resources. Not all females go through his change but many do and most of the population is therefore male during periods of intense stress.

Yossi Loya says: “We believe, as with orchids and some trees, sex change in corals increases their overall fitness, reinforcing the important role of reproductive plasticity in determining their evolutionary success. One of the evolutionary strategies that some corals use to survive seems to be their ability to change from female to male, As males, they can pass through the bad years, then, when circumstances become more favourable, change back to overt females. Being a female takes more energy, males are less expensive to maintain. They are cheaper in terms of their gonads and the energy needed to maintain their bodies. Having the ability to change gender periodically enables a species to maximize its reproductive effort.”

Loya’s discoveries have been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The professor hopes that this new knowledge will help coral farmers by allowing them to reproduce the hardy Fungiid corals more effectively.

Loya has been studying coral reefs for more than 35 years and won the prestigious Darwin Medal for a lifetime contribution to the study of coral reefs. He is also involved in coral rehabilitation projects in the Red Sea and is a professor at the Tel Aviv University in Israel.

I have updated AC with a brand new saltwater section as a step on the way towards become the most complete aquarium websites on the web. There is still a lot of marine fish Ac don´t have information about and I will add more as I can.

For now you have to be satisfied reading these new articles:

Anglerfish
Anthias
Basses
Batfish
Blennies
Butterflyfish
Cardinalfish
Clown fish
Corals
Damselfish
Files
Goatfish
Gobies
Gorgonians
Grammas
Groupers
Grunts
Hawkfish
Jawfish
Jellyfish
Lionfish
Dragonets
Mantis shrimp
Marine angelfish
Marine Catfish
Moray eels
Nudibranch
Octopus
Pipefish
Pufferfish
Rabbitfish
Rays
Snappers
Scorpionfish
Sea Anemones
Sea horses
Sea Stars
Shark Fish
Shrimps
Snails
Squirellfish
Surgeonfish
Triggerfish
Wrasses
Setting up a marine aquarium /by ILMGB
Cheap marine aquarium (economical and environmnetal….)by ILMGB
Cinnamon Clownfish
Clarkii Clownfish
Maroon Clownfish
Ocellaris Clownfish
Percula Clownfish
Pink Skunk Clownfish
Saddleback Clownfish
Green Chromis
Blue Green Chromis
Blue Devil
Yellowtail Damsel
Fiji Blue Devil
Striped Damsel
Blacktail Damsel
Domino Damsel
Blue Velvet Damsel
Lined Seahorse
Common Seahorse
Long Snout Seahorse
Banded pipefish
Highfin Blenny
Bicolor Blenny
Midas Blenny
Redspotted Rockskipper
Redlip Blenny
Lawnmower Blenny
Green Mandarinfish
Spotted Mandarinfish
Starry Dragonet
Leaf Scorpionfish
Fu Manchu Lionfish
Dwarf Lionfish
Zebra Lionfish
Antennata Lionfish
Radiata Lionfish
Red Volitans Lionfish
Volatins Lionfish
Threadfin Anthias
Bartlett’s Anthias
Bicolor Anthias
Lyertail Anthias
African Flameback Angelfish
Asfur Angelfish
Bicolor Angelfish
Blueface Angelfish
Cherub Angelfish
Coral Beauty
Emperor Angelfish
Flame Angelfish
French Angelfish
Herald’s Angelfish
Koran Angelfish
Lamarck’s Angelfish
Potter’s Angelfish
Queen Angelfish
Regal Angelfish
Rock Beauty Angelfish
Rusty Angelfish
Watanabe’s Angelfish
Harlequin Bass
Chalk Bass
Immaculate Puffer
Saddled Toby
Pajama Cardinalfish
Bangaii Cardinalfish
Copperbanded Butterflyfish
Golden Butterflyfish
Klien’s Butterflyfish
Lined Butterflyfish
Longfin Bannerfish
Raccoon Butterflyfish
Saddleback Butterflyfish
Schooling Bannerfish
Threadfin Butterflyfish
Yellow Longnose Butterflyfish
Bicolor Foxface Rabbitfish
Coral Rabbitfish
Foxface Rabbitfish
Magnificent Rabbitfish
Onespot Foxface Rabbitfish
Virgate Rabbitfish
Oribiculate Batfish
Redfin Batfish
Longfin Batfish
Dash-and-Dot Goatfish
Yellowhead Jawfish
Flame Hawkfish
Longnose Hawkfish
Arc-eye Hawkfish
Crown Squirellfish
Red Coat Squirellfish
Hawaiian Squirellfish
Striped Eel Catfish
Panther Grouper
Peppermint Basslet
Bluelined Snapper
Achilles Surgeonfish
Atlantic Blue Tang
Blue Hippo Tang
Chevron Tang
Clown Surgeonfish
Convict Surgeonfish
Desjardinii Tang
Kole Tang
Mimic Surgeonfish
Naso Tang
Orangeshoulder Surgeonfish
Powder Blue Tang
Powder Brown Tang
Purple Tang
Sailfin Tang
Scopas Tang
Whitecheek Surgeonfish
Yellow Tang
Orangespotted Shrimp Goby
Pinkspotted Shrimp Goby
Randall’s Shrimp Goby
Yellow Clown Goby
Yellow Watchman Goby
Bird Wrasse
Dragon Wrasse
Harliquin Tuskfish
Neon Wrasse
Ornate Wrasse
Queen Coris
Radient Wrasse
Spanish Hogfish
Striated Wrasse
Yellow Coris
Fourline Wrasse
Sixline Wrasse
Eightline Wrasse
Exquisite Fairy Wrasse
Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse
Scott’s Fairy Wrasse
Solar Fairy Wrasse
Carpenter’s Flasher Wrasse
Dot-and-Dash Flasher Wrasse
Filamented Flasher Wrasse
McCosker’s Flasher Wrasse

Not saltwater but still a new article.

Snail control & copper

I hope you will enjoy our new saltwater section.