That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Please welcome back Brandon Moyer for another excellent post.

We carry hundreds of different species of fish and inverts here at That Fish Place, That Pet Place that come from all around the world.  There are, however, certain species that are no longer available to us by act of law.  Their release into the wild and the lifestyles and behaviors they exhibit has earned them the title of invasive species.  This blog is the first in a series of popular invasive pet species accounts.  One of these is commonly inquired about here at That Fish Place and is notorious worldwide.

The Northern Snakehead, Channa argus, is one species of fish that has been introduced into non-native waters where it has thrived and disrupted its new habitat.  The snakehead family originates from Asia and parts of Africa.  The Northern Snakehead, which is invasive in the United States, originates from Southeast China and Korea.  Snakeheads are apex predators, meaning that they stand at the top of the food chain and eat almost anything they can get in their mouth.  Females can release anywhere from 1,300 to 15,000 eggs during a single spawn.  They can spawn up to five times in a single year.  They can survive in waters which range in temperature from 0 to 30 degrees Celsius.  What makes them more threatening is that they can survive out of water for four days by breathing air with modified organs, even longer if they construct a muddy burrow.

The first invasive snakehead in the United States was discovered in Spiritwood Lake in California in 1997.  The first established population of snakeheads was found in Crofton, Maryland in 2002.  This population provided proof that snakeheads were able to invade and flourish in US waters.  Since then juvenile and adult snakeheads have been found in the Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania, Lake Wylie in North Carolina, Meadow Lake in New York, and several other states in the eastern United States.  When snakeheads enter a new body of water they tend to disrupt the food chain.  Juvenile snakeheads compete for food with juveniles of native species.  Adults also compete for resources with adults of native species and become so aggressive that they will also kill and eat them.

Their aggressive behavior, distinct appearance, and large size made snakeheads a popular aquarium fish, although due to their potential to invade natural ecosystems, they are illegal in over half of the United States, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.  Irresponsibility was the main cause of their invasion into US waters.  We as responsible aquarists must realize the impacts that snakeheads, and many other species of fish, may potentially have in the wild to prevent these species turning from pets to pests.

I hope that this blog was informative and illustrated the importance of keeping our pets in the aquarium.  Check back for more invasive species blogs. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Thanks Brandon!

Until Next Time,

Dave

Please welcome Cory Shank to That Fish Blog. Cory is an on-staff marine biologist here and our resident “Coral Guy.” Take a look below to read his thoughts on the future of wild coral.

Corals reefs are enjoyed by millions of people each year, while on vacation or in the comforts of their own homes. Coral reefs are the most biodiverse ecosystems in the ocean and arguably in the world. It is well known that coral reefs are beginning to decline world-wide, from Australia to the Florida coastline. This is a major concern for industries economically involved, the aquarium trade, global tourism, and commercial food fisherman. The problem is, how do we stop this disturbing decline when we don’t know enough about the issues causing it?

The hype over global warming has many believing that the water temperature increases are causing the coral degradation. Water temperature plays a major role in maintaining the health of a coral reef ecosystem. In our aquariums, we use fans and chillers to keep our tanks at a desirable temperature, but reefs depend on natural currents and climatic conditions. In the past, the world climate has warmed much faster and more dramatically and the corals have lived on. The El Nino event of 1997-98 caused massive coral bleaching throughout the world’s coral reefs. Ten years later, many of these areas have recovered and are showing signs of expansion. So it is reasonable to believe that this cannot be the only reason behind the coral destruction.

So, what else can be going on? I was in Hawaii recently and spent most of my time in the water observing the wonderful fish, corals, and invertebrates. I noticed quite a bit of new coral growth and plenty of fish. However, there were areas that were not doing so well. Along the main highway, just off shore, were large coral colonies covered in filamentous algae and diatoms, not at all what the reefs looked like 5-10 miles offshore.  There the corals were thriving, and no algae could be seen. Along the shoreline, there are drainage pipes coming from the roadways and further up the mountains. This is where all of the runoff ends up. With more development come more impervious surfaces, chemicals, soil, and debris that enter the oceans, increasing the amount of siltation that occurs from the breakdown of coastal buffer zones. The soil and debris enter the ocean, choking out the coral. This also adds nutrients to the water, leading to enhanced algae growth, which also chokes out the coral. Coastal development is occurring all over the tropics, and new resorts and hotels and homes are being built every year, increasing to the problem.

With the increasing amount of hotels and resorts near where the coral reefs are located,  tourism poses a new wave of problematic issues. There are snorkelers and divers who may not respect the reefs and act irresponsibly, stepping on the corals, catching the fish, and polluting the waters. While in Hawaii and the Florida Keys on separate trips, I have witnessed people standing on corals with their snorkel fins not considering the damage they may be causing. The amount of trash floating around, stuck in between corals, or just buried in the sand is appalling and virtually unavoidable these days.

If Global Warming is occurring, causing the sea surface temperatures to rise, then everyone needs to step up and start protecting the reefs in any way that we can. At the current rate of degradation, a large percentage of coral reefs may disappear in the next 10 to 20 years. This will have devastating economic impact on the locals populations and to everyone else in the world that relies on income from those areas around the world.   Skyrocketing prices on everything from ornamental aquarium specimens to the shrimp for your picnic or barbecue will be the likely result, as these things become harder to come by. It is going to take a worldwide effort to help save the coral reefs, and we are running out of time, so please do your part and help protect our most biodiverse ecosystem.

Thanks for the great article Cory. Please write in with your thoughts or observations on this important topic.

Until next blog,

Dave

Only distantly related to shrimp, these unique, aggressive predators are actually classified within their own order, Stomatopoda. Over 400 species are known, mostly from the Indian and South Pacific Oceans. Hobbyists are often surprised to learn that one species, the 10 inch long Squilla empusa, ranges along our Atlantic Coast is for north as Cape Cod.

A flurry of new research articles on these fascinating creatures has been published recently, and it turns out that they are even more unusual than we might have suspected. I’d like to summarize some of this new information here — in my next article, I’ll write about caring for mantis shrimp in captivity.

A New and Unique Visual System
Research completed at the University of Queensland, Australia, in March of this year has demonstrated that mantis shrimp have a vision system previously unknown in any other type of animal. Utilizing precisely tilted filters in their eyes, mantis shrimp are able to perceive circular polarized light (CPL) by converted it to a linear form. CPL spirals to the left or right, and appears only as “haze” to us and other creatures (hence the need for polarized sunglasses). The filter within the mantis shrimps’ eyes functions in a similar manner to those used in certain photographic processes – only they beat us to it by about 400 million years!

CPL is reflected by male mantis shrimps’ exoskeletons, leading researchers to believe that it is used for sexual signaling. Furthermore – squid, a major mantis shrimp predator, can detect linear polarized light but not CPL. The use of CPL may, therefore, represent an ingenious strategy by which the mantis shrimp can communicate without drawing the attention of their enemies.

The World’s Most Complex Eyes
Further research in May of this year revealed that mantis shrimp possess the Animal Kingdom’s most complex eyes. Their eyes contain ten pigments sensitive to different light wavelengths, as opposed to our own three pigments. In addition to detecting CPL, mantis shrimp can also see colors ranging from ultraviolet through infrared – far more than any other creature.

Although we have yet to understand all the reasons for the evolution of such a remarkable visual system, we have some hints. Certain of the mantis shrimps’ prey, such as sand shrimp, are transparent and very difficult to see underwater. However, these shrimp are full of sugars that reflect polarized light – making them easy targets for the mantis shrimp. As if all this were not enough, mantis shrimp can also rotate each eye independently of the other, allowing for a very wide circle of vision.

Splitting Thumbs and Shattering Glass
Of more immediate concern to marine aquarists is a recent study demonstrating that a common pet trade species, the peacock mantis shrimp, can extend its hard, club-shaped front legs at speeds of over 75 feet per second. This is the fastest kick known, and explains the why we sometimes find aquariums housing mantis shrimp shattered, and a flood on the floor – the odd creatures actually generate enough force to break glass! In fact, so much pressure is exerted that the exoskeleton at the back of the leg actually wears away over time, but is replaced when the mantis shrimp molts.

This mighty thrust is made possible by a unique hinge in the leg, and was analyzed after being recorded by a camera capable of operating at 100,000 frames per second. The deadly front legs allow mantis shrimp to crack the shells of the snails and crabs upon which they feed, and to defend themselves — indeed, divers long ago christened these colorful terrors “Thumb Splitters”.

Communicating via Florescence
Although many marine creatures fluoresce (absorb one color and emit it as another), mantis shrimp are the only ones known to use fluorescence as a means of communication. This month (May, 2008) researchers at the University of North Carolina demonstrated that the bright yellow spots of the species Lysiosquillina glabriuscula were visible even at depths of over 130 feet, allowing the animals to signal each other despite the dim blue light (which would otherwise render the yellow color indistinct).

Last but not least (“last” for now, I’m sure these oddballs are hiding other secrets!) – certain species of mantis shrimp cover ground by curling into a ball and rolling downhill.

On to captive care next time – until then, please share your own observations and questions. Thanks, Frank.

A video showing just how well a pugnacious mantis shrimp can use its kicking ability is posted at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt55yPxTxyA&feature=related

Seahorses have much to attract aquarists – armor plated and prehensile tailed, and with independently-moving eyes and wing-like fins, they can also change color as well as grow and discard filamentous appendages. And, of course, the males become “pregnant”.

My first contact with seahorses came in the mid 1960’s when my grandfather, long in awe of these unusual fishes, mail-ordered a group of dwarf seahorses, Hippocampus zosterae, from a dealer in Florida. The shipment included several males carrying eggs, and I was hooked – so much so that I wound up writing a book on seahorses.

Texas A&M researchers are now learning the male seahorse’s pouch is far more than a mere container for eggs, and are trying to discover just how such a unique organ managed to evolve. Tissue from within the pouch actually grows around the eggs and functions in a similar manner to a mammalian placenta. Through it the seahorse father is able to keep blood flowing around the eggs, and to provide them with oxygen and nutrition. Amazingly, he also makes minute adjustments to the salinity of the water within his pouch, gradually increasing it as the embryos’ needs change. By hatching time, the salinity of the pouch water matches precisely the salinity of the surrounding ocean.

The male seahorse fertilizes the eggs once they have been deposited into his pouch by the female. From that point on, the reproductive roles of the sexes are reversed. The researchers at Texas A&M are also looking into the effect this has had on mate selection and other aspects of seahorse reproductive behavior. In certain species of pipefish (close relatives of the seahorses) females have the bright coloration usually associated with male fishes, and they compete for access to the egg-incubating males. Seahorses are, as far as we know, monogamous. They form long-term pair bonds which are reinforced, in many species, with daily “greeting” rituals (the pair clasps tails, swims together, etc.), but much about how role-reversal has affected mate selection is unknown.

In other related news, the Georgia Aquarium has announced that one of its male weedy seadragons is carrying eggs, only the third time such has been recorded in a US aquarium. Weedy seadragons, and the larger and even more flamboyantly decorated leafy seadragons, are close relatives of the seahorses and pipefishes and also exhibit similar reproductive strategies.

You can read more about the Georgia Aquarium’s seadragon breeding program and see a seadragon video at:
http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/exploreTheAquarium/webcam-seadragon.aspx.

Please also take a look at my seahorse book if you have a chance (see above) – I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

I’ll write more about keeping seahorses and their relatives in aquariums in the future. Until then, please forward your comments and questions.

Thanks, Frank.

With this weeks passing of Earth Day 2008, I thought I would write a blog about this great article that I had read recently on www.sciencedaily.com. Some of the darkest days in U.S history involve the nuclear weapons use and testing during and after WWII. Most people learned about the bombs dropped on Japan during WWII in history class, or from family members who lived in that era.

Much less well known nuclear testing was done in the years following WWII as the cold war escalated, and the demand for bigger and bigger bombs grew. From 1946 to 1958 the U.S. Government conducted nuclear bomb tests on the remote Pacific Island Group of Bikini Atoll, which is part of the Marshall Islands. In 1954 the U.S. detonated, what was at the time, the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested. The bomb was code named Castle Bravo, and was 15 megatons (1,000 times more powerful that the bomb dropped on Hiroshima). The blast vaporized 3 islands, raised the water temperature to 55,000 degrees, and left a crater that was over a mile wide and more that 200 feet deep. Needless to say, there was nothing left of what was a thriving tropical island group and surrounding reefs.

Enough of the bad news, this story has a happy ending. Recently a group of international scientists returned to Bikini Atoll to see what was there, almost 50 years later. Plant life on the surface had returned, but is still contaminated with radiation (don’t eat the coconuts). What the group found underwater was truly amazing. As they planned their dive into the Bravo Crater, expectations were running wild. The last time the area was surveyed it looked like part of the moon, and was irradiated.

What they found was a thriving coral reef ecosystem that had completely self seeded itself in the once barren wasteland. Porites corals that reached 25ft in the water, huge formations that looked like trees reaching for the surface. The belief is that water currents from untouched neighboring areas brought larval corals to Bikini, where they settled and matured. The corals had recolonized as much as 80% of the habitat in some of the areas studied.

Compared to studies performed at Bikini prior to the testing, the results show that there has been a serious impact on the diversity of corals to the area. The new study showed that 40 species that were documented to have been there prior to testing, where no longer there, and appear to be locally extinct. I found it amazing that what was there had reclaimed space that had felt the worst of what human kind can offer.

This news shows that, given the chance, reefs can recover from even the most severe destruction. Maybe by looking at the species that are thriving in the Bravo Crater, we can use them to as a guide to recolonizing reefs that have been destroyed by shipping, fishing, and pollution around the world. The main thing that I took from the story is that if we as a society can get our act together as far as protecting our natural resources, that Mother Nature can fight back pretty hard if we let her.

Until Next Blog,

Dave