The Aquatic Article Archive on our website has had a renovation over the past couple of weeks so if you haven’t visited for awhile, head over to ThatPetPlace.com and check it out. We’ve reorganized the categories to make articles easier to find and added some of your favorite posts from this blog to the archive as well. Now, you can browse the following Aquatic Article Archive categories:

General Care

This section has basic aquarium information for many different types of aquariums. You’ll also find information on some of the basic principles of aquarium-keeping like stocking guidelines, water testing, the Nitrogen Cycle and more. This is a good place to start with basic questions on how to set up a new aquarium or before venturing into a new aspect of the hobby. Important steps when adding new animals to your tank – Acclimation Procedures and Quarantine Tanks – are also explained here.

 

Aquarium Troubleshooting

The Aquarium Troubleshooting section is a go-to location for all issues and problems that an aquarist might face. This includes an overview on Common Fish Diseases, a quick reference chart of Aquarium Medications and the more comprehensive overviews on Active Ingredients in medications from this blog. It also includes other articles about common aquarium problems.

 

 

Aquarium Filter Guides

This section includes basics on all different kinds of filtration that an aquarists has to choose from. Visit here to get more information on each kind of filter to help you determine which is best for your tank and the best way to maintain the filter and media you choose.

 

 

 

 

Aquarium Lighting Guides

Like aquarium filters, choosing aquarium lighting can be a daunting task. The Aquarium Lighting Guides section has Aquarium Lighting Charts to help you choose the best fixture for a Freshwater Fish-Only Tank, Freshwater Planted Tank, Saltwater Fish-Only Tank or a Saltwater Reef Tank. It also includes information on each types of lighting available.

 

Other Equipment Guides

Equipment other than lighting and filters are included in this section. This includes, air pumps, chillers, heater, salt mix and protein skimmers.

 

 

 

Compatibility Charts

Our Compatibility Charts for aquarium livestock are all found in one place in the Compatiblity Charts section. These charts can help you make educated decisions on what livestock can go together in your tank. Separate charts can be found here for Marine Animals and for Freshwater & Brackish Fish. Our much-requested African Cichlid Compatibility Chart is located here as well.

 

Live Plants & Planted Aquariums

All things planted are included here. These articles include basics tips for live plants, supplies you’ll need for your planted tank, the most important nutrients for live plants and using Carbon Dioxide for plant health. Our popular blog on Dipping Plants to Eliminate Snails is found here too.

 

Freshwater Fish Care Guides

This section includes over twenty care guides for many different groups of freshwater fish common in the aquarium hobby. All of these care guides were written by our marine biologist and aquatic science staff and have been popular handouts in our retail store at the Fish Room Education Center.

 

Saltwater Fish Care Guides

Over two dozen of our popular Saltwater Fish Care Guides are found here. Like our Freshwater Fish Care Guides, these were all written by our experts and are part of the Education Center in our retail store Fish Room. These care guides are a good place to start for basic information on lots of groups of fish, including care, feeding, compatibility, water parameters and behavioral information.

 

Coral & Invertebrate Care Guides

This section is the home of the care guides available for many different saltwater invertebrates, including some corals. These care guides include specialty inverts like Mantis Shrimp and Pistol Shrimp as well as reef animals like Maxima, Squamosa, Derasa and Crocea Clams.

 

 

 

Are there any other articles you’d like to see here on our blog or in our Aquatic Article Archive? Let us know what you’d like to see and we’ll do our best to cover any topics you’d like to learn more about!

Here are a few stories that I came across recently that are definitely not something you see every day.  Some of these are a real head scratchers.

 

What is the worst fish to eat?

The Souza family from Rio de Janeiro may have found out the hard way.  The family sat down to eat a fish dinner, a nice meal provided by a family friend who caught the fish on the Brazilian Coast.  As they started to eat the fish, it quickly became apparent that there was something wrong.  The Fish that they were eating was a poisonous Puffer Fish, whose venom has paralyzing effects.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29762738

 

Climate Change Awareness

I’m not sure how transporting 112 Tons of Glacier from Greenland to Copenhagen, Denmark is somehow a good idea to promote Climate Change Awareness, but that is exactly what has been done.  The Ice will be put on display so people can SEE climate change, as the icebergs melt.  Given the Carbon footprint of capturing and transporting these things 2000 miles, only to melt in the street seems a bit misguided to me.

http://gizmodo.com/what-it-takes-to-transport-112-tons-of-arctic-ice-over-1650551970

 

Invasive Species lead to a drastic decision

Invasive aquatic species are a real problem; invasive species can destroy habitats, and outcompete local species where they are introduced.  In San Francisco’s Presidio Mountain Lake Park invasive species of Carp, Sturgeon and Bass have been wiping out indigenous species.  After years of trying conventional methods like fishing, trapping and even electroshock without success, they are planning to take even more drastic measure.  They are going to poison the lake, to kill all the fish, and then reintroduce native fish back into the pond.  Death by conservation is a tough way to go for anything living in the pond if you ask me.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/california-lake-poisoned-to-get-rid-of-invasive-fish-141020.htm?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dnewsnewsletter#mkcpgn=emnws1

 

Shooting Fish from a cannon

In what sounds like a skit from the Muppet Show, a real fish cannon has been developed to help aid migrating salmon get over man made obstacles like dams and powerplants.  Check out the video, it brings a whole new meaning to flying fish.

 

I hope you found these stories interesting, until next blog,

Dave

 

Like their fellow hitchhiker-turned-aquarium-stars, the Mantis Shrimp, Pistol Shrimp are coming into their own as popular aquarium additions. Unlike the Mantis Shrimp, most Pistol Shrimp can actually be kept with other tankmates.  They may even form bonds with some tankmates like Shrimpgobies that can be fascinating and entertaining to watch. Here are a few species of popular Pistol Shrimp for home aquariums.

Pistol shrimp get their name from the loud popping sound they can make by quickly opening or closing their specially adapted claws. This is used as a defense mechanism to frighten off would-be predators and, unlike the Mantis Shrimp they are sometimes confused with, they are harmless to most tankmates. They can be kept with most fish that will not prey on them but should not be kept with some other crustaceans, especially small shrimp or lobsters.

Tiger Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus bellulus)

The Tiger Pistol Shrimp is one of the most common and most popular pistol shrimp. It’s one of the species we get in to our store most often. These shrimp aren’t as striped as one would expect from a “Tiger” Pistol Shrimp but has a mottled, vaguely striped coloration in shades of tan, cream and reddish brown. The legs are striped and its claws have dark bands like the rubber bands on the claws of a lobster at a seafood restaurant. These pistols are true commensal species and may bond with any shrimpgobies – genus Cryptocentrus, Amblyeleotris, Stonogobiops and others. This species can grow up to about three inches in length and is one of the larger pistols.

 

Randall’s Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus randalli)

The Randall’s Pistol Shrimp is also known as the “Candy Cane” or “Red-banded Pistol Shrimp” and is one of the other species that we get in most often. While the Tiger Pistol Shrimp has a more mottled pattern, the Randall’s Pistol has more solid bright red and white stripes over a somewhat translucent body. The body and legs may be yellow – sometimes bright yellow – in some shrimp. This pistol shrimp only grows to about an inch and a half in length but, like the Tiger Pistol, isn’t too picky about which shrimpgoby it forms a pair with. It is better for smaller nano-reefs than the Tiger Pistol Shrimp.

 

Red Caribbean Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus sp.)

These pistol shrimp aren’t usually identified down to the exact species since several different species are almost identical. All are red with white markings, some with purple accents or banded antennas. However, these shrimp don’t usually pair with shrimpgobies. Instead, they form a relationship with the Curlycue Anemone (Bartholomea annulata), a common Caribbean anemone with long spiraling tentacles.

 

 

 

Green Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus euphrosyne)

The Green Pistol Shrimp is one of the more understated species. These shrimp have a brownish, olive green color more suited to the environment where they live. Rather than the rocky coral reefs of many others, the Green Pistol is found in muddy estuaries at the mouths of rivers, usually in full saltwater but some can tolerate the more brackish waters closer to the bays and mouths of the rivers. These shrimp are best kept in tanks with deeper, finer substrate closer to the muddy bottoms they have come from.

 

 

Pocillopora Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus lottini)

Pocillopora Pistol Shrimp are fascinating and rare pistols with a different modus operandi than other pistols. Like its common name suggests, these shrimp live within Pocillopora colonies. They will sometimes live alongside other coral-dwellers like Trapezia crabs where they may even work together to fend off attacks from coral-eating starfish like Cushion Stars or Crown Of Thorn Stars. They stay fairly small, usually well under two inches, and can vary in color. Most are yellow-orange with purple markings like speckles or a stripe down their back. Some of these may be regional variations, others may be subspecies.

Bullseye Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus soror)

The Bullseye Pistol Shrimp is one of the most stunning in appearance. The body is bright yellow-orange and the claws, legs and antennae are bright purple. Although they are also sometimes known as “Michael’s Pistol Shrimp”, the name Bullseye Pistol Shrimp comes from the white-ringed black spot on the middle of each side. This pistol shrimp is another that doesn’t usually form a bond with shrimpgobies. Some may share a burrow with some shrimpgobies, but they aren’t as reliant on the bond as other pistol shrimp and will often live on their own without a goby and may leave a pair at any time. This species also tends to be more active and will venture further from home and more into the open than others.

 

 

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These species are just some of the more common to enter the aquarium hobby. Others are sometimes available as well and each have their own unique behaviors and appearances but all can make for fascinating additions to a saltwater aquarium!

Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuki Nakahmura are three men you have probably never heard of.  If you were Cliff Clavin, you would probably refer to them as three men who have never been in your kitchen.  Their work however, you are most certainly aware of, and probably use it in some form or another every day.  These three men were responsible for inventing the first blue light emitting diodes (LED) in the early 1990’s, which revolutionized the way we light our world.  For their efforts, they have been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for physics.

 

For aquarists, the use of blue LED Aquarium lights has been widespread, especially reef aquarium keepers who are keenly aware of the stunning ability of blue LEDs to promote fluorescent colors in corals.  Nothing makes coral colors pop like they do under blue LED light.  The amazing growth in the genetically engineered GloFish craze, is largely due to the ability of blue LED lights to really bring out their amazing glowing coloration vs. traditional blue light sources.

 

Why are Blue LED lights important enough to win a Nobel Prize?

LED lights had been around for many years, with the first patents and commercial products showing up in the 1960’s, starting with red LEDs used as indicator lights.  Other colors of LED were developed in the following years, including green LEDs, but the Blue LED development would elude scientists for decades to come, until Shuki Nakahmura demonstrated the ability to produce blue LEDs in 1994, and then with Hiroshi Amano and Isami Akasaki developed a high efficiency, high output blue LED in 1995. This started the modern LED lighting revolution.

 

The Blue LED was the missing ingredient for creating white LED light.  Mixing red, blue and green light produces light that appears white to the human eye, which can be seen in many modern applications of RGB LED light fixtures.  With the foundation of the newly invented Blue LED, scientist quickly developed a white LED light with the use of a phosphor coating on the Blue LED chips.  The White LED has changed the world, they are energy efficient, environmentally friendly and long lasting.  As production costs have decreased, and efficiency and output have increased over the last 20 years, LED lighting is rapidly replacing other forms of light in just about every application imaginable, from your homes, to your cars, to street lights to your cell phones.  The combinations of white and blue LED lights now dominate the aquarium lighting market.

 

Thank you gentlemen, the world is a better place for your efforts, and our aquariums look nicer too.

Until next blog,

Dave

Skyrocketing in popularity over the past few years, Mantis Shrimp have gone from nuisance invaders to a specialty aquarium niche all their own (and a new superstar among viral animal posts thanks to comedic websites like The Oatmeal and zefrank’s YouTube videos). By far, the most popular of these crustaceans is the Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Odontodactylus scyllarus, but there are many other species that are just as fascinating and deserving of attention. We’ve featured mantis shrimp in general in several previous blogs; in this entry, we’ll investigate some of those other mantis shrimp that you may not hear about or see as much in media.

Smith’s Mantis Shrimp, Gonodactylus smithii
Its name may not be too familiar, but this mantis is one of the most photographed species due to its trademark meral spot. As you may remember your mantis shrimp anatomy from our other posts, the “meral spot” is a pair of false eyespots on the mantis’s raptoral appendages (the gonna-hurt-you limbs). If you held your arms in front of you, the meral spots would be on the inner sides of your elbows. The Smith’s Mantis Shrimp is well known for these spots because they are some of the most easily-identifiable: bright purple with a defined white outline. They give the Smith’s Mantis Shrimp its other common name, the Purple-spotted Mantis Shrimp. The body color of the Smith’s Mantis Shrimp is otherwise pretty similar to the Peacock Mantis, often bright blue-green and sometimes with red trim to each body segment. This species is a “smasher” and while it isn’t available as often as some other species, it is very sought-after by collectors when it is.

 

Chiragra Mantis Shrimp, Gonodactylus chiragra
This is one of the most common mantis shrimp that we receive at our store and is one of the best suited for aquarium life. It is the largest of the Gonodactylus genus of “smashers” but still only reaches about four inches in length. Unlike many other species, it is pretty easy to tell the difference between males and females. Male Chiragra Mantis Shrimp are usually blue-green in color while females are a mottled tan and cream. Both genders have a white meral spot that is far less obvious than the Smith’s. The most distinctive feature of this species regardless of gender is the light-colored sprinkles on the front corners of the carapace in the same place as the Peacock Mantis’s distinctive leopard spots.

 

Ciliata Mantis Shrimp, Pseudosquilla ciliata

This is one of my favorites. Not only is it a “spearer” when most of the more common species are “smashers” but they have one of the coolest defining traits…checkerboard eyes. All mantis shrimp have extremely complex eyes and three different “sections” can be seen on most of them. The Ciliata Mantis Shrimp also has vertical lines overlaying the horizontal segments so their eyes, if you can get close enough to see it, have a checkerboard-like plaid pattern on them. Most of the Ciliata Mantis Shrimp you’ll see in the aquarium trade are green or yellow but their color and even pattern can change every time they molt depending on their environment and the lighting.

 

Zebra Mantis Shrimp, Lysiosquillina maculata
It is easy to see where the Zebra Mantis Shrimp gets its name. It has alternating black and cream-colored stripes. It also has white speckled antennal scales and eyes. However, it is unique in that, like the Ciliata Mantis, the Zebra Mantis is a “spearer”. Rather than hiding in rockwork caves like most “smashers”, these mantis shrimp will build deep burrows in the sand or substrate, reinforced with mucus, where they wait to ambush their prey. This species also has the distinction of being the largest of all mantis shrimp. While most of the Zebra Mantis Shrimp that you’ll find available to aquarists aren’t much larger than any other species available yet, they can grow to over fifteen inches in length!

 

 

**A species to avoid: Gonodactylaceus ternatensis
Several mantis shrimp with bright orange meral spots are also sometimes available. Two of these, Gonodactylaceus glabrous and Gonodactylaceus graphurus are almost identical and can be hardy, fun mantis shrimp to keep. A third, Gonodactylaceus ternatensis, is a less suitable choice. When small, this mantis shrimp looks like a juvenile Peacock Mantis but is often found living within coral heads. To collect it, the heads are often broken and destroyed. With all of the other species available, please avoid G. ternatensis and stick with the species collected with safer, less destructive methods!

 

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These are just a few of the more common mantis shrimp other than a Peacock Mantis Shrimp but there are many other species that become available from time to time. So, don’t limit yourself if you are brave enough to head down the road to try these cool creatures!

• Smith’s Mantis Shrimp image used with permission from Roy’s List of Stomatopods for the Aquarium, ©2005 Roy Caldwell