That Fish Blog – Aquarium Advice and Information

Hello, Frank Indiviglio here.  Marine aquarists and divers are well-aware of the mucous “sleeping bags” produced by Parrotfishes and certain Wrasses each night.  It was assumed that these cocoon-like structures discouraged eels, crabs and other nocturnal predators – perhaps the mucous hid the sleeper’s scent, or was bad-tasting or toxic.  A study at Australia’s Queensland University, however, has revealed that the mucous cocoon’s main purpose may be to deter external blood-sucking parasites – the first known example of such a phenomenon.

A Good Reason to Hide

Writing in the November 17, 2010 issue of the journal Royal Society Biology Letters, researchers have established that sleeping Parrotfishes suffer numerous parasite attacks when deprived of their mucous cocoons (I couldn’t determine how they removed the cocoons without waking the fish!).  Parrotfishes with intact cocoons sleep peacefully through the night, and were rarely bitten. Read More »

In my last blog I talked about schooling fish, their interesting behaviors and some schooling species for your marine aquarium. If you have a freshwater aquarium, the list of schooling fish species is pretty long. Dozens of tetras, barbs, danios, and rasboras are available and new species are being introduced regularly. There are also several other types of schooling fish that you may not see in the average pet store. These colorful and interesting fish can really contribute something special to a home aquarium. Read More »

It is back to school time for most of America’s children. Backpacks, bright yellow buses, and droves of children gathered on street corners to be carted off to fall classes. Our children gather in schools to learn. Meanwhile, around the globe, millions of fish gather in schools for other reasons. Not big brick building schools, but large, synchronized groups – a fascinating behavior known as “schooling.”   Read More »

Some of the things that the scientific community is “discovering” are things that have been known for years by reef hobbyists.  I’ve been reading through some articles about recently published studies. A couple of them really got my attention as things that many hobbyist already know, just from keeping aquariums in their homes.

Distressing Damsels

Ask a long time reef aquarist about keeping damselfish in a reef aquarium…they will probably tell you that damsels are aggressive, and sometimes destructive to a reef aquarium community.  A study recently published on PLoSONE.org found that Threespot Damselfish are damaging coral reefs in their efforts to find new habitat.  Read More »