OUsnakebyte

This is the first I have heard of this type of sociality observed in a crustacean. Off the top of my head, I can think of any other examples - the male catching food for the female and monogamous pairs. Anyone know of another crustacean that exhibits this type of behavior? Just awesome - thanks for the post. Cheers Mike

Ha ha... Yes, I did mumble a bit about the undeniable comparisons of the good 'ol overnight cash cow, 'er, Tai Shan watches. However, I would MUCH rather be in the company of coral larvae than reproductively inferior, grass-eating, rentable bears... The palmata stands were literally about 15-30 feet off shore and very shallow - 10-15 feet max. We would fill a bottle with gametes, shuttle it in asap, head back out, repeat. Other than that, the diving consisted of hauling cinder blocks, bags of cervicornis and palmata fragments, and other misc. items. We did one collection dive off Bajo Gallardo to the south. That was a boat dive at another site of palmata stands. But again, it was a night dive and my focus was palmata. I managed to squeeze in one dive (fun dive) while we had a break one day before we started collecting (and there were no larvae to tend). But it was a shore dive to only about 25 feet. Cheers Mike

I'm your friendly neighborhood National Zoo employee! I work with Tamie (Cowrie) here at Inverts - and Sara is one of our faithful volunteers (does all of my work...)! I guess technically I am an aquarist... They are primary polyps. I missed out on last year's workshop due to lack of funding - and looks like I missed the pain involved last year as well. However... the 2-hour rotations of stirring larvae were not missed this year. As a backup to the LSDs (this was their maiden voyage with palmata) we did the old school bin of water, stir, water change, etc. - just for insurance. We still did 24-hour rotations of checking the LSDs, cleaning out the filter, etc. Nothing quite like staring at a bowl full of rotating pink dots to keep you awake from 3-5am... The Smithsonian is a member of secore, so my involvement is through work. However, it's not just me from the Smithsonian. We also have a reproductive scientist who is working with cryopreservation of coral sperm who initailly got involved with this project last year - although they did not do any freezing last year. It was very cool to be there for the "first time on Planet Earth" science that was being done in a makeshift lab on the beach this time. What we are trying to do here at this exhibit and at other zoos and aquariums around the country and in Europe is establish an ex situ conservation program with A. palmata. Secore is trying to bring together scientists, aquarists, administrators, etc. to really focus on coral conservation in the Caribbean. A3 is the type of zoox found in palmata. I need to check my notes, but I'm pretty sure that Clades A-D and F are the clades the you find in corals. Again, I need to double check that. If you remember from Mitch's talk, they inoculated with Indo-Pacific zoox last year b/c they did not have permits to take fragments. This year we had those permits, and we took frags of palmata to extract the zoox. from so we could give it to the larvae. I have more pictures of this stuff, but I didn't want to go overboard with pics on the thread (as I have done with my past dive vacations... ) Thanks for all the interest everyone! You are more than welcome to stop by and see them any time. However - and here is my disclaimer... Remember that only one institution (Mitch at Omaha) had any survive to be adults after one year. Everyone else lost 100%, and we were working with MUCH higher numbers last year - 900,000 larvae reared opposed to 150,000 this year. We had a split spawn, and most of the colonies didn't spawn or released very little. It is very possible we are working with clones this year, and that will likely reduce survivorship. We have had 158 settle onto tiles here at the zoo. I will be simply astounded, amazed, happy, excited, whatever if anything greater than zero is alive after a year. Cheers Mike

Hey all - Back from secore workshop and thought I'd share a few pics. If you want to read up on the workshop and how we did (way too much to write here), you can visit secore.org. Click on the 2007 workshop, and there is a day-to-day blog that one of the members set up while we were there. Anyway, here are a few pics (I won't post all of them - too much and too boring after a while... ) These first few are of our setup on the beach - flow-through system, holding kreisels, etc. The location: The reason we are here - threatened Acropora palmata. Wow were there ever some impressive, HUGE stands of palmata still remaining here. It really makes you wonder what it all use to look like and very sad to think about where we are today. Manifolds: They really work, I swear! The kreisels, aka Larval Stirring Devices... LSD in action... Bottle 'o gametes after night dive Larval soup A. palmata frags SURGE!!! Eric set up one of his "Borneman Surge Devices" And finally two newly-settled A. palmata primary polyps here at Inverts. We inoculated with A3 zoox, but it is difficult to tell in this pic whether they have acquired any or not. However, you can see the septa starting to develop beneath the flesh. Cheers Mike

Submitters: Mike Henley, OUsnakebyte Location: Rincon, Puerto Rico Camera Used: Sealife DC500 Subject: Acropora palmata (from SECORE project) Cheers Mike

I too had to work that weekend, though I was able to escape just to hear Mitch's SECORE presentation. I then had to turn around and head back to work.

I didn't take the article I read to be hitting the aquarium hobby - and I would believe (hope?) that any person with half a brain would realize that aquarium keepers are not eventually eating the 2oz. dwarf anglefish or clowns. So, IMO, there was a clear distinction there. What I read into it was that it was fantastic to be published in a marine ornamental magazine. I think what the editors were going for was to make their target audience - those who indirectly (or even directly) harvest from the reefs - aware of an emerging issue. Here is a very real problem - one that can and will have effects on already stressed ecosystems. And, we should be refusing foods like those described in this article - and others such as chilean seabass, orange roughy, shark fin soup, farmed shrimp, shrimp caught w/ tons of bycatch, etc., etc., etc. That is my point exactly - it IS related to the hobby. No, we are not harvesting our animals for food. But, again with the ecosystem management approach and removal of top predators, this CAN have an effect on our hobby - as can farmed shrimp where mangrove forests are being removed, dynamite fishing, bottom trawling, bycatch, etc. Where will this hobby be if we are left only with what is currently captively propagated? Clowns, dottybacks, a few gobies, (and John's dwarf angels... ) What I want people to connect is that it is not only your marine aquarium dollars that have an affect on the reefs but also your food dollars - which is what I believe the editors of that magazine were trying to drive home. Again, that is just my perspective. I would hope that any normal person would not read that and think aquarium hobbiest. Cheers Mike

I have seen this in other publicationas as well - National Geographic, I believe - though I would need to double check. Yes, this seems largely for the food industry, however, overharvesting for marine ornamentals does happen. Bangaii Cardinalfish are a perfect example - local depletion of clownfish-hosting sea anemones is another. Though an anecdotal observation, endemics seem to be the most susceptible. Plus, what have we all learned about removal of top predators, the target of this study, from ecosystems - not just marine, but anywhere? It has cascading effects all the way down. So, those reefs we all love - and harvest from - will feel the effects of these declines. The point I'm trying to make is that just b/c it's not a species harvested for our tanks - sharks, groupers, whatever - does not mean we should not care about what is going on... Do you all follow the RPI Guide? http://www.reefprotect.org/pdf/RPI_180LoRes.pdf Do you all follow any of the Seafood Watch (Monterey Bay Aquarium) guides? http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/...spx?region_id=0 Cheers Mike

Mine would have to be the cuttleFISH! Cheers Mike

I put on the underwater housing of my dive camera...

"In an effort to provide coastal and ocean managers with the most up-to-date scientific information to address the complex nature of the threats facing coral reef ecosystems, NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program developed the NOAA Coral Reef Ecosystem Research Plan to identify priority research needed to help advance management action and guide priority setting for coral reef ecosystem research from FY 2007 to FY 2011." http://coris.noaa.gov/activities/coral_research_plan/ I'll help get them started: Overfishing Destructive fishing practices - bycatch, trawling, blast fishing, cyanide fishing, etc., etc... Sedimentation/runoff Destruction of mangroves - mostly for shrimp farming Increasing temperatures Acidification of the oceans Invasive species I'll edit when I think of a few more. Cheers Mike

Shouldn't make any difference as long as the 'ol RO/DI filters are current, right?

I think very appropriate to post in this section - maybe also post to the propagation forum as well. It's nice to see a store owner who realizes that this hobby needs to have as little deleterious impact as possible on wild reefs - my compliments. In fact, I hope/wish for the day when everything - fish, coral, other inverts - are all captive bred/propagated, and all reefs are marine protected areas... I'll keep dreaming... Cheers Mike

http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/site/PageServ...esults_tortugas Cheers Mike

Mmmm... I love my patagonian toothfish (aka Chilean Seabass, a Seafood Watch no-no...) with extra bycatch...

Wow! Those pics turned out even better than I expected! I'm so glad she was out and exploring the tank. I love how you can see the visitors' faces through the front glass, but the first is my favorite. And yes Jason, that is a Kong dog toy - one of the many little enrichment items we give the octopus to play around with. Rik's camera is awesome - no housing!?!?! Cheers Mike

Are you suggesting we help fund research...?

Well, this might work one day, however... the timing would have to be better than it is now. There is no use restocking a wild reef when the environmental conditions are not favorable - too much coastal development/runoff/diseases like white band, black band, etc./increasing temperatures, etc., etc. There is currently a movement to create a genetic bank of the now threatened A. palmata and A. cervicornis corals of the Caribbean. http://www.secore.org/ We are trying to do this in two ways: 1) keep the live corals in public aquaria for later seeding one day and 2) cryogenically freezing the gametes and larvae for a different type of backup. Of course, we would not want to stock the Caribbean/tropical western Atlantic with organisms fron the Indo-Pacific and vice versa = invasive species. There are issues of having a mixed reef at home - organisms from the Caribbean/tropical western Atlantic and Indo-Pacific in the same tank - and there being some type of contamination if those corals, that had been in contact with their Indo-Pacific cousins, were then translocated back to the wild. (other than the obvious - introducing a "pest" endemic to the Indo-Pacific and placing it in the Caribbean...) I don't know, but maybe it is a consideration of NOAA's? Cheers Mike

Yup, that's mine in the pic. And, after having it for ~6 or 7 years, it has eaten at least three fish (one yellow tang, two butterflys), one green brittlestar, and a ricordea that fell into it. I don't put anything very expensive fish-wise in there - too afraid it will become an expensive meal. Also, it takes up a ton of real estate - look out for whatever corals are growing near it. I have considered giving it up several times. Ideally they need a species-only setup. That is what I plan on setting up for it once I am done with apartment living (something running from the main display). The anemone itself is not suffering, but it's the other tank inhabitants I worry about. Cheers Mike

http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/14/raw_props.shtml Additions to CITES for 2007 Including... porbeagle shark, spiny dogfish, European eel, spiny lobsters, Banggai cardinalfish, red coral, and sawfish (App. I) Better start breeding and rearing those cardinals...

As stated by others before, you are looking at a species-only tank with some special modifications (i.e. very sealed tank lid). Plus, cephalopods are very unforgiving when it comes to unstable tank conditions. And, yes, they are very short-lived. Don't ever fall in love with a cephalopod - they just won't be around that long... My thoughts... don't try one until you have had several years in the hobby - and not just two or three. Second, whenever possible, purchase captive bred (for any species). There are resources of aquacultured octopus out there. Minimize wild impact, and you know the age - which gives you an idea of life expectancy. I didn't like that these were basically by-catch on his rock collection. Cheers Mike

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/314/5801/908?eaf Cheers Mike

Indeed. The best part about this - 4 hours of credit!!! For diving!!! Well, I had to write two papers, take a 130 fish species identification quiz, and do a presentation, but... c'mon. That's nothing!!!

Yeah, Bob and Tamie Dewitt (cowrie) have a window tank like this. I just spent two weeks at their house taking care of their, count 'em, 4 tanks, cat, dog, and partridge in a pear tree while they were on a live aboard in the Solomon's with Bruce Carlson and Charles Delbeek. Yes, hate them. Hate them now... But seriously - they have a tank sitting in their window with a DSB, mangroves, live rock, other macros, and mostly inverts - urchin, brittle stars, hermits. There is also one mandarin. They have a light, but it is just a NO fluorescent - most comes from the window. Anyway, I would talk to them more about their setup... Cheers Mike

Day 5 - A blue hole. Our professor talked a little bit about blue hole formation before the dive - I won't bore you with the details, except to say... pretty cool! But, here is the layout, if you want to see! First thing we saw when we got down there.... Ummm... what's wrong with this picture? And this one (same fish - thankfully) If you said "invasive species," you would be correct! As many of you have read in the Conservation Corner post, that little devil was speared shortly after these pics were taken. The remains were collected and sent to a lab for DNA work. Moving on with the Blue Hole. Here is Jen hangin' out over the side... Plenty of life around the rim of the hole. A nice duster cluster: Tobaccofish! First time to see one on this trip! Can you find the ray? Bridled Goby Nurse sharks just hangin' out... Have I ever said how much I love the inverts...??? Beaded anemone... And finally, during the safety stop, this beauty came cruising in, munchin' around on the sand below. It kinda reminded me of the scene at the beginning of Nemo where the big "professor ray" came swooping in to pick up his class. It was just awesome to watch the natural behavior of this southern stingray for ~15 minutes on our safety stop... Well, that's all folks. I'm sure most of you are grateful, if you made it this far! If you have dial up - well, I apologize. But, we did learn tons, and I am still writing up the papers for this class. So, the learning continues! Next up - probably the Dominican or Bonaire! Hopefully in January or next March!!! Stay tuned! Cheers Mike