OUsnakebyte

Very nice! Looks like you had a great time. Where in The Bahamas were you?

Heh.... LOL... Crap Sam... don't ask me about fish. I don't know diddle when it comes to fish. I think you are talking about this guy - and, yeah, he intrigued me too. I haven't looking it up yet. So, someone who knows more about fish than me is going to have to help here. My first thought was that is was some kind of wrasse (and one of the juvenile phases, maybe?), but I didn't know which. Anyone?

Stupid fish moved before I could get a pic with him and his housemate The twins... Invert and invert - I'm obsessed... That's all for now kids... Cheers Mike

Still on a night dive - man weird stuff comes out then - and this crab carrying around what looks like a sponge... Squid! Squid food... Awesome sea pen And he had a commensal crab! Invert on an invert! woo hoo! S. haddoni, yes? H-E-double hockey sticks's Fire anemone (edit - really? I can't say "hellz" fire anemone?) And this little crab was tough (or he thought he was...)!

Back to the tables... More communal living... At night At night, carrying his sponge around... Big 'ol nocturnal nudibranch Okay, this next one might not look like much, but I was lagging behind - taking photos of course - and I see all this commotion with flashes going off, pointing, etc. So, I mosey on up to see what all the buzz is about. Ummm... am I missing something? Where is the awesomeness? It took a minute or two of the divemaster pointing (and getting frustrated), but I finally saw it - a squid! And a TINY one at that! I tried to circle it in the photo. Apparently - I was told - this little guy doesn't get much bigger than this. You can see the relative size next to the bryozoans and polyps at about 7 o'clock in the photo. Cheers Mike

Thanks Doug, and everyone for the compliments. Posting all these pics makes me want to go back, real, real bad... Doug - I use the FantaSea flash (you can combine two for more power). They are relatively cheap (considering dive and photo gear) and will sync up with most point n shoot digitals. Back to the fun stuff: Talk about a hitchhiker... There's an invert on that invert - I see his leg!! Cheers Mike

Going to need a pic.

Thanks man. I think it is coming along - and is much better than it was before - but still not where I want it to be. I have so many ideas (build a backdrop and hide that stupid air lift with all the microbubbles, drill a hole in the fiberglass back and install a sump, and tons more), but... I keep getting reeled back in from funding. Little by little I'd like to chip away at my wants list. I finally got a calcium reactor set up thanks to a generous donation from Justin (ctenophore). I'd also like to add a few of the other species of clams - deresa, maxima and squamosa. No gigas - they get too big, unless we turn the Spiny Lobster tank into a reef tank! And, it's certainly not without its challenges, what with running a fishless reef and all... Cheers Mike

HA! They are now federal property...

Thanks! Okay, okay... just for you Cammy boy... I went and snapped a few pics from the front. I've only been transitioning this tank from primarily Sinularia dominated to mixed/sps for about 2 years now. Yeah, that's one of my favorites. It's fun showing all the volunteers the difference between looking at the clams from the side, through glass and then over the top. I get constant, "OH my!!?!" I hope to be able to continue that with the public - during select times - when they are on display. Re the confiscation. Mark just said someone didn't have all the correct paperwork when trying to import them. It happens from time to time - every few months some zoo/aquarium that is in a major metropolitan area with an international airport will post to our listserve that they have received a confiscation and don't have room for all the animals and could someone please claim them. Then, there is a feeding frenzy, not unlike when someone posts a huge tank breakdown here... The biggest one I have seen in the recent past was 20 boxes of confiscated corals that the Georgia Aquarium was trying to place. By the time we had contacted them - not more than three hours later - they were all claimed... Cheers Mike Oh, and here is another of my formosa - it's my favorite, if you can't tell...

And a few more: And, it will be interesting to see how this battle plays out. For now, it looks like the A. formosa is going to be the subordinate. Wonder if that will hold... Cheers Mike

Well, I have been working on this deal for almost a year now (May 2010), trying to get clams in from Shedd Aquarium. I have a colleague there who had a surplus of T. crocea that were a Fish and Wildlife confiscation. Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork later - plus a 3-week shipping delay due to cold weather and snow... finally... I got in 10 crocea clams. I snapped a few top-down shots this morning, so I thought I would show a few. Enjoy. And, while I had the camera, underwater housing and macro lens out, I figured I'd shoot a few fun shots (mostly of my most-beloved A. formosa):

A whip coral shrimp of - I think - the geuns Dasycaris. The whip coral is, I think, a black coral (I'm pretty sure), Cirrhipathes sp. That one was all very new to me... Cheers Mike

Love those contrasting polyps So awesome Check Purty dendros Luv those little guys I didn't touch! Just trying to help my camera focus Cheers Mike

I'm also obsessed with and invert living on an invert... I realize this is like the 5th or 6th photo I have posted of these gorgonians, but they were also spectacular Coppolino's Regal Angel... Green Star Polyps - strangely satisfying to see... Teeth... I want it... Cutie... Cheers Mike

More various reef shots... Arc-eye hawk! Ned inspecting the reef More pyramids!! Cheers Mike

I think that the amount of water/food they filter in a given day cannot (or is very difficult to) be produced in a closed system. In addition, we *may* not even be providing them with the right foods. So, I think these are ones that are generally best left in the ocean. Okay, I have uploaded more. There has apparently been some reef restoration experiments on these previously blasted reefs. I don't know how well they are working; ours hosts and guides didn't seem to know much about the project. And then, here is where my mind starts to wonder. Is this assemblage all colonized by clonal fragmentation? What's the genetics/relatedness of these corals, and why are they in such abundance in this particular tract? Is this a recovered reef from blasting, and if so, what contributed to their domination? Then, I tell myself just to get back and enjoy the dive... Too blue - I need to work on the white balance, I guess - right? Any tips? Back to my favorite anemone. I simply cannot help myself from taking a photo of every H. magnifica that I pass... I know, I know... more table corals... Weirdest coral-eating sea star I've ever seen... Cheers Mike

I do agree with you that I don't flip out if a little bit of filamentous algae pops up from time to time. But, I personally do what I can to eliminate it b/c I do not want it to reach plague proportions. However, your assessment of "healthy reef" is indicative of the shifting baseline we see today. The majority of fish biomass should be locked up in "top predators living in a perpetual state of hunger while smaller reef fishes live in a perpetual state of fear." There was a study done between the Smithsonian and National Geographic a few years back, looking at this exact thing. Nearly upwards of 80% of fish biomass should be locked in top predators (sharks and groupers): DeMartini EE, Friedlander AM, Sandin SA, Sala E (2008) Differences in fish-assemblage structure between fished and unfished atolls in the northern Line Islands, central Pacific. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 365:199-215 A healthy reef should have a healthy population of grazers mowing down the algae - absolutely. Primary productivity is what drives the world, in every ecosystem. However, on a truly healthy reef, the majority of this primary productivity *should* be happening within the coral tissue via zooxanthellae. An example of this is the Caribbean, where there are not many urchins left after their mass die-off in 1983. Algae has completely taken over these reefs (combined with years of overfishing). In addition, there is a study from 2006: Smith, J. E., Shaw, M., Edwards, R. A., Obura, D., Pantos, O., Sala, E., Sandin, S. A., Smriga, S., Hatay, M. and Rohwer, F. L. (2006), Indirect effects of algae on coral: algae-mediated, microbe-induced coral mortality. Ecology Letters, 9: 835–845. In this study, the authors found that "algae can indirectly cause coral mortality by enhancing microbial activity via the release of dissolved compounds... Our results suggest that as human impacts increase and algae become more abundant on reefs a positive feedback loop may be created whereby compounds released by algae enhance microbial activity on live coral surfaces causing mortality of corals and further algal growth." I was also assisting on a NOAA coral disease study two years ago throughout the Florida Keys, and the grad student on this trip was showing through her research that Dictyota sp. could be a vector of coral disease. Now, will these microbes survive in a closed system such as ours? I cannot say. It also may very well depend on the types of corals you want to keep. The "sps" corals are typically (not always, I know) more difficult in their care requirements that other counterparts. So, limiting macroalgae in these aquariums might very well be key. Furthermore, those of us who keep the "sps" dominated aquariums can attest to the headaches generated when various filamentous algae - usually bryopsis - invades the inner branches of the coral, resulting in more tissue loss, then sometimes leading to a "stn" or "rtn" situation. Is this similar to what happens in the study posted above? I have no idea; but it would be an awesome experiment... Algae has always been around and will likely always be around. However, on the most pristine, healthiest reefs, it should be removed (via herbivory) nearly immediately and not persist until it reaches plague proportions. And, in these rubble zones and tide pools, you don't get great coral assemblages, if any corals at all. Really, the only thing that grows really well here is algae. I think the only coral I have seen growing along the side of one of these pools is Siderastrea radians - and it wasn't big. I whole-heartily agree that refugiums are a wonderful addition and excellent for nutrient export. Cheers Mike

These were my first thoughts as well.

I really like Flexpvc. I order from them quite frequently. If they don't have it, you don't need it!! Cheers Mike

You all ROCK!!! Awesome, thanks. The second one you posted, Chad, looks like the Rolls Royce of small valves... Thanks again all. Cheers Mike

Looking for finer-tuned control of my calcium reactor input - more than the ball valve gives. I don't think 1/4" RO tubing gate valves exist, but I figured I'd ask. Cheers Mike

That's basically like threading on a +1, +2, etc. magnification lens, right?

Yup, Mike. I sent him those pics, and.... being Mike and loving his barnacles, he sent me two or three papers on coral barnacles... You see the tunicates from time to time, but not often b/c their feeding requirements are just too difficult to keep up with. They typically don't fair too well in captivity. Okay, got a few more: Another!!! Talk about wishing we could keep different things. These would be so sweet in a nano!! Glad I didn't step on him... HUGE!! And, again this communal living - like the dorms in college... And mildly cute, even if a vertebrate... But, I of course was going for the invert... And, finally a "self-portrait." I was trying to see if the flash was working... Cheers Mike

My favorite anemone... It's also oddly satisfying to see xenia on the reef... Believe it or not... I have sooooooo many more... Cheers Mike