Tag Archive for 'aquariums'

Imitation Cephallic Extremities for Your Home

Published
by
Jason
on August 20, 2008
in Life Oddquatic
. 1 Comment

Squid Replicants [via TONMO]
A couple of years ago we need a replica squid beak for a project at work. We ended up going with a custom fabricator, but I always figured there would be a market for a mass produced version. It seems this notion also occurred to the folks at Skulls Unlimited, since they now offer a casting of a giant squid squid beak (Architeuthis sp.) for US$95. According to Clem’s review on TONMO, the folks at SU will soon follow up with a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis sp.) replica too.

Cephalopod Residents
Also of note on TONMO is a new book by Nancy King and Colin Dunlop called Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish for the Home Aquarium (US$40). Keeping these critters in captivity is a challenge even for the most veteran aquarist. This book looks to be a good resource on the husbandry of cephalopods.

Pseudo Pristis pectinata
If a squid beak replica the size of your hand is not impressive enough, you can instead get a replica sawfish rostrum from vivre.com for US$250. The real rostra were a staple marine life curio for many years. But the smalltooth sawfish (Pristis pectinata) is the first marine fish to be listed on the U.S. Endangered Species list and possessing any part of an actual sawfish without a permit is now illegal. So satisfy your kitsch with a resin rostrum instead.

Beach Chair Scientists and Beyond

Published
by
Jason
on August 3, 2008
in All Wild Right Outside
. 0 Comments

Beach Chair Scientist
I learned about a new Web site at last month’s NMEA conference called the Beach Chair Scientist. It is run by Ann McElhatton and features a companion blog for “anyone with an enthusiasm for learning about the science behind life in the ocean or along the seashore.” So far there are entries on horseshoe crabs, seaweed and ocean exfoliants.

WATERlog
Another blog I learned about recently is run by The National Aquarium in Baltimore and is called WATERlog. The blog is updated weekly and features posts on their conservation efforts and peeks behind-the-scenes. A recent post featured news of the birth of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at the Aquarium. The blog’s sidebar shows photos from the National Aquarium’s Flickr Pool, which gives a personable angle on how the guests view the institution. In contrast, the blog’s About page seems terribly formal, as if it was ripped from an annual report. It does not give a clear idea who the primary author, or authors, are for the site. Compare that to The Monterey Bay Aquarium blog called Sea Notes. They list the authors for each of their posts and I wish the National Aquarium would do this too.

As a side note, the National Aquarium blog is hosted at Wordpress and the Monterey Bay Aquarium blog is on Typepad. For anyone interested in comparing the two hosting services, you can see how these two aquariums take advantage of the different blogging hosts. It is also interesting to note that neither one chose to host their blogs on their own servers.

EcoSRQ
Finally, there is also a new Web site for environmentalists in my area of Florida, called Eco Sarasota. If I recall correctly, this site is an outgrowth of the Sarasota environmental Meet-up group. But just like the National Aquarium site, there is a dearth of contact and background information on who is behind it. Hope they add more info soon.
 

A Shark’s Guide to Idiots

Published
by
Jason
on July 30, 2008
in Life Oddquatic
. 1 Comment
Close-up, underwater shot of an Epaulette Shark resting on the bottom, its barbels and brown markings clearly visible [240x180, 17K]

Flickr photo: Epaulette Shark by richard ling
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Recent research suggests that when faced with suffocation, epaulette sharks are able to “turn off” electrical impulses to the eye and other parts of their nervous system to conserve energy.

The Life Oddquatic

There are a lot of weird things in the ocean. The Life Oddquatic is a feature about some of them. This week’s topic also satisfies my compulsory contribution to Shark Week.

A Monument to Their Ego and Ignorance

There is a short piece in the New Yorker about a psychiatrist and his second-story shark tank. The story brought back memories of many things I hated about working in a fish store. As a friend pointed out, many men who get a shark tank think they are getting it for the fish, but what they end up with is usually a monument to their ego and ignorance. Some choice excerpts from the article confirm my bias.

  • » The pet shark may be the new pit bull—the mascot of the outsized ego, the Hummer of the living room.
  • » The fish, a blacktip reef shark, was caught in Indonesia six months ago and supplied to Saul by his longtime fish guy (“I found him through my stereo-system guy”).
  • » The shrimp were for three eels, hidden among rocks on the tank’s floor. “Do you see where the eel has a scar?” Lynn asked. “The shark is biting it.”
  • » It’s going to be awesome when we get another two sharks in there

Based on these details, I have serious doubts about the future of these animals. When I worked in a fish store we would not sell requiem sharks (Family Carcharhinidae). I wish I could say it was a decision motivated by conscience instead of economics. But the fact of the matter is, requiems like the blacktip reef shark rarely do well in a store or in a hobby home. They require hundreds of gallons of swimming space, eat expensive food (or expensive tank mates) and are especially skittish, slamming themselves to death against tank walls when spooked.

Today, if someone insists on keeping a shark, I insist that they first read Aquarium Sharks and Rays by Michael W. Scott. Scott does a pretty thorough job of describing which species do better in captivity, recommending the bamboo and epaulette sharks (Family Hemiscylliidae) as the more suitable. But the Hemiscylliids are not your classic looking shark. They are elongated, almost serpetine, resting on the bottom and “walking” around on the sea floor. They are also comparatively small (107 cm or 3’ 6”) and their natural habitat is the confined crannies of tidepools and coral reefs. A knowledgeable hobbyist would recognize that these characteristics of a Hemiscylliids are better for acclimating to a life in captivity than the free-swimming, streamlined lifestyle of a Carcharhinid.

Another recent and amazing adaptation detailed on the Discovery Channel’s Web site is the ability of some Hemiscylliids to “turn off the electricity” to avoid suffocation. Since these animals live in shallow waters, they often encounter hypoxic conditions (low oxygen levels). Researchers determined that under these conditions, the sharks turn off electrical activity to their eyes, effectively going blind. It is probable that the sharks also shut down other parts of their central nervous system as well.

Despite all of these remarkable adaptations of the Hemiscylliid, I would still counsel against owning a shark as a pet. Perhaps the carelessness and callousness that I witnessed in my fish store daze has jaded me. But I’d rather see these creatures in the sea than on the streets of the Greenwich Village.

More Shark Week in the Blogosphere