Scooter

Scooter

Elysia crispata (the lettuce sea slug) Another pseudo-impulse purchase in which again I asked "What does he eat, algae?" which the answer was "yes"; I even mentioned our bad luck with the Blue Dorid Nudibranch which we had to return, and I was told they don't carry animals that could possibly take down a tank. Yes he eats algae, but if you read the fine print, he only eats a particular type of algae, and wouldn't you know, it's not the type growing in our tank at the moment, so now we're on an algae hunt. On a positive note, he has a cute factor though, so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope he doesn't foul the tank if he goes south. Also the only other tank mate is a feather duster, so the loss won't be as big as it would be if he were in the Aquapod.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium of the Pacific

Moon Jellys at the Aquarium of the Pacific.

I'm not diving in that tank

And the award for the cutist fish goes too...

This is a Grunt Sculpin or Grunt-fish (jeez even the name is cute) who inhabits the Pacific coast. Not much bigger than your thumb, it lives in areas of the continental shelf in deep water all the way up to tide pools along the shore. I love it's mating habits too, the female chases the male until he's cornered in a hole or crevasse, and forces him to stay there until she lays her eggs. What the marine biologists aren't telling you is, after the eggs are laid and fertilized, the female Sculpin divorces the male and gets the house, the kids, and a hefty sum of money every month. (photo taken at the Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, CA.)

Hypselodoris bullocki also known as a Blue Dorid nudibranch, although this is the common natural coloration (purplish), is a large nudibranch (about 2 inches), and was one of the newest members of our pico tank for about half an hour, until we found out that they are short lived (about two months), and further more, they are short lived because they starve to death as they only eat a particular type of sponge. Not wanting to watch him die of starvation, we did the only right thing we could do and returned him to the store so that they could watch him starve to death. The store originally told us they were filter feeders which I was a little suspect of, but we did some research at home on the Internet and the sad truth is unless you know exactly what they eat, you'll have an ex-nudibranch in a months time. Sorry little buddy :c

Before and After

The top picture is our tank, just as we started adding livestock. The bottom picture shows the tank where we are at now. In the interest of allowing things to grow, we have decided not to add any more corals at this time (in this tank)

Cleaner Shrimp and Elegance Coral

The Elegance Coral has been tough to shoot in the aquarium as the acrylic tends to distort the image, but this is the best image to date, shown here with the camera hogging cleaner shrimp. The Elegance Coral was an impulse purchase, and had I read all the negative things written about it, I wouldn't have gotten it, but so far it has behaved itself.

This is called turbine coral (Turbinaria peltata), which consists of many species who's appearance range from flat plates to upright stalks. These are hard corals that form a calcareous skeleton as they spread.

Tubastraea, or Sun Coral usually inhabits caves and is often found hanging upside down in caves. These corals have no Zooxanthellae and require regular feeding, usually opening at night when plankton is more plentiful, but will open in the presents of food in the water.

The Polyps resemble sunny faces, in fact if you look closely enough you can imagine a face with eyes and a mouth

It's hard to get a good shot of this guy since he's always on the go.

The Godfish

This photo is crying out for a thought bubble, but there are so many I can't decide which. The God Father comes to mind. "What have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? If you'd come to me in friendship, then this swine fish carp that ruined your Fry would be suffering this very day. And if by chance an honest fish like yourself should make enemies, then they would become my enemies. And then they would fear you."

Scooter Blenny

Scooter Blenny

Discosoma Oil on White Board

Button Polyp Coral is a species of Zoanthid that contains one of the most toxic organic substances in the world and less than 5 micrograms is enough to kill a human. Luckily it's difficult to get poisoned by one, and normal handling shouldn't pose a problem. On the other hand, I have a sweet excuse for not showing up to work, which should trump "my Grandma died (for the seventh time)".

Button Polyp coral

Something in the Saltwater

At first glance it looks like a rams horn snail, but it has what looks like antennae (see arrow) where the snail would be, but in actuality it is a tube-brooding spirorbid polychaete which is related to feather dusters.

Xenia and the Margarita Snail

Got Food?