Sunday, August 26, 2007

Clown Goby


Oz2 hanging out by the glass.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Jellyfish Vs. Copepod

This will give you a size comparison

Monday, August 20, 2007

What does a Sea Urchin look like when he's eating?


Another shot of the Jellyfish, this time in the gravel. You can see polyps underneath (or on top depending on how you view what is right-side-up on this jelly), ready to pick food out of the water that happens to float by.

Here's the best shot of a Bristle Worm to date, peeking out a hole at dinner time, hoping to find a scrap of food leftover. Despite a bad reputation and the fact that my wife hates them, they do a good job of cleaning the tank.

This is about the only shot you will ever see of the Clown Goby, he rarely strays from this spot amongst the Gorgonian.

Saturday, August 18, 2007


This is our new Yellow Clown Goby Oz2 amongst our new Blueberry Gorgonian in the Pico-tank. We had an Oz1 but he took the leap of death from the tank and I think, became a snack for someone, because we haven't run into any carpet jerky.

Anyway, Oz2 seems happy hiding in plain sight in the Gorgonian, which supposedly they are wont to do.


Scooter on Discosoma

Friday, August 17, 2007

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Sunday, August 12, 2007


Longfin Danio


Glowlight

Tuesday, July 31, 2007


One time my wife asked me "wouldn't it be cool if you could shrink yourself and swim in the aquarium?" Here's my answer: Absolutely not!!!

This critter came from our pico-tank, I haven't the slightest clue what it is. It was large enough that I couldn't see it all at once, hence the photo-merge.

Sunday, July 22, 2007


New Digs. Manny, Moe and Jack were getting a little big for the 10 Gal. tank, so they've move up to a 20 Gal.


Manny (front) and Jack (rear)

An Aquarium Darkly

Friday, July 20, 2007


Our tank was getting a little too much algae, and the snails were exhausted, not to mention full, so we got this little guy, and I have to tell you, he not only eats the algae, but the rock is cleaner than when we purchased it! He's wiping out the coralline algae which is a shame, but he moves so slow it will probably grow back by the time he gets back to where he started.


Unfortunately when we bought him, we didn't see that he had a ouchy. This is actually the bare skeleton (called the "test") showing where the epidermis is gone. This would be the equivalent of have some skin missing from your head and your skull showing through. Hopefully it will heal and not become infected (if it's not already).

Open Wide


Close up of mouth with teeth retracted show what could be considered a tongue

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Ostracod video

Ostracods


These were the critters that first prompted me to start this blog since we had no idea what they were. It's difficult to research something when you only have a photo unless you can post them on message boards, but at the time we didn't know of any so it took a lot of guess work to finally hit on the fact that these were freshwater Ostracods.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Fluke

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Flatworm Video


This guy was pretty lively so I had a little trouble keeping up with him with the camera.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Sideview of copepod

Monday, June 04, 2007

I'm never stepping in the ocean again



I'm pretty sure this is a baby bristle worm, he's about the size of a small eyelash, but under the microscope he looks every bit like the adult version. When you watch the video you can see blood circulating though it's body

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Hitchhikers galore


Here's a video of another tiny creature that makes up the fauna of saltwater tanks. He doesn't look like a good swimmer but he was a little hard to catch with an eyedropper. I assumed he was either a shrimp or a copepod, but after seeing him under the microscope he is a different sort of pod. Click thumbnail to activate video.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

A truly weird thing!


[More videos from Sparky477]

I shot this Scyphozoan Jellyfish through the microscope after sucking him up with an eye dropper. He actually is swimming around in a drop of salt water if that is any indication of how big he is. Unfortunately I only have one objective lens in the scope and I could have done with a little wider shot, but you can get the idea of how this guy swims by watching the video.

Monday, May 28, 2007


Ricordea

Scyphozoan Jellyfish


This is a photo of a Scyphozoan Jellyfish that is another hitchhiker in our tank. He's visible to the naked eye and swims with a pulsing motion just like an adult jelly. I've read several different sites on Scyphozoan Jellyfish and they say this one could grow to adult size if fed properly, but I've never seen one in my tank grow any larger than the size of the letter O. The fish seem to ignore them and I suppose they are to small to be a pest, so at this stage I'm going to leave them alone (not that I can get rid of them since I don't know where they are breeding in my tank.

Sun Coral / Orange Cup Coral


Tubastraea Faulkneri


Tubastraea Faulkneri


Tubastraea Faulkneri


Tubastraea Faulkneri

Sunday, May 27, 2007


Ricordea

Tuesday, May 22, 2007


It's hard to get a really good photograph of the Recordea in our tank. It's just at the wrong angle to the acrylic making it slightly out of focus, but this is a pretty good photograph. For some reason Recordea looks like photographs taken with an electron microscope, but there was no special filter or lighting used, just electronic flash.


Ricordea

Tuesday, May 15, 2007


Rusty

Sunday, May 06, 2007


Tubastraea Faulkneri, or more commonly known as "Orange Cup or Sun Coral". These corals have no zooxanthellae so they rely totally on captured food for survival and are generally regarded as ahermatypic or non-reef building. These corals usually open at night in response to time when planktonic food sources are at their highest and are usually found upside-down at the entrance of caves or overhangs in nutrient rich water where food will be abundant.

Saturday, May 05, 2007


Humuhumu nuku nuku apua'a (Say that ten times fast!)