Last night, while working on the third Shinobi Mystery, I glanced at the tank and noticed something I rarely seem to see with a camera handy: Red the fire shrimp cleaning Flappy the mandarin dragonet. A couple of days ago, I snagged this photo of the process just before the aquarium lights came on: It’s rare to see a cleaning when I can film a video, because Red (like most fire shrimp) prefers to stick to the safety of his cave during “daylight hours” on the reef. Last night, however, everything aligned, so here’s your Tuesday aquatic treat – bath
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Sometimes, it’s “Fighting Emo”…
Most of the time, the inhabitants of my little reef live peacefully side by side. Conflicts usually amount to little more than a flash of fins and a “move along” when someone comes too close to Emo the clown’s anthelia home. Occasionally, however, turf wars happen. The anthelia coral where Emo hosts grows beautifully and fast, in part because the clownfish takes great care to groom and protecting the coral’s arms. As a result, I have to “prune” the coral regularly, to keep it from overgrowing parts of the tank and interfering with the nearby territory belonging to our watchman
Read moreFlame On!
Last weekend I brought home an unusual and beautiful new specimen for the reef: an electric flame scallop. For those who have never seen one alive, this is what it looks like: I brought the creature home with some misgivings, because I know they don’t survive very well in most aquariums. They’re filter feeders, subsisting on a diet of phytoplankton and planktonic bacteria (bacterioplankton), neither of which is present in large enough quantities on the typical reef. The scallop in question had spent three weeks in the fish store. It looked healthy and open, and since I know my reef
Read moreSometimes, the Pearl IS the Oyster
Yesterday, while visiting the fish store to pick up another porcelain crab, I noticed a strangely-shaped frag of zoanthids in the “cheapie” section of the store. I noticed because zoas rarely grow in geometrically-regular colonies, and even when they do the colony “edges” are uneven, with independent polyps sticking away from the cluster at varying intervals. The colony I noticed was circular (almost ovoid), with sharply defined rounded edges. Upon closer examination, it also had an open mouth along the edge. What I’d found was a rare example of inter-species cooperation: a live oyster overgrown with at least two different
Read moreJuly 2013: Reef Retrospective
As always, the first week of the month gives me the pleasure of sharing the “best of the reef in photos.” Here’s what I saw in July. Seahorses will hitch to anything that offers a good enough grip, as this Mexican turbo snail discovered the hard way: Sun corals rarely extend their tentacles fully, due to the danger of getting nipped by a passing predator. Once in a while, though, I have the pleasure of seeing these lovely corals at their photogenic best: Snail races. Brought to you by “dinnertime on the reef”: And another one from the snail files
Read moreJune In Retrospective on the Reef!
As always, my first post of the new month offers some of the best shots from the previous month on my little reef. Among this month’s highlights: Ghillie the seahorse watching me as I watched him/ Emperor Maximus Angryfish I keeping a watchful eye out for shenanigans. Wilson the urchin wearing a suction cup “hat” that he picked up to use as camouflage. Emo the clownfish hiding out in his host anthelia, but keeping an eye on the Hawaiian sun coral in case there’s food to steal. And, finally, Ghillie passing a reflective moment on the powerhead: All things considered,
Read moreLife at a (Turbocharged) Snail’s Pace
Many people consider snails a pest, but in the reefkeeping world snails fill a vital role. I have many different species of snails in my aquarium, each of which has a different “job” with regard to cleaning up the reef. In combination, this slow but efficient “clean up crew” will eat almost every kind of detritus and algae. Unfortunately, they don’t always get along well with the other inhabitants of the tank. The seahorses mostly ignore the snails (except for the occasional harmless hitch on a passing shell) but I cannot say the same for the shrimp and crabs. Escargot
Read moreThese Aren’t the Fish You’re Looking for….(Part 1)
I set up my aquarium for seahorses, but it isn’t Cygnus, or Ceti, or even Ghillie, who ended up hogging the spotlight. Instead, the tank’s biggest star is a fish I almost didn’t acquire at all, and who nearly forced me take him back to the fish store. Our watchman goby, Emperor Maximus Angryfish, has easily as much personality as anything else in the tank. His constant glare never fails to make me smile. His photos garner the most attention – on Twitter, on Facebook, and on this blog – despite the fact that I’m sure he would thoroughly disapprove
Read moreHappy Halloween, Hermit!
I’ve mentioned our Halloween Hermit, Lazarus (named for an almost unfortunate molting incident, during which we believed him dead) but it recently occurred to me that he deserved a post of his own – even more so now that we’ve acquired a second Halloween Hermit, Spike: (That’s Spike at the front, trying to climb the glass, and Lazarus at the back on the left-hand side.) The Halloween Hermit (Trizopagurus (Ciliopagurus) strigatus) – also known as the orange-legged or striped hermit – is native to the Indo-Pacific region and features the brightest coloration of any hermit commonly found in private aquariums. The
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