No hug and roll for this squid.

Nature has its way of making things beautiful like the little puffer fish who draws patterns in the sand to attract a mate but this was something that really caught my eye. The southern dumpling squid (Euprymna tasmanica) has a sweet side although could be a little trick to stop other males getting in on its action, you guessed it the southern dumping squid is a hugger. 

After Sex the little squid really loves to hug and not just for 10 minutes he is know to keep hold of the female for three hours event at the risk of being eaten. But its not all so sweet the doesn’t bother 

with foreplay and only lasts for five minutes, Its technique of just hanging on could also do with some 

refining. And if all of that wasn’t enough, it turns out the species are notorious cheats.

Next stage has started

So this weekend has been a busy one. Trip out to our local fish shop Maidenhead Aquatics who look after me well a small treat of some tropical fish for his aquarium then I got my Christmas and birthday presents from my parents. They payed for the return pump, Heater hose work live sand and water. I just had to add the bottles for the water and live rock. Thankfully the store delivers I don't think we could have mover over 200kg without their help.

 
 


20 kg of live sand, 17 kg of live rock and 175 litres of water later I started the build. The connivers are 25 litres each so around 25 kg in which makes them hard to lift to tank hight so Its easier so drain them into buckets then into the tank. I've not placed the rocks but they are in the tank just awaiting for the water to clear before final layout.

The fish shop visit and then big delivery

Hi,

It's been a little while since I updated my blog its been a bit a crazy time for me with work but I finally got a moment free to go on a little shopping trip.

I visited Charter house Aquatics and was blown away by their story It's even better than it looks on their site, It gave me an opportunity to look round at some huge takes and hear about one customers plans to build a house round his aquarium. The staff were not only helpful but their fish house was amazing with a small shark in one of the displays.

As much as my planning stage got me an idea of what I was going to get I ended up changing my kit list. I down sized the tank to have a bit more space in the room however its still 175 litres and made by the same company. I changed the protein skimmer to a bubble magus curve 7 on the recommendation of the shop as it can manage to filter a higher volume tank almost twice the size of what I have got. I ended up with the maxpect razor on reflection this is the light I should have gone with from the start its a beautiful design and very quiet. The last change  made was to the power head  I went for a Maxspect Gyre.

Why the Gyre? The reason behind this was partly down to a lot of video's on the web and the fact its a very different piece of technology from all the other company's. All the other designs work on the same principle of a propeller in a round case which is effective but has its downsides. The main downside is the shape of the flow its a bit like the traditional desk fan its great directly in front but the flow drops off to the sides and as it gets further away from the source. With the Gyre the creates a ribbon of flow taking thus reducing dead spots in the tank and as the full force will reach the back of the aquarium bouncing back it should help clear away some of the detritus from the sand bed.

 

Well after 2 weeks of waiting I got the call I was waiting for, the delivery date of my aquarium the very next day I was going to have my new project at home. On delivery day in my excitement I completely forgot to document the whole thing. I missed taking a photo of the huge lorry squeezing in to my little close, the pallet on the tail lift, moving everything from pallet to the house and the final set up but its finally in place.

So what's left to do? Well I have a couple of bits still to get the a return pump, heaters pipe work for the over flow and return. Live rock, sand base and water to get sorted I can then start the cycling process. 

A week of discovery and monsters

Wow what a week in the world of fish. A 7ft (2.1m) 131lb (59kg) conger eel was caught off the coast of Devon here in the sunny UK. As this eel normally dies after spawning there is a good chance this was a female that never spawned. Full story from the BBC.

The next is even more fascinating is the discovery of a warm blooded fish. The Opah fish which was thought to be a slow moving lumbering fish but has been found to they are able to hold their own when it comes to speed despite living at a depth of around 1,000ft (305m). In like other fish that need to come near the surface to this fish is able to manage its temperature by flaming its pectoral fins warming the mussels and the blood at the same time.


Full story can be found at iflscience.com 

little delay with the shopping and the Shark that's playing tricks

So after my gold fish moved to their new home and are now settled I have a little down time between getting the new aquarium. I've spent the last few days stripping and cleaning the old one before it moves on to its new home.

The reason I've not ordered and placed the new one in its spot is that I've not had the time to get to my LFS to do the shop face to face as there are a couple of options on the aquarium that need to be done at time of ordering. But I do have some time off coming up and once I have recovered from a gig I'm going to get my order placed.

In the mean time I thought Id share a interesting story I found on the BBC Earth page. Some young sharks are using the patterns of poisonous sea snakes to help avoid being eaten by predators. It's thought that the Zebra or leopard shark is the first shark recored mimicking the patterns of the sea snake. The full article can be found here BBC Earth,

Bye Bye little fish

So this weekend is the final stage of my journey before getting thee marine take. My little gold fish that started me off are moving to a large pond.

It's felt like reaching this point has taken years I thats because I started this process in my head when I got my first fish and its always been leading here.

So whats in store next?

I'll be placing my order for the tank,lights, skimmer & power head although some of the parts will take a few weeks to arrive Im going going to get very excited when I here I have a package to collect.

So long my little friends

Bioluminescent bloom

As one of my many hobbies Im also a keen photographer turning my hand to many different types of of photography including astro photography. Recently while searching the web I came across some photo's taken at night showing an amazing natural phenomena a Bioluminescent bloom in Hong Kong, this is caused by Noctiluca scintillans. Commonly known as the Sea Sparkle,^[1] and also published as Noctiluca miliaris, is a free-living non-parasitic marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed (popularly known as mareel). Its bioluminescence is produced throughout the cytoplasm of this single-celled protist, by a luciferin-luciferase reaction in thousands of spherically shaped organelles, called scintillons. Nonluminescent populations within the genus Noctiluca lack these scintillons.

 

bamboo sharks - Hemiscylliidae

Family Hemiscylliidae - Bamboo sharks

Order	:	Orectolobiformes
Class	:	Elasmobranchii
No. in FishBase	:	Genera : 2 | Species : 17 Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes
Environment	:	Fresh : No | Brackish : No | Marine : Yes
Division	:	Marine
Aquarium	:	none
First Fossil Record	:	upper   Jurassic	Ref..   Berg, L.S. 1958

There are around 12 species in this family of small sharks. Longtail carpet sharks and bamboo sharks are usually less than four feet in length. They are found in shallow tropical waters in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. 

They have long, cylindrical bodies with tails that are longer than their bodies. They have barbels on their snouts. 

Many of the sharks in this family have spotted and banded markings on their bodies. They feed on the ocean floor and eat small fish and crustaceans. 

Unfortunately these are not reef friendly as they will eat any crustacean in the aquarium. It stays relatively small, but requires at least a 180 gallon or larger aquarium as an adult. 

Recently a captive Bamboo shark recently set a record for sperm storage of 45 months after laying a fertilised egg nearly three and a half years after it could have mated for more information visit BBC Earth.

Image courtesy of Timothy Wong

Sorry I've been missing

Sorry its been a long while since I posted anything its been a crazy few months. I won a trip to New York with work (which made a little dent in the fund for spending money), I had to rush around trying to do the Christmas shop all while trying to manage 4 aquariums.

So whats changed so far? Well I was let down by the electrician coming to fit the new electrical out let need for the aquarium, Im now searching trade books for someone to do the job.

My female fighting fish succumbed to to old age an being chased by the male so I introduced two new younger females & one of my gold fish has just developed Pop eye as its only one eye I'm treating it as an injury but I will also keep an eye on the water quality

The usual routine of water changes, feeding, cleaning has also kept me busy so I've not had much time to do any more research. Although I have had the odd look at new fish when I have been out at my LFS and crossing off ones I fell in love with as they were un suitable.