British native marine aquarium update December 2012

My tank is ticking over nicely. The two cuttlefish have been entertaining lots of guests over Christmas. However I am concerned about one of them. The eyelids are tightly closed and its movement does not appear to be under full control. There is a slight bulge to the rear of the mantle and it seems to be slightly positively buoyant. Not sure if I will remove to form the tank yet for quarantine but is still seems to be feeding which is encouraging. Apart from  that the cushion stars, sea urchin, anemones, top shells, periwinkles and netted whelk all seem to be doing well. The odd periwinkle falls prey to the cushion stars but that is not a problem. Here are some pictures and videos below. 

Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) in British native marine aquarium. 

Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) in British native marine aquarium. 

Small brittlestar in native marine aqurium

'Baby' Asterina gibbosa cushion star in native marine aquarium

Snakelocks Anemone viridis in British native marine aquarium. Sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris can be seen in the background.

Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish in Native marine aquarium

I was given two small Sepia officinalis by Dr. Nick Jones (http://www.bangor.ac.uk/oceansciences/staff/php/staffdetails1.php?person=0064) at the School of Ocean Sciences which were left over after experiments they were conducting on egg hatching. I made sure I had some fine shell gravel in my aquarium before adding them into the tank. They like to burrow so normal pea gravel would likely be too coarse to allow this. I have had them almost two months now and both are growing well and seem to be well adjusted to living in my aquarium. I have no chiller, the seawater is dependent on the room temperature. I have been feeding them on Crangon crangon brown shrimp, common prawn P. serratus and the occasional small sand goby. They need a good source of live food and are really amazing to watch as they stalk and attack their prey. This hunting is often accompanied by vivid pulses of colour across the mantle of the cuttlefish. They have been great inhabitants of my aquarium but as they grow larger I will probably need to find a new home for them. Here are some pictures and video. 

 Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish

 Sepia officinalis Common cuttlefish feeding on a prawn

My British native marine aquarium 

Hoop = Food, R2 fish school training

Here is some further reinforcement of the hoop trick, except Siani likes to just sit in the hoop. I used fresh mussel flesh in the last few training session instead of Corophium. Corophium is easy to load into the feeding wand and does not fill Siani up so quickly compared to mussel flesh, but live food is harder to collect and keep.

I'm going to give the fetch trick a go next.

Fish training update, Hoop trick

After Siani has been trained to follow the feeding wand anywhere for a food reward I have moved on to trying to teach the hoop trick. At first I was suing the feeding wand to tempt the fish through the hoop as instructed in the manual, this is in the first video.

After a few sessions Siani now perches onto and then eventually swim through the hoop. I have not got a great video but here is my best effort and a picture below. Due to this species naturally living on the bottom this trick is a little more taxing (or unnatural) for Siani than a free swimming fish like a goldfish. I think the perching on the hoop is still a cool trick. I just need to keep the training up really. I'll keep you updated!

Siani sitting on the hoop, waiting for food.

3rd training session with R2 fish training school. Feeding wand

2nd training session with R2 fish training school. Feeding wand. (Video is x2 speed)

Snakelocks anemone (Anemonia viridis) in native marine aquarium

I have finally been able to collect some snakelocks anemones for my native marine aquarium. I have wanted some for a long time, but they are not very common in North Wales. I found most of them attached to pieces of algae on the low shore.  One of them lacerated into two within 48 hours of being placed into the aquarium.  This is how they can rapidly colonise an area, they clone themselves! I have a lighting bulb with is designed to promote the survival and growth of photosynthetic organisms. It is important to have this as snakelocks anemones have zooxanthellae in their tentacles which require high light levels and specific wavelengths for photosynthesis, which keeps the anemone healthy and colourful. The tentacles are also stinging and capture live or dead prey.  If the anemones turn brownish then I will know the light levels are not optimum for the symbiont zooxanthellae in their tentacles. They also have fluorescent proteins in their tentacles which gives them their beautiful fluorescent green colour.  I hopeful that these anemones should flourish in the aquarium. 

Anemonia viridis as found on the rocky shore

Anemones in the tank showing bright green tentacles

Anemonia viridis (snakelocks anemone) lacerating itself into two new individuals

Beadlets (Actina equina) like their personnel space

The tentacles of beadlet anemone (Actina equina) do not sting, they are just sticky. However, these anemones do have specialised stinging ‘beads’ around the base of their tentacles. These are not used for capturing food but are used to sting and repel other anemones and protect their personnel space. This is so they do not compete for food as beadlet anemones are static ‘almost’ scavengers. The pictures below show an anemone in my aquarium stinging another anemone which is become too close. They pump water into the stinging ‘beads’ and lean towards the other anemone touching it with the purple sting beads. Afterwards purple scars are left on the attacked anemones that are the same colour as the stinging beads it was stung with. Everyone needs their personnel space I guess. 

Beadlet with swollen stinging 'beads' leaning towards another beadlet

Another anemone being stung

Basal disk of a beadlet anemone

Colour varieties of beadlet anemones

Native marine aquarium December 2011

I collected some more algae, rocks and top shells for my native marine aquarium yesterday as it was looking a bit bare. I think it looks great at the moment although I still want to collect some more anemones.

Tank set up. Lots of serrated wrack (Fucus serratus) that gives shelter for many animals and moves nicely in the strong flow that I have in my native marine aquarium.

Juvenile common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) in a top shell (Gibbula sp.)

Native marine aquarium from the side

Macropodia sp. A spider crab that decorates itself with algae to camouflage itself.

Shanny resting

Asterina gibbosa Cusion star feeding on cyanobacteria growing on the glass. It's cardiac stomach is everted out of it's mouth to digest the food on the glass.

Asterina gibbosa, common cusion star

This is great little starfish that is commonly seen under rocks along the Menai Strait. It is perfect for keeping in native marine aquarium as it is very hardy and eats rotting algae and films of cyanobacteria which can be a real pest in many aquariums.

Aboral side of Asterina gibbosa

Asterina gibbosa showing the tube feet (podia) and mouth with cardiac stomach visible.

Unknown fish Juvenile

I have not been able to ID this little fish that I collected with the mysids yet. I will feed it with Artemia. Any suggestions greatly received.

Unknown Juvenile fish

British Native marine update.

I have collected some new animals for my fish tank. Lots of top shells (Gibbula spp.) to keep the algae under control and some more weed and mysids.

The aquarium

Mysid on the glass

Prawn (P. serratus) amongst saw wrack weed

A bryozoan colony showing extended  lophophores.

Blenny (Lipophrys pholis) in my British marine native aquarium. A new inhabitant!

I have a new guest in my fish tank. It is a common blenny (Lipophrys pholis) and is by far the largest fish I have had in my tank so far. It looks pretty cool. It has really nice patterning. Most fish take a while to settle in but he has settled in straight away and is pretty active and coming up to the glass etc. I think I will feed it on Corophium and the odd polychaete worm.

Blenny (Lipophrys pholis) smile

Blenny (Lipophrys pholis), Cushion star (Asterias gibbosa) and Beadlet anemone (Actina equina)

White Edible crab!

This is a picture of the white edible crab I had in my British native marine fish tank. Never seen a white one before or heard of anyone who has. It was great, until it grew really big and started eating everything and rearranging all the rocks in the tank every night. It is now living free in the Menai Strait. It turned brown again after a moult just before I put it back in the sea.

The amazing white edible crab (Cancer pagurus)