Short spine pincusion sea urchin filmed with Olympus TG-3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIZuc7I5ALM

Tropical marine aquarium

A Last summer I set up an Orca TL 450 Nano aquarium.

Equipment

• x2 florescent white/blue bulbs
• 53 litre 24 x 45 Orca TL 450 aquarium
• x1 Koralia nano powerhead
• Orca pump to supply filter

Livestock

Coral

• Xenia sp. pulse soft coral
• Rhodactis sp. (indosinensis) hairy mushroom coral
• Zoanthid colony (green)
• Green Star Polyps
• Green mushroom polyp
• Sarcophyton toadstool leather coral

Green Star Polyps

Zoanthid

Mushroom coral

Sarcophyton leather coral

Pulsing Xenia sp.

Other

• x2 tank bred clown fish (A. percula)
• x1 Testus sp. pyramid snail
• x1 Trochus sp. snail
• x2 sea squirts
• Various brittlestars, sponges harpacticoid copepods and polychaetes also inhabit the tank. 

Freediving at the Menai suspension bridge

I had been to try and dive by the suspension bridge in the Menai Strait before with little success. I went at low water but the current was extremely strong and the area I was in composed of thousands of tennis ball sized rocks covered in barnacles with little else. This video shows that dive (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3At4Eq6CH1s).

However during Friday lunch break I went there again with Ryan Mowat with much more success. Part of that success was working out when slack water was, which is not the same as time of high or low water in the Menai Strait. To over simplify it the time of lowest current velocity is roughly 2 – 1 ½ hours before the time of High or Low water. This video shows some clips from that trip.

Going at slack water is important for a safe dive where you’re not drifting away, visability is likely to be better and it means less fining against the current potentially giving longer dive times. Ryan suggested diving down a subtidal cliff on the South side of the bridge and it was a great spot. The vis was about 3 m but we had lots of amazing sessile epifaunal to look including incrusting and branching sponges, large and abundant Dahlia anemones and deadman’s finger colonies. Motile organisms included lots of common starfish, edible crabs, velvet swimming crabs and small spider crabs amongst the sponges. There were no doubt many other species which I did not observe. I always regret not staying in one post and looking for smaller organisms, I so often pass over areas looking more generally at what is there.  It was 5 – 6 degrees C probably and I reached a max depth of 7 metres during my dives but depth was not the objective of the dives. 

Dahlia anemones in the Menai Strait

Common starfish foraging among breadcrumb sponge in the Menai Strait

Common starfish, sponges and an edible crab in the Menai Strait

Dahlia anemones in the Menai Strait

Common starfish feeding amongst breadcrumb sponge with a velvet swimming crab at the bottom. Menai Strait

The finger like structure is either the sponge Haliclona oculata or the bryozoan Alcyonidium diaphanum.   

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 

Recent dives off Anglesey

A collection of recent highlights from my snorkelling and freediving around Anglesey in North Wales. Seeing the plumose anemones at St. George's pier was a real highlight for me. All the dives had very poor vis, maybe 1 - 2 metres. You can still see amazing marine life in poor vis if you are willing to give it a go, and go down into the murk. 

Snorkelling / Freediving at Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, UK

Trying out my new mask at a small cove in Trearddur Bay, Anglesey. It was high tide so there was no that much life to see apart form plenty of Fucus. It was still a fun session. Here is a little video from it. I'll add some more but the editing takes ages on my laptop.

Testing GoPro 2 with dive Housing Fish in the distance, Snorkelling off Anglesey, North Wales

Here are some clips of the only real glimpses I got of some fish whilst snorkelling off Anglesey last Sunday in some rough weather. I saw mainly wrasse but also a few Pollock, and a school of sprat and adult sandeels.

Testing GoPro Hero HD 2 snorkelling off West coast of Anglesey

Some footage of from my GoPro Hero HD 2 with the dive housing. I used the head strap which felt secure and seemed to work well. I may think about holding it next time as I move my head all the time which makes the footage vomit inducing to watch. I went off the West Coast of Anglesey but cut it short as the wind, waves and swell was picking up.

Snorkelling in North Wales

I decided I wanted to get into the sea more and observe our local marine life here in North Wales. I always see it all at low tide or on the deck of a ship and so wanted to see underwater life in its most natural state. Before I have done this with a snorkel and swimming shorts (which can be a bit chilly), but I have now invested in some more suitable equipment. It seems that getting spearfishing kit is the best approach for doing snorkelling and freediving around here. I do not really have an interest in catching fish but the camo suit and good kit will make spearfishing equipment ideal for observing underwater life. This is a list of the kit I have bought.

Mares instinct camo brown 55 (5.5mm) 2 piece open cell wetsuit.

Mares camo brown open cell 3mm socks/booties

Mares instinct pro camo green freediving fins

Cressi 3.5 neoprene gloves

Cressi super totem dive knife

Spettoa rubber dive belt

5 x 1kg Beuchasub weights
1 x Esclapez Single Bladder Torpedo Bouy Float including a line

and I already had a Tusa Liberator plus hyperdry mask and imprex snorkel. 

I will describe and review the kit in separate posts in case it is of any use to anyone else. 

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.

British Marine Bivalves

These are some of the British marine bivalves that I have collected during my time studying marine biology in North Wales. I decided to put them in a display using sand after seeing a similar display at the NHM London.  I would like to find more of the native cockle species (Cardiidae) if possible. Well I need to go beach combing more, especially after windy weather if I'm going to do that.

Only 3 species of native cockle. I'll keep my eyes peeled for more.