Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

My opinion of Reef Central

My own opinion of Reef Central, epitomized by the Louisiana Reef Club (click image for larger version):

 

RC promptly banned the entire club and deleted their club forum. 

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Species Spotlight: Zebra Danio

  One of the most active fish in freshwater aquariums are zebra danios.  These guys will spend countless hours zipping around your aquarium never slowing down.  Zebra danios are some of the easiest fish to kept and are highly recommended for beginners.  Here is a quick overview of their care.

Ocean-friendly seafood

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has put together a pocket sized seafood eating guide called the Seafood Watch, which contains a list of seafood that are ecologically friendly, as well as those that aren't - view the guide here.  Help prevent the needless deaths of millions of fish from by-catch by avoiding wasteful and ecologically damaging seafood such as imported shrimp!

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Photo of the Week

S. haddoni in my species aquarium dedicated to its display.  For more information about these beautiful giants, see our article about carpet anemones.  It's not even halfway grown, at a little under a foot across!

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Review: Hydor Performer 700 Protein Skimmer

Hydor has always been generous to us here at the Captive Aquatics blog, but unfortunately this review won't be kind to their latest line of skimmers, the Performer series.  Today I'm reviewing their Performer 700, a skimmer designed to operate on a tank between 185-265 gallons, depending on the stocking level.

Pet and Local Fish Stores: a Disgrace to the Hobby?

I detest the vast majority of pet and local fish stores (LFS).  Why?  To put it simply, I very rarely see a store that provides decent care to their livestock, and offers sound, accurate advice.

 

 

Species Spotlight: Corydoras

Cory catfish are definitely one of my top five favorite fish to keep in a community aquarium.  Their interesting shapes and their great activity levels make them the perfect fish for a beginner.  Not only are the cute looking but are one of the easiest fish to care for in the hobby.  Here is a quick overview of their care in the home aquarium.

Poaching in the Aquarium Trade

The two dead leopard sharks to the left were found in a trashcan in Norwalk, CT with their bellies slit, most likely so that poacher(s) could remove the still-living eggs for illegal sale to aquarists.  The full news story can be found here. 

The average home aquarist has no business attempting to keep a shark, much less a species that's illegal to own without a permit, and grows to an excess of six feet!  Not only are these animals doomed from the beginning when purchased illegally by an aquarist, and not only does purchasing a leopard shark baby fund this abhorrent practice, but these illegal actions causeslawmakers to (rightfully so) draft new legislature, further restricting our hobby. 

As you are probably aware, a bill (HR 669) was recently drafted, and should it have passed, would have completely ended the pet industry as we know it in America.  While HR 669 was a drastic and illogical piece of legislation, incidents like shark poaching remind us all that increased legal pressure is a good thing, at least as far as the welfare of the animals involved are concerned. 

I think we can all agree that purchasing animals illegally on the black market is a bad thing, especially animals wholly unsuited to captivity as a rule.  What other fish or invertebrate sdo you feel should be illegal to own that aren't?  Feel free to be heard by commenting!

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A Few Thoughts

I've been enjoying marine aquarium keeping for fifteen years as of 2009, and I've seen the hobby progress and change a great deal; but the simple pleasure of observing the "simple" organisms in my aquariums hasn't changed for me.  I know all about 'fad' corals, and am constantly bombarded with the "must-have" acans and zoo and acros, but that isn't what keeps my love for the hobby alive, or even what I spend most of my time observing.  For all of the beautiful corals available, I derive the most enjoyment and have spent the most time watching the more "lowly" animals in my aquarium, especially gastropods and copepods. 

I remember being twelve and being completely fascinated by a limpet that had hitchhiked on a piece of live rock I bought from Petco.  I would spend hours at night watching this limpet via flashlight, as it slowly grazed across the rockwork in it's twenty-gallon 'ocean'.  As I am writing this after spending the last hour dividing my attention between observing snails and watching generations of copepods crawling on the glass (and wishing I could find my magnifying glass to better see the youngest of them) I realize that a lot of that twelve year old is still in me. 

The fascination and appreciation for the miracle that is life has never tarnished for me, even if the reality of it has left me more of a cynic than I was then.  Let the appreciation for life, (and not how much it cost, or how rare a color variation it has) and the perspectives our aquariums allow be the point of my late-night ramblings. 

What are your unusual but much-loved fascinations with our hobby?  Feel free to comment!

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Giant Jellies!

Giant Nomura's jellyfish under observation by biologists at Hiroshima University, off the coast of Japan.  These giant jellyfish invade the coastal waters of Japan every few years, although very little is known about them, or about their reproductive cycle.

 

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