sinistral
Fish Addict
Last night (5/17) I went to my first meeting of the Boston Aquarium Society at the New England Aquarium. Turned out to be a good night to go. They opened with announcements, a fish raffle (for members only-- they gave away 4 pairs of some unknown fish, to be entered you had to be a member). There was also an interesting question and answer period where people asked questions about fishkeeping, with answers from the society's members. One person had grown a couple of feeder goldfish in a 29 gallon tank that are now 8 inches long each! There was a child who inquired about the easiest egglaying fish to breed (members answered convict cichlids and a type of malawi cichlid that I was unfamiliar with). Another person asked why one of his convict cichlids was looking sick (he had two convicts, two small oscars, and a plec in his 29 gallon-- members answered overstocking and tank still cycling after a month. At least he said he was doing water changes every other day).
The highlight was a power point presentation given by a man who had helped set-up the new jellyfish exhibit at the NEA. This was very interesting, as he talked about some unique challenges to setting up this type of exhibit. For one thing, the tanks have to be absolutely smooth, as jellyfish are delicate and will tend to rip themselves apart on rough surfaces. Even cleaning implements have to be covered in PVC pipe, as wood is too rough. The tanks have to be cleaned at least twice per day, because if any biological film builds up on surfaces the jellyfish can stick to them and die. They are also amazingly messy and demanding animals-- they have to be fed twice a day some outrageous amount of food (don't recall what he said exactly).
He showed a few slides of the construction of the tanks and their filtration systems (one large tank had a huge protein skimmer, a huge UV light, and an enormous cannister to filter an 8-foot diameter cylinder).
Finally, they took us over to see the new exhibit (it hasn't been open to the public yet). I wish I could have taken a picture or two to post here, but the lighting conditions weren't suitable for my cell phone camera
If anybody gets a chance, I'd encourage you to look up "blue blubbers" and "lion's mane jellyfish" on the web. They had another exhibit for a coral reef lagoon with jellyfish in the background (they had some beautiful blennies and my favorite fish of all time, the mandarin fish, on display). The lion's manes were extraordinary, as the way they lit the display it appeared that the jellyfish were suspended and drifting around in nothingness.
There was a grove exhibit with cardinal pajamafish (really neat-looking, resemble rams), blue and green chromis, and these amazing "upside-down jellyfish". These don't have tentacles and feed mostly on plankton and photosynthesis. They look like these weird plants surrounded by a pulsing upside down jellyfish.
My favorite exhibit was the "sea walnuts". These are pretty small (3-5 inches long), but they are striated with cilia that, when the light hits them just right, pulse like multicolored neon lights.
At that point I had to leave because it was about 9:30pm and I had a little trip home and hadn't eaten dinner yet.
Anyways, next month apparently an expert is coming in to give a talk about catching invasive species in Florida (the moderator mentioned that they've caught enormous oscars in the wild). I am not a member, and don't have any interest in propagating the society. However, it was a really interesting meeting to have attended (I'm not capturing the whole meeting, just the parts that were the most interesting to me). Best of all it was free!!
I just had to share! If you're in the Boston area I'd recommend you go check it out.
The highlight was a power point presentation given by a man who had helped set-up the new jellyfish exhibit at the NEA. This was very interesting, as he talked about some unique challenges to setting up this type of exhibit. For one thing, the tanks have to be absolutely smooth, as jellyfish are delicate and will tend to rip themselves apart on rough surfaces. Even cleaning implements have to be covered in PVC pipe, as wood is too rough. The tanks have to be cleaned at least twice per day, because if any biological film builds up on surfaces the jellyfish can stick to them and die. They are also amazingly messy and demanding animals-- they have to be fed twice a day some outrageous amount of food (don't recall what he said exactly).
He showed a few slides of the construction of the tanks and their filtration systems (one large tank had a huge protein skimmer, a huge UV light, and an enormous cannister to filter an 8-foot diameter cylinder).
Finally, they took us over to see the new exhibit (it hasn't been open to the public yet). I wish I could have taken a picture or two to post here, but the lighting conditions weren't suitable for my cell phone camera
If anybody gets a chance, I'd encourage you to look up "blue blubbers" and "lion's mane jellyfish" on the web. They had another exhibit for a coral reef lagoon with jellyfish in the background (they had some beautiful blennies and my favorite fish of all time, the mandarin fish, on display). The lion's manes were extraordinary, as the way they lit the display it appeared that the jellyfish were suspended and drifting around in nothingness.There was a grove exhibit with cardinal pajamafish (really neat-looking, resemble rams), blue and green chromis, and these amazing "upside-down jellyfish". These don't have tentacles and feed mostly on plankton and photosynthesis. They look like these weird plants surrounded by a pulsing upside down jellyfish.
My favorite exhibit was the "sea walnuts". These are pretty small (3-5 inches long), but they are striated with cilia that, when the light hits them just right, pulse like multicolored neon lights.
At that point I had to leave because it was about 9:30pm and I had a little trip home and hadn't eaten dinner yet.
Anyways, next month apparently an expert is coming in to give a talk about catching invasive species in Florida (the moderator mentioned that they've caught enormous oscars in the wild). I am not a member, and don't have any interest in propagating the society. However, it was a really interesting meeting to have attended (I'm not capturing the whole meeting, just the parts that were the most interesting to me). Best of all it was free!!
I just had to share! If you're in the Boston area I'd recommend you go check it out.
