Marine Tank Gallery I
Written by Friday, 30 August 2002 00:00
Some fish make a special mark on one's heart. Big Daddy was one of these. He was instrumental in the success of my Mediterranean tank. He taught his tank mates to accept prepared food. He was always alert, patrolling, watching us. On January 21st, 2003, Big Daddy, our beloved friend lived his last day as normally. He ate well, made his usual patrol to make sure everything is in order in HIS tank, chased away everybody and then retreated in his cave. A couple of hours later he passed away. We knew that he was already old when we collected him but after all this time we spent together we never understood that he was perhaps too old. He managed to break all size records, reaching a size of 16 cm, always happy, always playful. Nevertheless, his passing away may well be a good opportunity to return all his tank mates to the sea where they obviously belong. What fills my heart with sorrow is that we never found him a female to keep him some company. He was the true gem of my tanks which will never be the same without him - neither will I.
I have no idea what species this sponge is despite the fact I have looked up a number of books. The first observations are that both sea stars and urchins have come in contact with them and left them intact. The good thing is that the anemones don't seem to care about them. This is one more difficult part with sponges. Many species will chomp on them and - especially with Mediterranean species - there is not much information on this issue.
Acetabularia (last photo, right): order: Dasycladales, family: Dasycladaceae. Commonly known as "mermaid's parasol," plants in this genus are radially symmetrical. Biflagellate gametes arise from liberated cysts. Zygotes become attached to calcareous substrates and differentiate slowly. This small and extremely delicate marine algae is perhaps the most attractive of them all. It is rarely seen in the hobby because it is usually damaged during transportation. Indeed we had to use extra care during collection and transportation to make sure that at least some of them would reach the tank intact. The thin stripes (a mere 5 cm of length) end in pale blue - green cups. This algae may be attacked by the hairlike algae or other inhabitants. It requires good lighting and less water movement than most other algae and invertebrates.
Dictyota bartayresii (first and second photos on the left above) is a macroalgae belonging to Phaeophyta (brown algae). Its common name "Fluorescent blue alga" and it is very strange to have it in my tank since normally it is only found in the Atlantic (from West Africa to the Caribbean sea) and not in the Mediterranean. According to the literature it needs extremely clear water in order to thrive and the absence of fish is highly recommended in order to ensure high water quality. In my tank (if we assume that I have identified this species correctly) it grows on the live rock it came with while some new shots have been observed on the nearby rocks as well as on the sand. The final size of this macroalgae is reported to be 10 cm. This species produces a blue fluorescent haze when seen under actinic tubes.
This fish was definitely not indented for my tank and was accidentally collected along with some live rock (possible trapped in the macroalge and didn't escape fast enough). A voracious eater grows too large for the size of my tanks (max. size 25 cm) especially if we take into account that it is an ever moving fish hence a lot of space should be given to it. I plan to return it to the sea in one of my next collection trips. Acclimatized immediately, always swimming 2-4 mm under the water surface, always looking for food, always attacking it immediately. I don't know how things would evolve with this particular species but the impression I have is that it would be one of the easiest species I ever kept. Will accept any kind of frozen food added (mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, mussels, shrimps, squid) and will eat for as long as food is still on the surface or close to it. In nature it can be seen in schools, usually swimming just under the water surface or at shallow depths (up to 25 meters). They use their strong lips to scrape over any substrate from plant to rock to mud and - like a vacuum cleaner - eat the fine layer of debris on top of it. When collected, the fish was a mere 2 cm in length, and had two big external parasites attached to it. The parasites were removed of course before adding the fish to the tank and a close inspection revealed that there has been no damage done to the slime coat of the fish.
In the last photo it is evident how close to the surface this fish usually swims. You can see the space between its reflection and the real fish being just a few mm. The fish is always found swimming against the current created by the two airpumps and the return of the main filter .. perhaps simulating a long run in the open sea.
Read article on Starting a marine (Mediterranean) tank.
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