Reef Ramblings

Brazilian company, Gomes da Costa, a leading company in the production and marketing of fish products, has come up with an innovative way of selling its produce by introducing the only vending machine in the world to feature a reef aquarium, complete with fish and corals.

The first machine was installed earlier this month inside the restaurant Equilibrium, at the Academy of Competition, Sao Paulo, and dispenses Gomes da Costa’s ready to eat Tuna Salad line in three different flavours.

Apparently the vending machine translates the brand concept of: “The best of the sea for you”.

An aquarium maintenance company services the reef tank weekly.

Further vending machines are expected to be installed in gymnasiums and other busy locations, promoting the idea of practical, healthy snacks.

Gomes da Costa, part of the Spanish Grupo Calvo, is a company with over 55 years of history in Brazil.  Its plant in Itajai, Brazil, is the largest complex of capture, receipt and processing of fish in Latin America, generates more than 1,600 jobs, and produces more than one million cans of fish daily.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

Although not that common in the hobby Chitons do occasionally appear in our tanks, usually as hitchhikers. A recent paper, ‘A Chiton Uses Aragonite Lenses to Form Images’ by Daniel I. Speiser, Douglas J. Eernisse, Sönke Johnsen published in Current Biology, www.cell.com/current-biology/home, revealed some interesting information about chitons, including the fact that these are the first aragonite lenses ever discovered.

Lined chiton.  Photo by Kirt L. Onthank

For those of you unfamiliar with chitons, they are a marine molluscs of the Subclass Polyplacophora, which contains somewhere between 600 and 100 species of chitons. They are found from shallow waters to depths of about 400 m. As with gastropods such as the more familiar ‘turbo snails’, chitons have a muscular foot accommodating slow locomotion that can enable it to strongly attach to a substrate; it features a convex shell that distinguishes it from other molluscs by consisting of eight, overlapping, articulating plates held in place by a structure known as a girdle.  Most chitons are herbivorous grazers eating algae, bryozoans, diatoms and other bio films, scraping the substrate with well-developed radula and make a useful addition to the reef aquarium.

Not have looked closely into chitons, despite having had a number of them in my tanks over the years, I was surprised to learn about their sensory apparatus. The primary sense organs of chitons are the subradula organ, with which it tastes for food, and a large number of unique organs called aesthetes. The aesthetes consist of light sensitive cells just below the surface of the shell, although up until recently their capacity for vision was unknown. In some cases they are modified to form ocelli, with a cluster of individual photoreceptor cells lying beneath a small lens; an individual chiton may have thousands of such ocelli

The recent paper from Daniel Speiser, studying chiton vision at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, has uncovered some information about how these animals see, including the unexpected make up of these lenses. X-ray analysis was used to determine the chemical composition and structure of the lenses and revealed that the chiton Acanthopleura granulata has the first aragonite lenses ever discovered. Aragonite is the same form of calcium carbonate with which corals build their skeletons and the mineral that makes up chiton shells.

In testing how well these eyes worked. They placed a small black disc into the animals’ field of view or dimmed the background from white to a uniform shade of grey that more diffusely blocked the same amount of light as the disc. The chitons clamped their shells tight when shown a 3-centimeter-diameter circle, roughly equivalent to a human seeing an object 20 times larger than the moon. They were unperturbed, however, when the researchers instead dimmed the light. The findings suggest that chitons can distinguish between approaching predators and the general dimming of light that might be caused by a passing cloud.

The researchers were surprised to find that chiton eyes worked equally well in air and in water, since light travels at different speeds through the two fluids, they suspect that chitons capitalize on aragonite’s unusual ability to transmit light at different speeds. The mineral bends the incoming rays in two directions and creates a double image. Chiton lenses may curve such that one image falls on the light-sensitive cells of the eye when the animal is in air, and the other image falls on these same cells when the animal is under water, Speiser says. The adaptation makes sense, as chitons live in intertidal zones and spend time above and below the water line. “I think this is a very clever and simple solution to the problem of making eyes that work in these two different settings,” he says.

Summary

Hundreds of ocelli are embedded in the dorsal shell plates of certain chitons. These ocelli each contain a pigment layer, retina, and lens, but it is unknown whether they provide chitons with spatial vision.  It is also unclear whether chiton lenses are made from proteins, like nearly all biological lenses, or from some other material. Behavioural trials further indicated that A. granulata‘s eyes provide the same angular resolution in both air and water.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

April 21, 2011

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has scheduled two public workshops and a telephone conference call to hear what people think about possible rule changes that would extend FWC octocoral (soft corals) regulations into federal waters adjacent to state waters off Florida.

The FWC also wants to receive comments regarding the possible creation of an octocoral harvest quota that would include landings from state and federal waters, and the continuation of octocoral harvest prohibitions in Atlantic federal waters north of Cape Canaveral and from the Stetson-Miami Terrace and Pourtales Terrace Deepwater Coral Habitat Areas of Particular Concern.

The FWC encourages interested people to participate in the two workshops, scheduled for Monday, May 2 and Tuesday, May 3, and in a telephone conference call on Thursday, May 5.

“We want to further protect the species,” said Lee Schlesinger, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “The FWC is looking at reasonable limits so its not overfished.”

Any new legislation would affect the collection of soft corals: sea whips, sea rods, and presumably zoanthids and corallimorpharians, such as Ricordea florida.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

Although reef aquarists have been aware for some time that certain zoanthids can contain a powerful neurotoxin, it is not until the recent publication of a paper on the subject that it was clear how dangerous these animals could be.

The paper, ‘Palytoxin Found in Palythoa sp. Zoanthids (Anthozoa, Hexacorallia) Sold in the Home Aquarium Trade’ by Jonathan R. Deeds, Sara M. Handy, Kevin D. White and James D. Reimer, puts into perspective how very dangerous the compound, named, palytoxin is, describing it as, “one of the deadliest toxins ever discovered”

Interestingly, the first three named authors are all from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, United States Food and Drug Administration. The tone of the abstract seems to be one of disbelief, that one of the most potent non-protein compounds ever discovered is present in dangerous quantities in a species of zoanthids commonly sold in the home aquarium trade.

This paper evolved from work done assisting the Georgia poison center in an investigation into a potential poisoning with palytoxin from zoanthids in a home aquarium. During the investigation, the authors learnt of another marine aquarium hobbyist who had recently experienced a severe respiratory reaction while trying to eradicate non-descript colonies of zoanthids that were overgrowing more desirable species. This led to the research reported in the paper where, in an attempt to determine the prevalence of palytoxin in aquarium store zoanthids, the authors purchased colonies from local aquarium stores, analyzed them for palytoxin and also performed molecular analysis in an attempt to identify the colonies to species level.

This clam encrusted with polyps is from the incident where boiling water was used, resulting in intoxication through inhalation.

In further researching this, some authorities believe that palytoxin, as a naturally occurring poison, is second only to maitotoxin, produced by a marine dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus.

Palytoxin poses a risk to humans through ingestion (most commonly as a result of eating contaminated seafood), inhalation (exposure to aerosols containing palytoxin – as in the case of the aquarist who inhaled steam when trying to remove polyps with boiling water) and via the skin (handling toxic zoanthids).

Symptoms associated with palytoxin poisoning include: a bitter/metallic taste, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, mild to acute lethargy, a sensation of tingling, pricking, or numbness of the skin, low heart rate, renal failure, impairment of sensation, muscle spasms, tremor, muscle pain, cyanosis and respiratory distress. In the fatal cases of palytoxin poisoning, death mostly results from heart failure.

It is important for reef keepers to remain calm on the subject and not assume that every zoanthid is a danger, and to remember that at most this is really a potential danger. Wash your hands after touching these corals and don’t touch your eyes or mouth; if you are worried about handling them then wear gloves.

Given the difficulty in identifying polyps down to species level it is not possible to definitively state whether or not any particular specimen is toxic.

You can find the paper in full at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0018235

Zoanthid samples collected from aquarium stores. [C-K]

Red Box – Visually and genetically consistent with Palythoa spp. and containing high concentrations of palytoxins (500–3500 mg/g wet zoanthid).

Green Box – Visually and genetically consistent with Palythoa spp. but non or weakly toxic.

Blue Box – visually and genetically consistent with Zoanthus spp., non or weakly toxic.

Bar represents 1 cm.

For more on the potentially dangerous invertebrates that you might come across in the reef aquarium, see: ‘Dangerous Marine Invertebrates.’

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

Introduction.

Although we may be interested in where the fishes and corals for the reef hobby come from, we rarely give any though to how they are collected, and probably never wonder about the people who collect them.

On a recent trip to Bali, German SAIA supporter Frank Schmidt interviewed a typical fisherman to find out about his life and his work.

Read the article.

You can reads Franks  interview with a Balinese marine aquarium collector on the SAIA website: http://www.saia-online.eu/

Afterword

The equipment that Frank mentions purchasing from Made forms the basis of the forthcoming SAIA exhibition, ‘Where do our fish come from?’ a presentation about the marine aquarium fisheries in South East Asia, namely Indonesia and the Philippines, where the majority of our livestock originates.

We hope to see this exhibition being hosted by public aquariums in the UK towards the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs/SAIA

©2011

Another questionable petition from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has just been filed under the Endangered Species Act.

From the CBD website.

“The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a petition seeking Endangered Species Act protection for the dwarf seahorse, a one-inch long seahorse that lives in seagrass beds in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and the Caribbean. The seahorse is threatened with extinction due to pollution from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, decline of seagrass throughout its range and commercial collection.

“Our country’s tiniest seahorse is just one of the many victims of ongoing pollution from the Gulf oil spill disaster,” said Tierra Curry, conservation biologist at the Center and author of the petition. “The dwarf seahorse now needs Endangered Species Act protection to have a fighting chance of survival.”

The dwarf seahorse was declining even before the BP oil spill contaminated much of its remaining range. Oil pollution and dispersants used to break up oil are toxic to both seahorses and the seagrasses they need to survive.

“Oil spills like the one nearly a year ago in the Gulf of Mexico exact a long and terrible toll on marine life, especially species like the dwarf seahorse that have already been struggling to survive,” Curry said. “These kinds of catastrophic spills will continue to be a threat as long as our country continues to push for more and more offshore drilling.”

Since 1950 the state of Florida has lost more than half its seagrasses, with loss in some areas exceeding 90 percent. Seagrass loss has also been dramatic in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and the Bahamas. Because the dwarf seahorse is a habitat specialist, loss of seagrass equates directly to seahorse population declines.

In addition to oil pollution, the seahorse’s seagrass habitat is threatened by declining water quality, damage from boat propellers and shrimp trawlers, and global climate change.”

Click here to see the petition in full, CBDDwarfSeahorsePetition

The Reality?

It should be remembered that this is the organisation that filed a scientific petition to protect the 83 most vulnerable corals within U.S. waters without sufficient science to back up their claims

Although the dwarf seahorse is undoubtedly at risk from the loss of its sea grass habitat as a result of coastal population pressure, with its accompanying dredging and pollution, there is little or no published data about population trends or total numbers of mature animals for this species. While it also seems plausible that the Gulf oil spill will have had a detrimental effect on this species, this has not yet been reported in scientific literature

To me it seems that the CBD may be grandstanding, using a charismatic species with no science to back up its claims. A quick search through the literature produced very little information on the endangered status of

IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List classes the species as: Data Deficient. Saying, “There is very little available information about its extent of occurrence or its area of occupancy. There have been no quantitative analyses examining the probability of extinction of this species. As a result, we have insufficient data to properly assess the species against any of the IUCN criteria, and propose a listing of data deficient (DD).

Geographic Range is the Gulf of Mexico (Florida Keys and Texas) and the Bahamas with an unknown population and no information on population trends

Habitat and Ecology:   This species is found in shallow sea grass flats, especially in association with Zostera and other sea grass, and is found in floating vegetation

This species may be particularly susceptible to decline. The information on habitat suggests they inhabit shallow sea grass beds that are susceptible to human degradation, as well as making them susceptible to being caught as by catch.

Hippocampus zosterae are one of the more popular seahorses in the aquarium trade (Vincent 1996, Wood 2001). Florida has a small directed trawl fishery in shallow grass beds off the west coast for H. zosterae where they are landed in a live bait trawl fishery. In this fishery alone, tens of thousands of H. zosterae are collected each year for the aquarium trade (Vincent and Perry, in prep.). Hippocampus zosterae occupies the 2nd rank of the top 10 fishes exported from Florida for the aquarium trade (Wood 2001).

The American Fisheries Society (AFS) lists the United States populations of H. zosterae as Threatened due to habitat degradation (Musick et al. 2000). While this status may apply on a national level, we did not find information that would justify such a listing for the species as a whole.

Conservation Actions: The entire genus Hippocampus was listed in Appendix II of CITES in November 2002. Implementation of this listing began May 2004. Full monitoring of the trade is underway in the United States, however this is dependent on traders’ declarations. Seahorses are listed under Title 68 (Rules of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) of the Florida Administrative Codes. The targeted fishery for the aquarium trade in Florida is monitored and regulations are in place, such as a limitation on the number of commercial harvesters, however the non-selective exploitation is not monitored in any state. The take of seahorses for the aquarium trade is prohibited in the USVI and Puerto Rico. Stock assessments are needed in order to evaluate the sustainability of the fishery and establish appropriate management guidelines. Further research on this species biology, ecology, habitat, abundance and distribution is needed.

Fish Base

Information from Fish Base regarding the species status describes the species as having ‘Medium Resilience’ with a minimum population doubling time 1.4 – 4.4 years (tm=0.4; tmax=1; assuming Fec=100 (approx. 3 generations/year)) and rates the species vulnerability as being moderate (37 of 100)

Poorly Studied

A repeated theme regarding dwarf seahorses is that further research is required, as an example, here is some information on one of the few research projects that I’ve been able to find on the species, which emphasises how little is known.

Tampa Bay

University of Tampa Assistant Professor Heather Masonjones is mapping seahorse populations in Tampa Bay, along with their stretched-out relatives, the pipefish. The research is sponsored by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which is interested in the status of seahorses as a barometer of the overall health of the bay.

Asking the question, “Why don’t we know more about these fascinating fishes living in the Tampa Bay Estuary?” The simple answer is that no one has taken the time to study them in detail.

The dwarf seahorse inhabits coastal ecosystems such as the shallow grass beds, salt marshes and mangroves of Tampa Bay and the Florida Keys. Measuring only one to two inches from the top of their heads to the tips of their tails, these animals are more like the “ponies” of the seahorse family compared to their giant 12-inch-long relatives found in the Pacific.

Although the dwarf seahorse is small in stature, Masonjones has a hunch that these tiny wonders may serve a much bigger purpose, believing them to be indicators of the health of the ecosystem, because they specifically inhabit stable ecosystems.

Because seahorses depend on the bay’s fragile sea grass communities, the value of studying their populations is two-fold. Since 1950, sea grass habitat in Tampa Bay has dramatically declined, although improving water quality has led to substantial sea grass gains in recent years. Mapping seahorse populations may help scientists identify environmental factors associated with their presence and in turn, determine what habitat is healthy or not so healthy.

“We don’t have a good idea of the status of their populations in Tampa Bay,” said Dr. Ilze Berzins, Florida Aquarium’s vice president of biological operations. “We don’t know how many there are or understand the many ways their habitat may influence them. We don’t know if conditions are improving or worsening.”

Because they are charismatic organisms, Masonjones believes they are an ideal “poster child” to rally support for protecting sea grasses. “Other studies have been done over the years looking at either habitats, such as sea grasses, or seahorse numbers, but there hasn’t been extensive work looking at the combination of both issues, seahorses and habitat”

Surveying seahorse populations is a time-consuming process that involves combing sea grass beds with large rectangular nets, all specimens collected are recorded, not just the seahorses, as it’s important to count everything to determine the biodiversity of an area. To help the project along 40 volunteers from the University of Tampa, the Florida Aquarium and the general public have been assisted in the ‘seahorse round-ups.’ The location of capture and species of each animal is recorded, taking special note of any seahorses or pipefish. Dwarf seahorses are marked with a very small latex paint dot, which helps track who lives where, photographed, then released to their original location,

For each survey site, the research team records temperature, salinity, water flow and pH, identifies the type and condition of sea grass, and collects sediment samples that may reveal whether contaminants play a part in survival rates.

One mystery yet to be solved is the whereabouts of young dwarf seahorses as they are rarely collected with the researchers finding perhaps just one in every seven nets.

Afterword

Considering the work involved in the Tampa research project, I find it difficult to understand what CBD are basing their petition on. Consider the length of coastline of the Gulf, the US portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,680 miles (2,700 km), whilst the Mexican portion of the Gulf coastline spans 1,394 miles (2,243 km), a total of 3074 miles (4943 km), it is hard to conceive of the size of project required to definitively quantify both population and population trend of a small cryptic species that only grows to 2 –3 cms.

Further articles in connection with the Centre for Biological Diversity:

US May Ban 66 Stony Coral Species.

Possible ban on collecting clownfishes.

The Beginning of the End for Stony Corals in the Reef Aquarium Hobby.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011

When adding a MarinePure Block to your system, to help increase your filtration capacity for dealing with nitrates, it has to go through the process of cycling in much the way that a new aquarium does. This can delay the availability of the additional filtration capacity from the MarinePure media by a month or so while bacteria migrates to the new media and slowly colonises it.

You can speed up this process by inoculating the Marine Pure media with DrTim’s One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria; this product will almost instantly establish the media as a working bio filter capable of nitrification, shortening the time until it becomes capable of denitrification.

Procedure.

• Select a waterproof container large enough to accommodate the amount of MarinePure to be inoculated.
• Using water from the aquarium that the block is destined to be added to, fill with sufficient water to cover the media.
• Take a 2 oz bottle of DrTim’s One and Only Live Nitrifying Bacteria, shake vigorously, and then add to the water.
• Submerge the MarinePure in the container and agitate for a minute or so to ensure that the live bacteria thoroughly penetrate the media.
• Leave for around half an hour before transferring to your sump or aquarium.
• Return remaining water to the system.

You can improve on this technique by carrying out the inoculation inside a plastic bag; the inoculated media can then be transferred to the aquarium without it being exposed to the air.

This procedure can also be used to turn other dry media, such as dried out reef rock, into a live bio filter, although you won’t benefit from the consistent filtration capacity of MarinePure.

Tim Hayes

Midland Reefs

©2011