ALL DETAILS ABOUT FRESHWATER FISH AND TANKS

Friday 27 June 2014

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Stonefish Venom Delivery Explored in Awesome New Video

Posted: 27 Jun 2014 08:30 AM PDT

When it comes to deadly creatures, Australia seems to be the destination for the biggest, nastiest, venom-iest animals on Earth. These dangerous critters are both land and ocean based, and people wandering all over the continent have to literally watch every step they take. As further explained in this latest video from SmarterEveryDay the stonefish is one of those ultra deadly creatures that kills by injecting venom into people who aren’t paying attention to each step, obviously stinging divers and beachgoers who are unfortunate enough to just step in the wrong place. But considering how well these fish blend into their backgrounds, we could certainly see how so many people are stung.

The video, which we pulled off of Gizmodo, shows just how the stonefish does its damage. When folks step on any of the fish’s 13 venomous dorsal spines, the skin pulls back to reveal some nasty hypodermic style spines each with its own set of venom sacks. As pressure from the foot pushes down on the spine, obviously causing a puncture, the venom is expelled upward into the foot.

Unfortunately, the sting isn’t like that of a lionfish, which has been described as nothing more than a bad bee sting. The sting of the stonefish is deadly. If treatment in the form of anti-venom isn’t administered quickly, there is a good chance the victim could die.

Tip of the Day – 6/27/2014

Posted: 27 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

If you want a quick way to see if your aquarium is bowing out, or to what degree it is bowing, all you’ll need is a piece of string. Simply put one end of the string on the front right corner of the tank and run it along the pane of glass to the opposite side. If the pane of glass or acrylic is bowing, it will not line up with the string. This simple trick can be applied to all sides of an aquarium, but it will only show you if there is any bowing. If the bowing is only slight, a relative term I know, then the structural integrity of the aquarium should still be fine. However, if the bowing is more severe, you might need to take some corrective action to keep a seam from splitting or some other failure of the tank. These corrective actions include draining the aquarium and adding bracing to the top or bottom, or possibly tearing down the tank entirely to use thicker glass or acrylic.

Thursday 26 June 2014

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Primo Reef T-Slotted Aluminum Stands Make for Some Good Lookin’ Hardware
The Starburst Grafted Montipora is a Hot New Piece from The Digital Fishroom
Tip of the Day – 6/26/2014

Primo Reef T-Slotted Aluminum Stands Make for Some Good Lookin’ Hardware

Posted: 26 Jun 2014 08:00 AM PDT

Aquariums stands are every bit as crucial to the overall process as the aquariums themselves. They provide a place to out the tank as well as store all of the other gear necessary to keep the tank functioning properly. For years, aquarists have relied on various types of wood to serve as the structure of the stand, with particle board (MDF) and plywood making up the largest portions. In more recent times, metal stands have been put into service, but these huge and heavy stands had to be built by welders and they often cost a small fortune. While these two options have generally been the only ones available, the guys at Primo Reef are looking to shake things up a bit by introducing their T-slotted aluminum stands.

These metal stands are made from aluminum, a real shocker huh, but they don’t assemble like other metal stands. Instead, these stands piece together with aluminum tubing that is slotted down the middle and fastened together with nuts, bolts, and angles brackets. It’s a whole new way to look at aquarium stands, and they can be pieces together by any hobbyist with even the slightest amount of mechanical skill.

As for the benefits of using these slotted aluminum stands, for one, they look pretty slick. The metal can be accented with various colored plastics or you could fasten wood panels to each side. The aluminum itself is lightweight and resists corrosion, but remain strong enough to hold up all kinds of weight from the heavy aquariums. Another great feature is they can be broken down and transported fairly easily. Lastly, there is some amount of modularity with these stands, making them ideal for aquarium keepers who like to mix things up a lot.

We don’t know if this concept will catch on with a majority of folks, but we sure like the idea and would live to see more tanks with his type of stand.

The Starburst Grafted Montipora is a Hot New Piece from The Digital Fishroom

Posted: 26 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Hobbyists have have enjoyed performing numerous growth experiments on Monitpora corals, both encrusting and plating alike. While most of the tinkering has resulted in the blending two or more different colored individuals into one coral, which usually reverts back to a single colored coral, every once in a while something truly special pops up on our radars. Such is the case for The Digital Fishroom, who recently shared their Starburst Grafted Monti. According to the article, this is a naturally occurring pigment graft that has been isolated and successfully reproduced over and over again the last couple of years.

What we like so much about this particular graft isn’t just the fact that the base color is two different colors, but that the polyps exhibit some random color morphing as well. If you take a look at both images (one above, one below), you’ll notice that the polyps in the red/orange portion of the coral stay that orangish color for the most part, but randomly show neon green highlights. Similarly, the polyps on the green portion of the coral show those interruptions of orange. And this blending doesn’t just occur where the orange and green base colors meet, but randomly throughout the frags.

There are currently only four WYSIWYG frags available for the initial release. They are priced at $200 per frag (includes shipping) and all frags have were made about a month ago…meaning they’re all healed up from the fragging process.

Tip of the Day – 6/26/2014

Posted: 26 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Want a safe and secure way to refill an aquarium during a water change without having to clamp hoses onto your aquarium or stand there all day waiting for the tank to fill? With a little creativity and the right parts, you can create a hanging aquarium fill line that will never fall off your tank, allowing for a complete hands-free tank refill. All you need is a water pump, enough plumbing pieces to make a U-shaped assembly, and some vinyl tubing. The plumbing supplies will need to consist of at least two 90 degree elbows, varying lengths of straight piping, and a nipple fitting that vinyl tubing can be attached to. To make the system even better, a third 90 degree elbow and a Loc-Line fitting could be fitted to the output so that the water won’t disrupt the sand.

Wednesday 25 June 2014

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ORA Announces Limited Availability of Rare Turquoise Squamosa Clams

Posted: 25 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Oceans Reefs and Aquariums is known mostly for their aquacultured fish and frags, but they’ve also got some awesome Tridacnid clams, and they’re reminding us all of this fact in a huge way. Announced yesterday on the their Facebook page, ORA has just made their highly prized ORA Turquoise Squamosa clams available to stores nationwide. These clams are breathtaking, sporting the typical “squammie” patterns but draped in a vibrant turquoise color with a bright blue rim around the mantle. There’s only one catch though. The clams will be extremely limited in a one-time special offer, and so rare in fact that there are only four individuals available.

This extremely limited availability will definitely lead to a super high price tag, which will most likely come from the vendors selling the clams and not so much ORA themselves. We’ve heard rumors of $300 price tags, but who knows if that is anywhere close to being an accurate number. Regardless, these are amazing clams.

Tip of the Day – 6/25/2014

Posted: 25 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Have you ever sat staring at your aquarium and wondered…are my fish really hungry or would it be a total waste of time to add food to the tank? Well, if you feel like the fish get fed too much or are just unsure of their preference, by paying a little extra attention to their behavior, you can actually condition the fish to let you know when they’re hungry. If you feed a fish every time it comes to a specific spot in the aquarium or exhibits some specific behavior, then it will do that same thing every time it is willing to eat.

Case in point, I’ve got a yellow watchman goby that normally stays in the sand or perched up on a rock. When it is hungry, however, the fish ventures to the middle of the aquarium and actually hovers about halfway up the water column. I drop in a little pellet food and the goby snatches it right up. In other instances, where the fish is still on the bottom for example, it tends not to eat the food at all.

Tuesday 24 June 2014

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The H2Overflow Kits a Great Way to Make Aquariums “Reef-Ready”

Posted: 24 Jun 2014 08:00 AM PDT

When it comes to reef ready aquariums, hobbyists gernally have two choices. Those are to either accept the typical huge black box style internal overflows that dominates the pre-made reef ready aquariums, or to add one of a number of different custom overflows to an existing tank that wasn’t previously reef ready. For the latter option, aquarium keepers have been limited only by their imagination, but there are few pre-fabbed choices on the market short of those unreliable HOB overflows that we all know and hate. Thankfully, the crew at Custom Aquariums has a different take on the retrofit overflow design with their including this H2Overflow.

This take on the overflow box uses a small surface skimming intake attached directly to PVC plumbing that runs out the back of the aquarium. The surface skimmer sits high enough in the water that it is hidden from sight by the trim of the aquarium (assuming your tank isn’t rimless), which also helps hide the water line. The H2Overflow can handle up to 1200 gallons per hour and it measures 7.25 inches long by a mere 1.75 inches wide. And to add to the versatility, the overflow can be positioned in numerous different ways, as it can rotate a full 180 degrees.

To keep the trash out of your sump, and potentially out of the intake of your protein skimmer or return pump, a removable lid sits atop the H2Overflow. To prevent clogging, the teeth of the overflow are tapered so that as water levels and/ or flow rates increase, the overflow can handle more flow.

The H2Overflow seems to still be in the design phase, as evidence by these digital renderings and not actual product images, but we will update pricing and availability as it becomes better known.

For non-reef ready aquaria and tanks needing more overflow powder, a hole drilling template kit is available and more than one H2Overflow can always be installed.

Tip of the Day – 6/24/2014

Posted: 24 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

With the world of LED aquarium lighting already full of proven fixtures, hobbyists can shift their attention from trying to find a product that actually works to finding a light that has all of the features they want. If wireless communication is your thing, there are plenty of coral capable fixtures that have that technology. If extreme depth penetration is required for your setup, there are plenty of light out there for that too. And if you need a fixture with a minimalist look, well guess what, those are available as well. The bottom line is that there are plenty of fish in the sea to match exactly what you need.

Monday 23 June 2014

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Unboxing the Orphek Atlantik Compact [Picture Intensive]
Are Starfish Robots the Next Big Thing in Automated House Cleaning?
The AquaNerd Weekly Recap
Picture of the Week, Fossilized Stingray
Tip of the Day – 6/23/2014

Unboxing the Orphek Atlantik Compact [Picture Intensive]

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 12:00 PM PDT

It’s unboxing time once again, with our newest toy to play with being the Atlatik Compact WiFi LED fixture from Orphek. This compact light is essentially a shorter version of the popular Orphek Atlantik, offering the same spectrum and efficience but packaged in a smaller light. It sports a whopping 42 emitters broken down into 8 different colors and spread across four channels of control. It has wireless capabilities built-in, allowing users to control each of those color channels via any Android powered device running the Orphek app.

As for the colors offered in the fixture, Orphek uses 18000K white, 450nm blue, 470nm blue, 420nm – 6000K dual chip, 410nm – 18000K dual chip, 395nm – 6000K dual chip, and wide spectrum red. Of this offering a total of twelve LEDs are of the dual chip variety, a not too common feature of aquaruim LED lighting but one that opens up all sorts of color blending possibilites.

Speaking of all the possibilities, with the use of the Orphek app and an Android device (tablet or phone), each of the channels on the Atlantik Compact can be individually controlled. The light features eight pre-installed programs, full dimmin capacity on all channels, the ability to create and store custom lighting programs, elaborate dawn-to-dusk programs, cloud simulator programs, and the ability to control up to 252 Atlantik fixtures simultaneously. Other benefits associated with the fixture and its software are the face that each light fixture is assigned its own IP address, aquariums can be located in different areas as long as they are in the range of the wireless router, and a built-in calendar lets users store up to eight programs per month. Man that seems like a mouthful. Unfortunately, there is no iOS version of the app, which is a disappointment since that’s all we use. We really hope that changes in the near future, but if you’re in a situation like us, Orphek does have a nifty Android tablet they can include in your purchase.

As for our thoughts on the Atlantik Compact…much like any Orphek fixture, the Compact sports a really sleek design that sets the LEDs behind a clear acrylic cover and wrapped in a white acrylic housing accented with stylish metal accessories. These accessories include the hanging bracketry and the metal surround that runs down all sides of the light. There is no large driver/timer box that was saw on the PR-156 fixtures, since all of that control is now handled wirelessly. A great move for Orphek, no doubt, as it really cuts down on the amount of large hardware to run the light.

Regarding the light output of the Atlantik Compact, the one thing about the Orphek fixtures is they are ridiculously bright. Thank goodness for the added dimmability. When the light first arrived, I decided to play a little joke on my wife. So, I removed the lid from the 12-gallon nano aquarium that sits on my kitchen counter and set the Atlantik Compact directly on top of it and turned it on. She walked by, squinted her eyes, and commented that it was just too bright. After all, it was competing with the stock lighting from a JBJ LED Nano-cube, which are perfectly suitable for maintaining coral growth but are obviously not all that bright. I informed her of the prank, not wanting to stay on the couch (I kid, I never have to sleep on the couch), and proceeded to give the light a good once over before finding the next aquarium over which it would stay.

Unfortunately, we haven’t gotten the opportunity to play with the adjustable settings and the Orphek app. I’m an Apple fanboy, and apparently just about everyone in my immediate aquarium keeping circle is too. But, we will be adding to the review with an in-depth look at thsoe capabilities very shortly, which will include some video footage of the app, how the light looks, and all the other juicy details of the light.

Are Starfish Robots the Next Big Thing in Automated House Cleaning?

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 08:00 AM PDT

They make great cleaners in our aquariums, so why wouldn’t starfish be just as awesome at cleaning our homes? According to a recent posting on Discovery News, Turkish designer Rana Alper used starfish as a jumping off point for his design on the ultimate house cleaning robot. Named “Tody”, this robot doesn’t have the typical five legs we see on starfish in the ocean, but instead uses four flexible arms that are said to be lined with gecko-inspired grippers that help it climb all over various surfaces. The unit is made of polymer-metal composites that move with the help of artificial muscles.

With this combination of appendages, the Tody can crawl around all over the floor, on top of furniture, and even up curtains. The robot cleans with its massive array nozzles, which is made up of 22 steam nozzles and 29 vacuum nozzles per arm. The water reservoirs and dust bags are located within Tody’s body.

The soft-sided robot comes from Turkish designer Rana Alper, and takes much of its form from nature. The shape resembles a starfish, but its mobility and ability to use its arms for various tasks comes from the octopus. Tiny, gecko-inspired grippers on the underside of Tody's arms help it cling to a wide variety of surfaces. The robotic starfish follows voice commands to perform all of its cleaning tasks.

The AquaNerd Weekly Recap

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Weekends are never long enough are they? Yeah, it’s Monday once again, and while you’re dreading a long day at the office, we welcome it as a fresh start to another week of exciting aquarium related articles. Helping to kick off our week in typical fashion is our usual weekly recap, focusing on June 15 through the 21st. Over that span, our top articles included lionfish tolerating freshwater, a rare grouper showing up in Thailand, a sweet MACNA giveaway, a ban on lionfish in one particular state, and a free Lightning Maroon Clownfish. We hope you enjoyed the articles, and as always, we'll have another week full of aquarium hobby coverage ahead of us, so stay tuned.

Picture of the Week, Fossilized Stingray

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Over the weekend, we decided to squeeze a little science into our lives with a trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science. There are so many things to do at the museum, with the big dinosaur and fossil exhibit being the centerpiece. Being the fish nerds that we are, we couldn’t help but gawk at the fish, coral, and aquatic invertebrate fossils in particular, obviously sharing some of our trip with you here today. Pictured is a fossilized stingray, whose shape is so well preserved in the sedimentary rock. You can see terrific detail of the stingray’s “bone” structure, including several features of the tail and internal parts.

Tip of the Day – 6/23/2014

Posted: 23 Jun 2014 05:00 AM PDT

If you’re looking for advice on aquariums, whether it be a question on equipment or livestock, be very careful where you get your information from. With the ever growing importance of social media in our lives, more and more hobbyists are shying away from aquarium forums and are taking to Facebook Groups. While the thought of aquarium hobbyists coming together online to discuss tips and tricks to aquarium keeping may seem like a totally good and worry-free idea, the problem is that anyone can create a Facebook Group and anyone can come off as being an authoritarian on a particular subject. With an aquarium forum, you have things like join dates, post count, and even feedback scores to let you know that you’re dealing with someone who could possibly be trusted. Not to mention, you have plenty of fellow hobbyists there to validate the advice being handed out. On a Facebook Group, you don’t have any of those perks, and the group operator can delete comments at will with no repercussions from a club’s BOD, fellow moderators, or anything else. So, be careful with who you take advice from. In fact, be not just careful, but be doubtful as well.

Sunday 22 June 2014

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Mantis Shrimp Vision Not That Awesome After All

Posted: 22 Jun 2014 09:30 AM PDT

Photo Credit: Philippe Guillaume

We have all heard the stories about the spectacular vision capabilities of the mantis shrimp’s eyes. With sixteen different photoreceptor pigments, of which twelve are sensitive to color (compared to only three in humans), the Stomatopod crustaceans have long been believed to have the most advanced visual system in the animal kingdom, being able to see UV light and a spectrum of colors that humans could only dream of. But here’s where the bubble bursts. According to a recent article on Popular Science, the mantis shrimp’s vision is severely overrated.

While the shrimp possess all of the tools to see a world full of color, their brains just simply don’t have the capabilities to process all of the data, according to the article. Backing up the notion is a study conducted by doctoral research student Hanne Thoen at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. According to her study, the mantis shrimp cannot distinguish between two colors that were as close as 25 nanometers on the electromagnetic spectrum.

For the study, the shrimp were conditioned to recognize ten different colors. They were then presented with two similar colors, one which they were trained to recognize alongside a brand new one. When the two colors differed by 50-100nm, the shrimp selected the one they recognized 80% of the time. When that range was tightened to 25nm, they only picked right 50% of the time. An accuracy of 50% is just as good as closing your eyes and guessing.

This dismal performance on a simple vision test just goes to indicate one thing, mantis shrimp vision isn’t all that great. Humans, comparatively, can distinguish between two colors as close as 1-4 nanometers in difference, despite having far fewer color sensitive receptors. Why such a marked difference? Well, humans have huge amounts of processing power compared to the mantis shrimp. We may have a limited range in which we can see, but we are darn good at seeing everything in that range. Mantis shrimp, on the other hand, can see a much broader range but cannot distinguish between similar colors because their brains are just so tiny. Because of this, researchers thing that the huge array of photoreceptors aids in the ultra-quick detection of the colors of predators and prey, but probably not much else.

A huge disappointment, we know, but it makes sense if you think about it.

Friday 20 June 2014

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Florida to Ban All Pterois Lionfish Imports Beginning August 1st
Neptune Systems Kicks Off Nationwide Apex Fusion Tour This Weekend
Tip of the Day – 6/20/2014

Florida to Ban All Pterois Lionfish Imports Beginning August 1st

Posted: 20 Jun 2014 08:00 AM PDT

We keep harping on the lionfish invasion of the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and pretty much all waters surrounding Florida because it is a serious, ongoing issue with seemingly no end in sight. Despite the best efforts of scientists to understand the issue, legislators to fix the problem, and recreational fishermen to eradicate the invaders, the problem persists to the point where different and often drastic measures have to be given a good look. The latest attempt to help tackle the invasion is the straight up ban on the import of all lionfish from the Pterois genus into Florida. But is it the right move?

As spelled out in one of Ret Talbot’s latest contributions to the Reef2Rainforest blog, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commissioners unanimously approved the prohibition of the “importation of live lionfish from the genus Pterois“, approved divers to use rebreather equipment to harvest lionfish, and will allow the Executive Director to issue permits to spearfisherman to remove lionfish and other non-native species from areas where the activity was previously prohibited. Ret goes on to point out that lionfish from the genus Dendrochirus are not considered in this ban despite there being significant genetic similarities between them and members of the Pterois genus. This new set of rules goes into effect on August 1st, and as usual, there are good arguments from both sides of the aisle.

One of the key incentives intended by this ban is that marine aquarium importers who still rely on lionfish as part of their product offering will start collecting fish out of Florida waters to fill their demand. This approach, coupled with aggressive erradication efforts from other industries, is hoped to be able to keep the lionfish under better control, though nobody knows what real impact will be had.

But does this ban create a slippery slope for the aquarium trade as Ret points out? While we certainly follow his logic on this one, being that the ban could impact other species besides the target lionfish, we cautiously support the drastic nature of this ruling just so that the lionfish can be controlled. This invasion is serious, and it requires a serious response. Is it overreaching? Probably. But something has to be done, right? Especially since lionfish cullings don’t seem to be doing much in terms of slowing them down. Should the ban be permanent? We won’t touch on this one simply for the fact that there is too many ways to agree or disagree with that approach.

There is a good argument that the other 8 banned species are guilty only by association and that the ban itself is hypocritical because it totally ignores Dendrochirus lionfish. Probably a more even approach would have been to ban all genera and species of lionfish, or just ban the two that have been documented invaders. But, the rules are in place now and we have to play by them, no matter how much or how little they annoy.

All that aside, do you think the ban will help?

Neptune Systems Kicks Off Nationwide Apex Fusion Tour This Weekend

Posted: 20 Jun 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Neptune Systems is kicking off a brand new promotional tour this Saturday, and it’s a bit different than what we’re used to seeing. This grassroots effort doesn’t involve random giveaways on Facebook to generate likes or meaningless sales in which the most amount of product is sold. Instead, this is a multi-state tour that aims to demonstrate all of the capabilities of the Apex Fusion system in a very one-on-one type interface with the end user. At each stop along the tour, a huge RV plastered with Neptune Systems’ branding will host a demo party that will include food, prizes, deals on equipment from the LFS, and lots of Q&A and hands on.

The tour will commence this Saturday, June 21st at Reef Raft NorCal in Fremont, California. The tour will last a total of five weeks and will have scheduled stops in ten different states.

As part of their documentation of the trip, Neptune Systems will post up to the minute pictures and updated schedules on the official Apex Fusion Tour Blog.

Tip of the Day – 6/20/2014

Posted: 20 Jun 2014 06:00 AM PDT

Setting up a new aquarium is always fun, and while you may get impatient to get the tank started, sometimes it’s better to wait. The reasoning behind that is mostly about timing. Life is busy at pretty much any stage, but there are those moments of downtime that are better for setting up an aquarium. If you start a tank while you’re in the middle of other projects, then your tank build may not get off the ground as intended. If you wait until the right moment, however, you will have far more luck in establishing a duly functioning system.