Endangered Sand Tiger Shark Born at Sydney Aquarium

Oceanworld Manly has successfully bred a critically endangered sand tiger shark (called a grey nurse shark in Australia). Ocean world manly is one of only 3 aquariums in the world to successfully breed this species.

Developing tiger sharks devour all of their siblings while still in the womb. Since female sharks posess two wombs twins are common but more than two pups at a time isn't. This species is critically endangered off of Australia's east coast where only 500 remain in the wild.

Rare shark born at Sydney aquarium - National - Village Voice

Fish Sitting Anyone?

I recently came across a potentially great resource for aquarists everywhere. PetWatchClub is an online social networking service dedicated to finding and swapping pet sitting responsibilities.

For those of us with reef tanks, this is a Godsend and a half as the skills required to maintain a reef over a week long absence are quite different from just about any other pet.

PetWatch Club | Where Pets & Owners Connect | Home

Audobon Aquarium Caters to Kids

The Audobon Aquarium in New Orleans is opening a new exhibit targeted squarely at kids. Adventure Island is a pirate themed play zone and exhibit similar to Splash Zone at Monterey Bay Aquarium or Georgia Explorer at the Georgia Aquarium. It is built around a giant pirate ship climbing structure and shark / stingray touch pool.

Ahoy matey! Pirates at the aquarium!

Clearwater Marine Aquarium is Getting a New Roof

Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater Florida is replacing the aging roof over the dolphin tank with nothing. Sometime in the very near future they will be shipping the animals to holding facilities and removing the crumbling concrete slab roof.

The current roof is so low that the dolphins in the pool aren't able to jump as high as they are able.

Now if only I could live in a climate where roofs over my tanks wasn't necessary.

Local & State News - Tampa Bay's 10 - tampabays10.com

The Lowdown on Substrate

For years now, I've refused to buy substrate from the pet store. Sure, I'll occasionally buy the bag of arragonite or crushed coral, but these are only used as amendments the bulk of the material comes from other sources.

So you may ask what are the benefits to such a DIY approach? Well, the most obvious benefit is cost. A recent visit to a major online retailer revealed a price of approximately $.50 - 1 a lb ($1.10- 2.2 a kg) for standard epoxy coated gravel. Premium plant and marine substrates generally cost significantly more than that. I generally furnish a planted tank for less than half the price of standard gravel. Most of my tanks are equipped at closer to one tenth the cost of basic aquarium gravel. Today, I'm going to introduce you to three of my favorite low cost options. In future articles I will discuss creating custom blends and explore some other alternatives.

Alternative 1: Aquatic plant soil / pond soil

This is probably the most obvious of the alternatives I'll present today. Aquatic plant soil is usually sold at Garden centers for planting pond plants in containers. It is a coarse clay material usually in a terracotta red although a charcoal grey version is sometimes available. Aquatic plant soil (APS) is most expensively purchased in the retail bags but at 1/2 -1/3 the price of normal aquarium gravel it's still a bargain. You can find it even cheaper as a soil amendment for playing fields sold as Turface.

How to use APS. APS looks and feels like a slightly dustier version of traditional aquarium gravel. You use it the same way. Simply rinse and spread on the bottom of the tank. I've even had success placing APS over undergravel filters without clogging or other issues.

Plants love APS Stem plants especially seem to excel in APS bottomed tanks. I've always used APS with live plants and been thrilled with the results. Standard planting guidelines apply. Give the plants at least an inch of substrate to grow into and plant them at normal depth. The chemical properties of this substrate are excellent for plant growth. It naturally collects nutrients near the plant roots where it readily available for growth.

Alternative 2: Builder's Sand

This is probably my favorite general purpose substrate for aquariums. It is the sand sold at construction supply / home improvement store as an additive for cement. It can be highly variable from brand to brand but in general it consists primarily of silica sand and decomposed granite with a particle size of between 1 and 2 mm. And since it only costs for about 5 to 10 cents a pound, this is by far the cheapest option.

The biggest advantage of this substrate is its appearance. Tanks aquascaped with builders sand simply look natural. The natural variety in particle sizes and slight color variation between particles of this material mirror the variation and texture of natural beaches, lakes & streams. Also, the natural variation tends to match whatever rock material is used in the remainder of the tank without much fuss.

How to use Builders Sand

Putting Builders sand in your tanks takes a bit more effort than the simple rinse and use of epoxy coated media. Generally speaking, I've found the following workflow works best.

1. Dump sand into a bucket of water. ( sand should only fill up 25% - 30% of the bucket).

2. Poor the now dirty water.

3. Poor sand into tank.

4. (repeat steps 1-3 until the entire tank has substrate to 20% more than desired depth.)

5. Fill tank with water

6. Drain tank and slowly add a fresh batch of water.

7. Run sponge filter on aquarium for 24 hours to clear up any remaining dust.

This sounds like quite a bit of work. But in reality it isn't all that much effort. The water may be cloudy at first, but it clears up quickly and once the sand is settled there isn't any additional cloudiness with water changes & routine maintenance.

Growing Plants in Builder's Sand

Plants grow extremely well in builders sand. The small particle size and chemical properties of this medium cause amazing growth. I usually supplement the sand with a few fertilizer tabs at the base of each of my plants. Swordplants especially benefit from the extra nutrients. The only caveat I like to stress is this. Builder's sand is much finer and denser than other growing media. For this reason I always place plants much shallower in builders sand than in other planting substrates. Stem plants especially can have problems if placed too deeply into this medium.

Alternative 3: Caribbean Play Sand / Beach Sand

Caribbean play sand is sold by Home improvement Centers for children's sandboxes. The snow white color is pretty much unmistakable. The brand I know and trust is currently marketed as “Kolorscape”, but Old Castle and Southdown are two other trustworthy names to look for. The sand itself is find Caribbean beach sand. It's a soft calcerous sand that is perfect for marine tanks and African Cichlids. This sand is not appropriate for most Freshwater biotopes as it will negatively affect your water chemistry. In African Cichlid and Marine tanks the sand provides an added benefit of working to maintain high calcium, pH and alkalinity levels. Caribbean play sand is used much like builders sand. A note of caution: Don't bother filling the tank with Saltwater the first time, freshwater works wonderfully for the initial rinse.

Largest Giant Squid Ever Collected in Ross Sea

Fishermen in the Ross Sea have landed the largest squid ever. The squid is a colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) a species found in southern polar waters. Initial reports describe a 450kg 10 meter behemoth that was found attempting to eat a Patagonian toothfish on a long line (Patagonian toothfish is the animal that yields Orange Roughy).


The squid is on its way to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington.

Beluga Whale at Shedd Aquarium Pregnant

The Shedd Aquarium continues to have astounding success with its Beluga breeding program.

They just announced that Mauyak is pregnant. This will be her fourth pregnancy since being brought to the Shedd in 1997.

Typically captive Belugas have a 50% mortality on captive births. This is believed to be on par with or better than the wild population.

Beluga whale at Shedd Aquarium pregnant

Petco Package Deals are simply wrong.

Petco recently started selling live fish and other aquatics through their online store at petco.com. While their selection is significantly improved over my local Petco brick and mortar stores and most of their information is spot on. Several of their Package Deals have serious flaws.

Let me clear the air by stressing that I have absolutely nothing against purchasing fish and aquatic livestock online. Yes there are risks unique to such a site unseen purchase, but I've never had too major an issue doing it and have been shopping for fish online for several years. Also, I need to point out that I don't regularly shop at Petco for live fish. I have nothing against Petco fish, I simply find that their selection is usually lacking and I rarely find the fish I'm looking for so I don't bother any more.

These are the problems with their package deals:

• Goldfish Packages Petco offers two packages of goldfish targeted at 30 & 50 gallon aquariums. Here's the problem. The thirty gallon package contains 8 goldfish & the 50 gallon package contains 20. This is a significant over population of goldfish for a 200 gallon aquarium. Goldfish get big, their messy and they need atleast 30 gallons of water per fish. Marketing these packages at such small aquariums is in this context unethical. Petco gets kudos for setting the recommended tank size for goldfish at over 100 gallons.
• Tropical Fish Packages there is nothing conceptually wrong with Petco's tropical fish packages with the exception of shock issues. Both packages contain a large number of fish that could easily shock an aquarium and cause it to crash. Also, anyone who's kept guppies should realize that 8 pairs is an awful lot of guppies given their tendency to multiply.
• Marine Invertebrate Package I have mixed feelings about the package. On the plus side at $96 it is an insanely good deal given the retail value of the species in it. On the negative side. You really shouldn't be mixing them. Anemones don't do well long term unless kept one to a tank (clones are ok). The reason for this is simple. Anemones engage in chemical warfare that over the course of 6-12 months will usually kill off all but the strongest anemone in the tank. The other problem with this package is the addition of a chocolate chip starfish. These starfish are not reef safe. While they may be OK when kept simply with anemones they would likely cause a problem if any corals were placed in the tank.

Interfaith Advocacy and Ocean Conservation

The Monterey Bay Aquarium recently hosted a conference for religious groups to organize around Ocean protection.

Church And State Of The Oceans : Monterey County Weekly Newspaper

Georgia Aquarium iPod Tours Available Online

The Georgia Aquarium now offers downloads of Audio Tours of the entire aquarium narrated by Bruce Carlson. In some ways this is a non-starter. Many of you may recall that the Atlanta Journal & Constitution released a set of audio tours to the aquarium when the aquarium opened in 2005. In many ways those sounded more appealing as they were narrated by local radio celebrities.

They were by no means a complete tour of the aquarium however. The new tour promises to encompass every display and provide much more information.

If you're interested, please download them and post your comments below.

Audio Tour Download (Please note, you still need to check out even though it's free)
Georgia Aquarium Website
Aquarium offers iPod audio tours | ajc.com

Fish Shipments Dead On Arrival

Here in Rochester we've been experiencing substantial DOA deliveries over the past month.

I've also heard similar reports from my contacts in Chicago.

I would hazard to say that the delays are industry wide at this point and are probably amounting to quite significant losses.

Fish shipments arriving dead | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

New Test Developed For Fish Hemoragic Fever

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a rapid test for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus a virus impacting fish stocks in the great lakes region.

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/breaking_news/16708746.htm

New Species Described

Two New Shrimp Gobies Named

John Randall, Kwang-Tsao Shao and Jeng-Ping Chen described the two species as Ctenogobiops mitodes and C. phaeostictus in the latest issue of the journal Zoological Studies.

New Hagfish Species Collected

Peter Moller and Joe Jones caught a new species of hagfish from a Hydrothermal vent on the East Pacific Rise about 2200 meters below sea level. The species has been named Eptatretus strickrotti and is the first Agnathid to be found at a hydrothermal vent. The findings are reported in the journal Biological Bulletin.

Two new catfish described

Kong De Ping, Chen Xiao Yong and Yang Jun Xing have named 2 new species of catfish from China's Yunnan Province. Both Species reach a total length of approx 10 cm / 4 in. The species have been named Oreoglanis jingdongensis and Oreoglanis immaculatus. The findings are reported in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes.

Manatee Dies at Columbus Zoo

A female manatee has died at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium after 10 years of captivity


The Enquirer - Rescued manatee dies from illness

Wild Salmon Stocks Continue to be Impacted by Salmon Farming Industry

Significant numbers of fish continue to escape annually from Scottish salmon farms. This causes devastating environmental risk through the possibility of disease transmission and the dilution of genetic stocks due to the rather shallow genetic foundation of farmed fish.

Links:
BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Highlands and Islands | Salmon farm escapes 'decreasing'
Scottish Salmon SSPO
Salmon Farm Monitor

Another Penguin Exhibit Opens For the Season

The Virginia Marine Aquarium and Science Center will welcome a group of African Penguins to their travelling exhibit gallery.

Penguins are currently experiencing a surge in popularity driven by the recent success of "March of the Penguins" and "Happy Feet". Just like the tang and clownfish phase that occurred after "Finding Nemo", people are actively looking and expecting Penguins from their local zoos & aquariums.

Luckily Penguins can't be bought on impulse at your local pet store.

TimesDispatch.com | BIRDS OF PLAY

Female Swordtails Mature Faster in the Presence of Sexually Mature Males.

For decades, livebearer enthusiasts have known that colony tanks were one of the most successful ways to achieve results. The fish simply did better in these setups. Yes you would inevitably loose some fry to predation. But fry grow faster, the quality of the strain improves faster and the general fertility of your stock seems dramatically increased.

Recent research by Craig Walling of the University of Exeter may help explain some of this. It appears that when in the presence of attractive mature males, male swordtails delay their sexual maturation. Females react in the opposite way. When presented with a selection of attractive mates, female swords dramatically increase their rate of sexual maturation.

What is most interesting about this study and may present the most interest to aquarists is the fact that the two sexes were not in the same tank. The males and females could only see each other. They couldn't interact physically or receive any chemical signals that may have been in the water.

UnderwaterTimes | Research: Fish Show Evidence That Visual Cues Affect Timing of Sexual Maturation

Ambitious Aquarium Proposed for Pacific Northwest

There is a plan for a seafront aquarium in Bellingham Washington. It is still in its initial planning phases but it looks ambitious and rather unique.

Some Highlights

• Virtual Orcas Since Orcas in captivity are both exceedingly expensive and rather difficult from a public relations spectacle. The aquarium is envisioned possessing virtual computer generated Orcas on a giant dome shaped screen.


• Sea Otters Sea otters and sea lions are rapidly becoming the dolphins and Orcas of the 21st century. They are cute, cuddly easily trained and significantly less expensive and controversial.


• Giant Pacific Octopus Octopi have become one of the most popular and universal of aquarium exhibits. They are reasonably easy to procure and the public really responds to them. The plan is to build a giant grotto with complex caves and viewports allowing the animals to be seen even when hiding in their caves. This is an improvement in concept compared to Georgia Aquarium's empty tank and the more common "Where's the Octopus?" scenario.


• Processing Plant Tour This is perhaps the strangest aspect of the aquarium plan. In order to better serve the community's business interests and promote the value of the environment. Although several aquariums in the US especially Monterey Bay have a tradition of embracing maritime culture and fishing. I think a processing plant may take this a little too far. There is a sense of distance in educational displays that is simply lacking when the actual carcasses of animals are visible.

The Bellingham Herald / Top / Terr Aquarium envisioned on waterfront

Parker Manatee Aquarium Releases Rescued Manatee

The Parker Manatee Aquarium has just released Whitaker a juvenile West Indian Manatee. She was found just over a year ago alone and suffering from cold stress. She has nearly tripled in weight since she was found.

What's most interesting about this story, however, are the way in which the Aquarium used an established captive animal to train Whitaker. As well as the techniques used to train her to forage on her own. Feeding her by dropping food in weighted tubes to the bottom of the enclosure and floating it on the surface of the water while they hand fed Snooty, the captive manatee used to train her.



Bradenton Herald | 02/17/2007 | Snooty says goodbye to rescued manatee

A New Fin for a Disabled Dolphin

Bridgestone has developed a prosthetic fluke for dolphins and donated it to the Okinawa Aquarium. You can find a video online at Reuters.

Disabled dolphin gets $120,000 fin prosthesis - 16 Feb 2007 - World

More Terrible Advice for Keeping Goldfish

It seems to happen on a regular basis. People mistake goldfish for some other type of fish that's actually happy contained in a goldfish bowl. The goldfish bowl has been a maligned aspect of fishkeeping for the last century for good reason. With the exception of a very select few fish, it is completely and utterly impractical for the housing and display of aquatic animals.

One of the fish least suited to such confinement is Goldfish. Goldfish get big, they produce prodigious amounts of waste and really are best suited for the outdoor ponds they were bred to live in. When translated to aquarium life this means several things need to be taken into consideration.

1. Goldfish get big, even the cheapest goldfish can easily achieve 8 inches in length and several varieties will readily exceed a foot. In fact the cheapest comets and feeder goldfish (these are the ones you win at the fair) will grow larger than most fishtanks can support. A pretty safe rule of thumb is 30 gallons of water per fish.
2. Goldfish don't need heat. These are temperate fish that were bred to live year round in temperate climates, If the tank is in the house, they don't need a heater. When kept outside you need to keep the water oxygenated and make sure that it never completely freezes.
3. Goldfish are messy and fat. 1 inch of goldfish usually equals about 6 inches of any other fish. Don't believe me? Look down from the top of tank at a cichlid and goldfish of similar length. Remember these fish were bred to be looked down on! that means they have to have a whole heck of a lot more girth than those guppies bred to show off in an aquarium. This means strong filtration and lots of it.

You can read the poor advice at:
Fish Tank Guide

Denver Aquarium Still Leaking

The large marine tank at Denver's Downtown Aquarium is still leaking and it looks like some severe animosity is brewing between the aquarium and public authorities.

The Denver aquarium first reported the leak a month ago even though the leak had been occurring for several months at that point. Roughly 3000 gallons a day has gone missing from a large marine tank over the last 9 months.


9NEWS - Article - City says aquarium leak still not fixed

Bleach Found in Tanks at a NJ Pet Store

A pet store in NJ recently lost $2500 worth of smaller saltwater fish when bleach was poured into a set of tanks attached to a central filtration system.

There's very little you can do in a situation like this, the chlorine in the bleach attacks the gills of the fish and basically suffocates them. If you are lucky and catch the problem in time, a massive dose of dechlor may help. And in this case I believe it did help him save the larger fish and shark.

In the mid and long term, any filter system that experienced this is in for some trouble. The bleach likely killed off the entire biological filter. The entire filter, in this case, every saltwater tank in the store now needs to start from scratch with a fresh cycle. It will take the store weeks to recover.

I've seen this happen several times in the past, and it's never pretty.

You can find the coverage at www.nj.com

Amazon Sponges Create Hazard for Bathers

Eye irritation, cataract development and loss of sight has been found among bathers in certain Amazon region. The common thread seems to be a high quantity of freshwater sponges and a high density of silica sponge spicules in the water.

This problem can theoretically occur anywhere. Freshwater sponges occur around the world in all climate regions. In fact cleaner water makes them more likely to occur. Although the two species implicated in this occurrence don't have a global distribution, there is no reason to believe that other species aren't capable of causing similar situations.

You can find more information at Practical Fishkeeping.

Major Aquarium industry manufacturers lower fiscal outlook in wake of Walmart's announcement

Walmart recently announced that it was going to dramatically decrease it's involvement in the fish business. As someone who has legitimately benefited from Walmart's past efforts at de-emphasizing live animal sales (the 37 gallon tall tank that got me back into the aquarium hobby is a former Walmart store display). I find this decision both exciting and concerning.

Walmart has always been a strange player in the live animal market. As they've phased out the higher maintenance pets like birds and small mammals they've continued to keep fish. They also continue to have a reputation for selling low quality fish and having a rather boring selection. You can probably look at the continuation of this product as having 3 causes:

1. Many states place rather loose restrictions on the sale of live fish, especially compared with the sale of other vertebrates.
   
2. Customers of fish are much more likely to buy additional fish, after all. The average person shopping at Walmart will likely not keep fish for their full lifespan and will likely make all the other beginner mistakes of over crowding, over feeding, poor tank maintenance, etc...
3. Walmart customers tolerate the reduced selection because they don't appreciate the rather robust selection and depths of the hobby that can be achieved from a dedicated LFS.

More information is available here:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=ousiv&storyID=2007-02-09T175546Z_01_N09323902_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESSPRO-WALMART-FISH-DC.XML&from=business

AZOO Palm Aquarium Announces 2007 Product Catalog

For those of you who don't know, Azoo is one of the bigger players in the desktop aquarium / betta bowl department. Some of their new products for the year a quite intriguing. I'm particularly fond of their light / mirror package.

A few quick points, the Azoo glass aquariums are much more durable than the typical acrylic counterparts. They are still tiny tho. With the exception of keeping a select few fish (white clouds, endlers livebearers, dwarf puffers & bettas) It's pretty hard to recommend their products.

I feel deeply sorry for all the poor goldfish that've been crammed into one of these tiny tanks.

Well the new product line is worth checking out, even if you only look at it for inspiration.
http://www.azoopalm.com

Oh and I speak from experience (don't put glowing things in a fishtank at the head of your bed, it can take a little acclimation on your part).

Settlement Reached in Shark Poaching Ring

If you haven't heard about the leopard shark poaching ring yet you will soon. It's one of the few incidents to really gain traction with the national press. Leopard sharks are small, beautifully marked sharks from the west coast of north America. They favor cooler water temperatures than most fish tanks and have historically been harvested in an unsustainable manner.

The large females are quite easy to catch when they travel near shore to birth their pups. Fisherman would catch the females butcher them and sell the pups. This is very similar to the harvesting strategies for SA arrowana and stingray.

In this case a SF Bay area church's minister was the fulcrum in a smuggling and poaching ring. Nearly 1 million dollars in fines will be spent on habitat reconstruction for the species.

Oroville Mercury Register - Shark poachers to pay for new habitat

Overfishing impairs a reefs ability to recover from a bleaching event

It looks like overfishing plays a crucial role in a reef's ability to recover from a bleaching event. It makes sense, large herbivorous fish usually consume a large amount of the algae that competes with coral for space.

It may also be that the grazing of larger plants encourages the growth of the coraline algae that coral preferentially colonizes on top of.

UnderwaterTimes | Researchers: Plant-grazing Fish Boost the Resilience of Coral Reefs Facing Stress

Great Editorial on the Waikiki Aquarium

Lee Cataluna recently published a great piece in the Honolulu Advertiser regarding the demands for new aquarium in the area. For the past decade or so, public aquariums have been one of the major civic improvement projects proposed by municipalities. Regions look on the success of Aquariums in Chattanooga, Monterey and Cincinnati / Newport KY and overlook the real growing pains experienced by sister institutions in Denver, Charleston and Baltimore (I'm sorry, having to rebuild your tanks because the rusted after a decade is a pretty major growing pain Baltimore no matter how popular you are).

And please, don't get me started on the hole that was the "AquaFalls" project in Niagara Falls NY.

The simple fact is that the Waikiki aquarium is one of the most venerable aquariums in the US. The quality of its research and contribution to science and animal husbandry are greater than just about any other aquarium in the world. It's ability to educate about the biology of coral reefs is second to none.

And yes, just like every other aquarium has learned in the years since a certain Disney movie, The humble clownfish / anemone display has a higher return on investment roughly 1000 times higher than a big dramatic shark tank.

Mayor wants $12.7M for biopark update : Local : Albuquerque Tribune

Mayor wants $12.7M for biopark update : Local : Albuquerque Tribune

The title says it all, the mayor of Albuquerque want's to dramatically reinvest in the city's "Biopark" A large facility combining a zoo, aquarium, botanical garden and beach. I have mixed feelings on this.

The aquarium by itself possesses a powerful theme and focused message. By adding the "Finding Nemo" aspect of pacific reef fish I worry that the aquarium itself is going to dilute its educational message. After all you only need one coral reef to teach about the ecosystem.

Aquarium of the Adirondacks

The Aquarium of the Adirondacks is a grass roots effort to build an aquarium in the Lake George region of New York. Although the project seems to have ballooned quite a bit from a 17 million dollar showcase of local fauna to a 60 million dollar facility complete with shark tunnel, it does seem to be gaining traction.

They are looking to finalize site selection and begin fundraising soon.


My only word of advice for them is this. Since they are trying to decide between three different localities and they obviously need to start small. Why not follow the model of the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake City and build up interest in temporary facilities first?

Joe Malat Named Director of the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Joe Malat has been running the aquarium in the capacity of interim director since September. It's interesting to note his combined museum and aquarium experience. He is also credited with being one of the most influential staff persons behind the successful and impressive recent expansion of the aquarium.

The Galaxy Rasbora

Most of the aquarium blogs I subscribe to were rather rattled by the recent announcement regarding the rather sudden reduction in available stocks of the Galaxy Rasbora.

When you see these fish for the first time you are usually either blown away or rather un-impressed. After all, their small and whenever I've seen them in the tank the only word I've had to describe them was "reclusive" given the way they stick to tight schools hidden in the shadows of the plants.

They also aren't flashy fish. They lack the metallic sparkle of Espe's Rasbora or the bold stripes of Neons & Cardinals. They are, however, beautiful. The first time I saw them in a store I was thrilled simply to be seeing them. They like all of the micro-rasboras (yes I realize that they technically aren't a micro-rasbora), had only recently begun showing up in the literature and were the first I'd seen.

The person I was there with most definitely didn't get them at first. I believe his exact words were Okay.... Here I was, thrilled to actually be seeing these fish in person when I'd only ever seen 1 picture that actually seemed to indicate that they were attractive and he didn't get it. To him they were just little shadowy things darting around the back of the tank. So I started trying to sell him on how new they were (he hadn't seen the price tag yet) and that they were recently discovered and hadn't even been described yet.

It wasn't until one of the fish, a rather splashy one at that darted out from underneath a plant and actually stopped for a few seconds in open water that he got it. There it was, just hovering in the light. The white spangles showed off clearly against the midnight blue background. The ruby red fins held open. For both of us that was the moment when these fish stopped being an abstract idea and became something special.

This is why the news last week was so upsetting to me. The images of trampled vegetation and destroyed habitat really struck home. Was this going to be another species condemned to exist solely in captivity. Would it even survive in captivity (lets be honest, the number of fish collected compared to the number of reported successful spawnings isn't the most appealing).

Right now, my belief is that there are fish farms throughout the world this fish. The only reason we haven't seen them for sale has been a ramp up and grow out time. If the fish can be mass produced cheaply, the habitat destruction and overcollecting can hopefully stop and I have no doubt that they will soon become an aquarium staple. If it can't, we may be witnessing the death of yet another species.