by AquaNerd | Jun 23, 2014 | Fish, Science
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. by AquaNerd | Jun 20, 2014 | Equipment, Fish, Science
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. by Caitlin Nichole | Jun 19, 2014 | Corals, Eye Candy, Fish, Funny, Opinion, Science
Oh yea, it’s just as sexy as it sounds. So I’ve had this book for a while but never got around to reading it. I picked it up when our local Border’s was going out of business (sniff, rest in peace physical bookstores where you could waste away a day)... by AquaNerd | Jun 18, 2014 | Fish, Science
The mother of all rare predators recently landed in Thailand, and we’re so excited to be covering the news. While we typically focus on fish of the reef safe variety, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to mention the fact that Ocean and Sea Aquarium in Bangkok got their hands on a stunning neptune grouper, which was announced on their Facebook page a few days ago. This amazing fish is one of the rarest to enter the aquarium trade, with this individual probably only being one of a few that have been collected in the last few years. This has led to exorbitant price tags exceeding $5000, and you might recall that it made the top 10 list of the most expensive tropical fish. Now you know why we’re so excited about it. As far as facts about the species, they are one of the smaller groupers available (a term used very loosely) to the trade. It grows to about a foot and a half in length, and interestingly looks better as an adult than it does in the juvenile stages by AquaNerd | Jun 15, 2014 | Fish, Opinion, Science
What better way to celebrate Father’s Day than to show off a newly aquacultured fish species from the always busy fish breeders at Oceans Reefs & Aquariums? Like the proud papas they are, ORA is gushing all about their new Girdled Goby (Priolepis cincta) in their latest blog post, sharing all the joys and unfortunate pitfalls that fish parenthood has brought with this new goby. This goby was first raised much earlier in 2014, marking the first time that P. cincta has been bred in the hobby. Unfortunately, long larval stages, challenging feeding requirements, and conspecific aggression have sort of marred the normally joyous process of breeding a new fish. Despite these challenges, ORA breeders pressed on and eventually raised enough fish to make a viable commercial offering. The first batch was shipped to Drs.
