| Red Lipped Batfish |
[Mar. 17th, 2008|04:22 pm] |
This fish has a broad head, slight body, and is covered in large gnarled lumps. Batfish are not good swimmers; they use their pectoral fins to "walk" on the ocean floor. When the batfish reaches adulthood, its dorsal fin becomes a single spine-like projection that lures prey. Batfish eat shrimps, mollusks, small fish, crabs, and worms. |
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| Pteropod |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|12:54 pm] |
The pteropod is known as the "potato chip" of the oceans because it is eaten widely. It is one of the world's strangest and smallest sea creatures, growing to no bigger than the size of a lentil. They are incredibly important sources of food for fish and scientists are currently using them to study the health of the oceans. |
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| Tunicates |
[Feb. 19th, 2008|07:13 am] |
Animals known as tunicates which look like meter-tall glass tulips sit on the ocean floor at a depth of about 220 meters (722 feet) on the Antarctic continental shelf are shown in this handout image made available on February 19, 2008. |
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| Pink Anemonefish |
[Feb. 11th, 2008|10:11 am] |
The Pink Anemonefish is pinkish-orange with a white bar down either side of the face, and a white stripe along the back. It has a white caudal fin.
This species grows to 10cm in length.
Photograph by Tim Laman
Pink Anemonefish feed on benthic algae and zooplankton.
This fish occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western Central Pacific, from the Philippine Islands, north to Japan, throughout Micronesia, south to Australia and east to the Samoan Islands.
In Australia it is known from north-western coast of Western Australia and from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland. |
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| Mississippi Paddlefish |
[Dec. 17th, 2007|06:36 am] |
The paddlefish takes its common and scientific names from its distinctive snout, which is greatly elongated and flattened into a paddle shape. The American paddlefish is believed to use sensitive electroreceptors on its paddle to detect prey, as well as to navigate while migrating to spawning sites. The paddlefish feeds primarily on zooplankton but also feeds on crustaceans and bivalves.
Once common throughout the Midwest, overfishing and habitat changes have caused major population declines; both the meat and roe of the paddlefish are desirable as food. Dams and other barriers can prevent the fish from recolonizing places where they once occurred and can deny them access to important critical habitats such as spawning areas. Until about 1900, the paddlefish was also found in the Lake Erie and in river systems tributary thereto in the US and Canada. Invasive species such as zebra mussels have reduced the number of zooplankton in the Great Lakes to such low levels that any hypothetical reintroduction program would seem likely to fail. Recently, paddlefish were spotted in the Danube river. It has not been determined whether these fished escaped from Romanian or Bulgarian fish farms during the 2006 European floods, or whether they were let into the Danube earlier and matured in the river. |
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| Sea Lamprey |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|11:04 am] |
In their natural habitat, sea lamprey -- like salmon and alewives -- are ocean fish that spawn in fresh water. But some sea lamprey have always inhabited Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, which are open to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1921, lampreys appeared in Lake Erie for the first time, arriving via the Welland Canal. From there, they rapidly colonized all of the upper Great Lakes, with especially large infestations developing in Lakes Michigan and Huron.
The sea lamprey is an agressive parasite -- equipped with a tooth-filled mouth that flares open at the end of its eel-like body.
When attacking, the lamprey fastens onto its prey and rasps out a hole with its rough tongue.
An anticoagulant in the lamprey's saliva keeps the wound open for hours or weeks, until the lamprey is satiated or the host fish dies. |
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| Sunflower Starfish (Pycnopodia helianthoides) |
[Dec. 10th, 2007|11:39 am] |
The sunflower star is among the larger of the starfish species. With its 24 arms, it can reach a diameter of over 2 feet! The color of this starfish can range from purple to red, pink, brown, orange, and yellow. It is common along the Pacific coast and can be found along the rocky sea bottoms from Alaska to southern California.
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| Butterflyfish |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|09:56 am] |
Butterflyfish, with their amazing array of colors and patterns, are among the most common sites on reefs throughout the world.
Although some species are dull-colored, most wear intricate patterns with striking backgrounds of blue, red, orange, or yellow. Many have dark bands across their eyes and round, eye-like dots on their flanks to confuse predators as to which end to strike and in which direction they're likely to flee.
There are about 114 species of butterflyfish. They have thin, disk-shaped bodies that closely resemble their equally recognizable cousins, the angelfish. They spend their days tirelessly pecking at coral and rock formations with their long, thin snouts in search of coral polyps, worms, and other small invertebrates.
Some butterflyfish species travel in small schools, although many are solitary until they find a partner, with whom they may mate for life.
At night, butterflyfish settle into dark crevices, and their brilliant colors and markings fade to blend with the reef background. |
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| Nudibranch - Phestilla melanobrachia |
[Oct. 30th, 2007|10:29 am] |
Order: NUDIBRANCHIA
Suborder: AEOLIDINA
Family: Tergipedidae
This relatively large aeolid (to 40mm long), has been recorded from southern Japan, and Hawaii, to northeastern Australia, suggesting a western Pacific distribution. It has both black and bright orange-yellow colour forms, the colour matching the colour of the dendrophylliid coral (Tubastrea, Dendrophyllia) on which specimens are feeding. |
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| Devil Fish (in honour of Hallowe'en) |
[Oct. 28th, 2007|09:38 pm] |
art of the stingfishes and devilfishes family, the devil fish is a quite interesting species.
Habitat: seaward reefs, lagoons, buried in sand or silt
Range: Thailand to Vanuatu
Devilfishes (also called sea goblins, bearded ghouls and demon stingers) have very special pectoral fin rays that can be moved independently from the rest of the fin. This looks as if the devilfish was walking over the ground. They look very clumsy and unwieldy because they also drag their extremely curved tails. The inner surface of their pectoral fins are brightly colored and they flash them if threatened. Sometimes several fish lie together.
Devilfishes occur on sand and mud bottoms close to reefs and in seagrass meadows. They often bury themselves in the substrate.
The devilfish’s interesting features are his front fins, that look like fingers. He uses them to walk over the sand. The tail is strongly curved to one side, like the stonefish.
His spines are highly poisonous. Habitat: sand and rubble. Devilfish are very difficult to see, most times they burry themselves in sand and only their spines are visible. In this case a identification as of I. didactylus or I. caledonicus or I. sinensis was not possible, since the main difference between these species is the color pattern of the inner pectoral fins.
If disturbed, he shows the orange insides of his pectoral fins as a defensive reaction. The different species of devilfishes (Inimicus didactylus, caledonicus, sinensis) are told apart from the color of their pectoral fins. The devilfish on the photo above can easily identified as I. didactylus. |
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| New Sea Creatures |
[Oct. 4th, 2007|05:47 pm] |
To capture its prey, the Tiburonia granrojo does not use stinging tentacles, as do the majority of jellies; it deploys long fleshy arms. Little else is currently know about this creature.
The small Benthocodon jelly has been found near sea mountains, some of which dwarf the Himalayas.
Grimpoteuthis, a type of Dumbo octopus (up to 5 feet), lives in every ocean, near the bottom. It flaps its earlike fins to swim.
A book will be released soon:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/deep.html |
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ocean_discovery
