Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Invertebrates; Morphology, Ecology, and Behavior – by Dr. Ron Shimek

Unknown plankter--ID?

c'est ma — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:55:50 GMT

Had a sizable bloom of these guys in my nano tank today. First, a couple a pics to approximate size; mm scale beneath specimen dish (boy, my dishes are scratched up!):

And through my stereoscope:

Finally, a couple of quick (40-second) vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myEs58ByVzg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUA4R8l5xI

(Please pardon amateur photography!)

In the tank these guys were oriented "tail" up, and tended to congregate near the surface.

Any idea? Thanks!

--Diane

7-xi-09

Ron Shimek — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:05:59 GMT

Hi Folks,

Another - really stupid - myth is that corals don't need to be fed.

Here the difference between what many aquarists read about photosynthesis and zooxanthellae and the reality of the animal's physiology comes back to bite them - or rather their starving animals.

6-xi-09

Ron Shimek — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:27:37 GMT

Hi Folks,

As long as I am ranting on myths... another one of my "favs" - is the addition of various "trace" elements. This is particularly interesting when the trace elements have been shown to be poisonous to corals. My favorite in this category is, of course, strontium.

Snail ID

charlesr1958 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:46:41 GMT

Just found this snail in my tank tonight and am curious if it is the herbivore that I think it is and what species of course.

Thanks!

5-xi-09

Ron Shimek — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:17:53 GMT

Hi Folks,

I have been watching the various advertisements cycle through the banners on this site, and I am struck by the various products that depend upon the ignorance of the audience. It is a telling tale to think about the myths behind some of the products...

Myths such as "stability" of reefs - an odd concept for what is likely the most variable of shallow-water marine environments - this one surfaces in adds for chillers, etc. Then there are myths of water movement, and the "need" for variable water flow - uh - huh! For some corals, maybe. For other reef animals, this will kill them.

And so it goes...

Nudibranch

charlesr1958 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:54:18 GMT

Putting this up in the hopes that someone can ID this specimen and save me a few days worth of searching....

Found on the glass of my tank this morning.

Chuck

small bumble bee patern looking yellow/black nassarius snail

PHYTO4LIFE — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:58:52 GMT

Hi Ron I have small bumble bee looking pattern yellow/black nassarius snail and they started to spread pretty fast

should I start picking these guy's out I think I read a while back that they are predatory and can effect coral's and pod population's is this true

thanks Clint

Anemone ID please

Chris7886 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:58:54 GMT

Hi everyone,

I want to say I like the site very informative!

I have this anemone that has me puzzled in which variety it is as it shows behavior of Stichodactyla haddoni and Stichodactyla gigantea you can see in the picture of it but it doesn't do justice for it. It has short, tapered tentacles also they are not very sticky as my other haddoni I have they are always standing up unlike my other one which always has them retracted to the oral disk. This one seems to like a lot of flow unlike my other one ( Not all creatures are the same ha ha ) Here is a picture of the guy hard to get really good shots of it, it moves around a lot if more pictures are needed I can try an get more. It has moved a little bit more up on to the live rock and has been there since. Any ideas would be great!

Thanks in advanced Chris

Snail hitchhiker

c'est ma — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:30:05 GMT

Reading radiata's "Nassarius questions" thread reminded me that I've got a little hitcher that I've never really identified. At some point I decided that it was an olive shell of some sort, but now I can't remember where I learned that...

Anyway, the only decent pic I have is this one from 2005:

That was an atypical time when one was out while the lights were on...for the most part, these guys are nocturnal, and appear to be quite attracted to dead organisms, à la Nassarius...They also scoot along right rapidly, like the nassies...

They're so predictably nocturnal that I was just able to go to my tank and find one by flashlight near the front glass. I estimate its shell is ~ 5-6 mm long...

--Diane

Birds & Dinos & Ciliates oh my!

TidePool Geek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:49:20 GMT

Hi Ron,

Background: Over the past few weeks the Washington coast has had a spate of diving seabirds being stricken with hypothermia. Many were taken to rehab centers in Washington, Oregon, and even California; with luck these may recover but many more birds have died. At the same time beachwatchers have reported that the spindrift on most beaches is far thicker than normal. Both phenomena have been attributed by Mary Sue Brancato (a former colleague or student of yours I believe) and others to a massive bloom of the dinoflagellate Akashiwo sanguinea that purportedly is broken apart by surf action releasing a soap-like substance into the water disrupting the birds’ waterproofing and resulting in large amounts of foam being generated in the surf. Thankfully, the worst of the problem seems to have passed.

More recently, A. sanguinea has showed up in the Straits and Port Angeles Harbor at a level that is actually coloring the water a bit. This had been going on for about three or four days and may have been dissipating by Saturday (10-31-09). We only do plankton sampling on weekends this time of year and when we looked at Saturday’s sample we found, not only A. sanguinea, but also really large numbers of Tintinnids that seemed to be eating the dinos with a fair amount of gusto – at a guess I’d say that at least half of the ciliates had a dino in its gut (one looks like about all that would fit). While Tintinnids are a pretty common item in our plankton samples, Saturday’s take was several orders of magnitude higher than normal.

Questions:

1. Because these guys grow a shell I’m wondering if they can really reproduce as quickly as they seem to have done or do you think it possible that they are already around (encysted perhaps) just waiting for the right food item to come along?

2. We saw a number of empty Tintinnid shells in the sample and observed a couple of the critters apparently abandoning their shells and swimming away. Do these things molt or is this likely just some sort of stress reaction?

For anyone wondering what sort of creatures I’m blathering on about, this site has a few pictures of A. sanguinea - http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/portal.php?pagetitle=assetfactsheet&imageid=12111

And this one shows a Tintinnid similar to the zilions we got in our sample -

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cobscook.org/images/phyto/thumbs/tintinnid.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cobscook.org/photos/phyto.htm&usg=__y2bY787zYRh43x44xttYVCIdyjA=&h=100&w=83&sz=2&hl=en&start=16&tbnid=xAMADqBDIBBFXM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=68&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtintinnid%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_enUS304US306

Cillateously yours,

Alex

Mantis Shrimp Eyes Have It!

CTReefer — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:20:47 GMT

Hi All: Yet another interesting tidbit about the functioning of Mantis Shrimp Eyes!

Steve

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre59o1dj-us-shrimp-dvds/

Microscopic Animal/Plant ID FUN!

BrianPlankis — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:08:18 GMT

Hey Ron,

I hope the cold weather up in Montana is treating you well, obviously your car isn't! Bad car! Anyway, maybe this will distract you a little.

We have finally obtained a high quality microscope for the RSF so we can begin to do larval work. We will have a few months before any really important work will be done with it, so I plan on spending that time fine tuning the scope and my skills.

I'll obviously be using your AHABS issue #3 (love that one, best $6 ever spent) as my starting point (along with a few Nikon publications) and my test subjects will be the billions (trillions?) of critters in my reef tank. I figured this would give us an opportunity to do a little ID fun.

Up first is mystery #1. Two unknown subjects. I saw hundreds of the circular (spherical) objects on the right, none of them moved at all. I only saw one of the critters with the forked tail on the left.

I'll get to the more interesting photos later once I'm sure I can put in inline images.

Brian

28-x-09

Ron Shimek — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:24:39 GMT

Hi Folks,

Now... a review artice that discusses a question you probably have been stewing about: "Which group of crustaceans did insects arise from?"

Strausfeld, N. J. 2009. Brain organization and the origin of insects: an assessment. Proc. R. Soc. B 276: 1929–1937. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1471

Abstract: Within the Arthropoda, morphologies of neurons, the organization of neurons within neuropils and the occurrence of neuropils can be highly conserved and provide robust characters for phylogenetic analyses. The present paper reviews some features of insect and crustacean brains that speak against an entomostracan origin of the insects, contrary to received opinion. Neural organization in brain centres, comprising olfactory pathways, optic lobes and a central neuropil that is thought to play a cardinal role in multi-joint movement, support affinities between insects and malacostracan crustaceans.

31-x-09

Ron Shimek — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:41:18 GMT

Hi Folks,

Happy Halloween, that day when our society endevors to instill in our youth the value of an acceptable extortion!

Nasarrius Questions

radiata — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:24:11 GMT

Ron,

Two days ago I noticed what appeared to be two tiny Nasarrius vibex in my tank. I've had larger Nasarrius vibex in my tank for several years. Are they known to reproduce in captivity? Oddly enough, the sighting coincided with what I think was the removal of the last hermit crab from the tank... (I've been Shimek'd...)

I recently picked up three Nasarrius bablyonia snails. Could they reproduce in captivity?

Thanks in advance,
Bob D.

What do I Have?

bgleon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:52:41 GMT

Help! Please!

Sam think grow in may tank on LR!

Is that good or bed? If bed how to nuke?

is it ok?

tattanmallaposti — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:10:50 GMT

Thank you Dr.Ron Shimek for beeing Dr.Ron Shimek

Do you think this will work for me,dont have more space in my "office"

thanks Ole

26-x-09

Ron Shimek — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:13:07 GMT

Hi Folks,

Am running out of 2009 references. Got to consider the next move.

23-x-09

Ron Shimek — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:01:03 GMT

Hi Folks,

No new article today. Was too occupied yesterday - had to give a class last night and got tunnel vision to finish the prep for it.

So... tomorrow...

24-x-09

Ron Shimek — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:23:36 GMT

Hi Folks,

Nor today, either...

Large snail my LFS was selling -- what is it?

Reefmo — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:13:13 GMT

Hi all,

My LFS was selling these large snails. I was curious as to what they were. They remind me of these snails that my wife and I see when we dive the kelp beds around where we live here in southern california.

What do you think they could be?

Thanks in advance!

Reefmo

Bacteria culture from detrious

xroads — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:57:09 GMT

Hi Dr Ron.

I know that corals & some small larvae need/eat bacteria.

I was wondering if there was a way to culture bacteria in detrious from the tank/skimmer. I am sure that we can get it to grow & reproduce in its own system, but is there a way to harvest it & feed it to the tank?

I may be way off track but I thought I would run it by an expert.

Craig

Whats are these.

corysreef — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:23:18 GMT

I came home today and found these eggs on 3 feather dusters( if thats what you call them) all look like the same species, I havent read to much on the subject so looking for a ID before they hatch, If you need better pics, i can try

Thanks

Cory:

auger snail

badguitarist — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 21:15:59 GMT

So I have the oppurtinity to add some terebra maculata to my tank as a friend is tearing his deep sand bed down. I just have a few questions about them.

1) will these snails borrowing disturb the anarobic area of my sand bed?

2) I did a quick yahoo search and not much info came up. one thing I did find interesting was that they are predatory I am wondering if they are similar to some of the sand sifting starfish that although they stir up the sand they also eat all of the desirable animals in the sand as well?

If there is anything else I should know that would be great, especially pertaining to whether these are a good or bad addition to my tank (typical sps dominated reef tank with a deep sand bed.) I did a search on yahoo and there was not a lot of info for aquarium care of this critter

Thanks for any advice.

Kyle

Heteropsammia cochlea + DSB question

pebbles — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:21:06 GMT

Not really sure whose forum I should ask this question, but here goes... I have been offered the above coral, but upon googling I have some questions I hope you can help me with.

Basically I'm not too worried about keeping the coral, but I'm concerned about providing the appropriate habitat for the accompanying worm Aspidosiphon corallicola. I'm also not sure if this will come with the parasitic mussel, Lithophaga lessepsiana. I guess unless these are looked after the coral will ultimately die - or no?

So this brings me to a question about my DSB and one I've been meaning to address for ages. Just looking through the glass it used to be teeming with so much life. But that diversity (and I suspect quantity) of life in the early months appears to have greatly diminished.

I'm not keen on adding live sand from other people's tanks as I quarantine all stock and don't want to introduce disease. I could access some 'live mud' from mangroves, but at this time of year our local climate is temperate. So what would survive? I am reluctant to add new LR at the moment, so don't think I could improve diversity through that route. Furthermore, how can I maintain diversity in the long run? Is there any food I could bury, like small bits of turtle grass etc.. that would provide nutrition for different critters?

Finally, what can I do to ensure survival of the above coral and its' associates?

Thanks for your time,

angie

7-x-09

Ron Shimek — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:48:20 GMT

Hi Folks,

Another cool article about the "good ol' days...."

Vannier J., D. C. Garcıa-Bellido, S.-X. Hu and A.-L. Chen. 2009. Arthropod visual predators in the early pelagic ecosystem: evidence from the Burgess Shale and Chengjiang biotas. Proc. R. Soc. B 276: 2567–2574; doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.0361

Exceptional fossil specimens with preserved soft parts from the Maotianshan Shale (ca 520 Myr ago) and the Burgess Shale (505 Myr ago) biotas indicate that the worldwide distributed bivalved arthropod Isoxys was probably a non-benthic visual predator. New lines of evidence come from the functional morphology of its powerful prehensile frontal appendages that, combined with large spherical eyes, are thought to have played a key role in the recognition and capture of swimming or epibenthic prey. The swimming and steering of this arthropod was achieved by the beating of multiple setose exopods and a flap-like telson. The appendage morphology of Isoxys indicates possible phylogenetical relationships with the megacheirans, a widespread group of assumed predator arthropods characterized by a pre-oral ‘great appendage’. Evidence from functional morphology and taphonomy suggests that Isoxys was able to migrate through the water column and was possibly exploiting hyperbenthic niches for food. Although certainly not unique, the case of Isoxys supports the idea that off-bottom animal interactions such as predation, associated with complex feeding strategies and behaviours (e.g. vertical migration and hunting) were established by the Early Cambrian. It also suggests that a prototype of a pelagic food chain had already started to build-up at least in the lower levels of the water column.

Keywords: Arthropoda; Cambrian; Chengjiang; Burgess Shale

Sally lightfoot crab ID

Mike O'Brien — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 08:02:02 GMT

Hi. I was wondering about an ID on this crab. When I first saw it, I figured it was percnon gibbesi like we get in the stores. Comparing it to one of them it looks very similar, but different. First pic was taken in Jamaica.

And a stock photo of the hobby crab

coral banded shrimp lifespan?

Reefski — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:58:57 GMT

how long should i expect a coral banded shrimp to live? and other small shrimps?

i have one coral banded shrimp that i have had about three years. i just saw that it had molted again yesterday and it got me wondering.

A reference to more worthwhile reading

jtremblay — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:19:15 GMT

That's right, folks, it's Ig Nobel season. As a counterpoint to Ron's worthy articles on coral bleaching, dinos, extinction, and flower evolution, I present you with a link that will explain, once and for all, just how much biomass bacteria from panda poop can consume, how to use tequilla to make diamonds (note: it's not the method I had first considered involving rich old guys, margaritas and a jeweller), and that cows with names produce more milk than cows without names.

http://improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2009

Jason

Emrald Crab Spawn

reefdiculous — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:49:47 GMT

So without typing up the long story, my Emrald crab spawned tonight. What should I expect to happen to all of the larvae?

29-ix-09

Ron Shimek — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:37:55 GMT

Hi Folks,

Another news article, from the journal Science; so, no abstract. Enjoy.

Normile, D. 2009. Bringing Coral Reefs Back From the Living Dead. Science. 325:559-561.

Nudibranch ID

charlesr1958 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:32:52 GMT

Found this 1mm long nudibranch on the front glass of my aquarium and I of course assume it is not something I want in there, that and its a rainy sunday afternoon and I'm bored to tears...

Chuck

For the dinosaur fans ...

jtremblay — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:24:35 GMT

Hi Ron,

In the spirit of sharing journal articles, here's one showing a feathered dinosaur -- that predates Archaeopteryx by 10ish million years.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7264/pdf/nature08322.pdf

Here's a BBC article on the critter:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8273938.stm

Jason

Adding pods to a refugium compartment of the sump

rhdoug — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:44:15 GMT

I posted this in Eric's forum but thought maybe it is better suited for this one. Since removing the skimmer and incorporating the algae scrubber earlier this year in my 10 year old 58 gallon reef, I have seen some increase in small critters in the fuge and tank, but think if a bit of a boost is in order. The fuge compartment of the sump contains the ATS screen, a large wad of chaeto, and some rock and rubble. Is there any point in adding different species of pods, or will one eventually outcompete the others? I know nothing about pods, so if one sp. is better suited to reproduce in an area like I described I'm all ears...or eyes in this case. The species available at livecopepods.com are:
Tigriopus californicus
Tisbe sp
Acartia tonsa

Is one "better" than the other, or is it better to add all 3 species? Any other sources of pods, etc is welcome.

thanks

ID Please

aquariaman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:09:19 GMT

I will try to explain the best i can because i cannot get a picture of this thing. It looks like a stomach with a tube comming out of it. The tube part excreets a spider webb out of a tiny hole in the center of the tube. I could not believe it when i saw the webb latching on the live rock above it. The top of the tube moves very slowly. What shall i do with this thing and is it harmful?

20-ix-09

Ron Shimek — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:47:59 GMT

Hi Folks,

I don't think I could have written this article with a straight face.

Matzke-Karasz, R., R. J. Smith, R. Symonova, C. G. Miller, P. Tafforeau. 2009. Sexual Intercourse Involving Giant Sperm in Cretaceous Ostracode. Science. 324:1535

No abstract (it is a short note, called "Brevia" in this journal, and they have no abstracts).

I will add in closing that giant sperm are known in modern members of the Ostracoda.

Could you ID this Lysmata

Bojan — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:47:40 GMT

Could you ID this Lysmata ?

Peppermint shrimp
Lysmata wurdemani komplex

18-ix-09

Ron Shimek — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:03:13 GMT

Hi Folks,

Here is number 12. Learning about the End-Permian mass extinction is 1)learning about one of the pivotal events in Earth's history and, 2) the "ultimate" in disaster scenarios. One of my interests is mass extinctions, so... here is a good recent article.

Saunders, A. & Reichow, M. 2009. The Siberian Traps and the End-Permian mass extinction: A critical review. Chinese Science Bulletin 54:20-37

Abstract: The association between the Siberian Traps, the largest continental flood basalt province, and the largest-known mass extinction event at the end of the Permian period, has been strengthened by recently-published high-precision 40Ar/39Ar dates from widespread localities across the Siberian province. We argue that the impact of the volcanism was amplified by the prevailing late Permian environmental conditions―in particular, the hothouse climate, with sluggish oceanic circulation, that was leading to widespread oceanic anoxia. Volcanism released large masses of sulphate aerosols and carbon dioxide, the former triggering short-duration volcanic winters, the latter leading to long-term warming. Whilst the mass of CO2 released from individual eruptions was small compared with the total mass of carbon in the atmosphere-ocean system, the long ‘mean lifetime’ of atmospheric CO2, compared with the eruption flux and duration, meant that significant accumulation could occur over periods of 100,000 years. Compromise of the carbon sequestration systems (by curtailment of photosynthesis, destruction of biomass, and warming and acidification of the oceans) probably led to rapid atmospheric CO2 build-up, warming, and shallow-water anoxia, leading ultimately to mass extinction.

Nudibranch ID

argi — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:41:30 GMT

Hi Ron,

My eyes are going crazy lookng through all the pictures on nudibranch's and I can't seem to find the right one to id this guy for a friend. I was hoping you would know off the top of your head what type it is.

Thanks,

15-ix-09

Ron Shimek — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:00:45 GMT

Hi Folks,

Today's article is a news article titled, "On the origin of flowering plants."

Pretty cool.