fish
jlynch | June 5, 2007
There has been some blogospheric notice of the Conservation International survey in Surimane which has found 24 new species. Other good news is that the previously thought to be extinct dwarf suckermouth catfish (Harttiella crassicauda, above) has been re-discovered. The species - which reaches a size of about five centimeters - had last been spotted over fifty years ago.
mikethemadbiologist | June 5, 2007...and order anything that comes with "assorted meats." You see, I thought that would mean mammals and birds. Instead, we got this:
We couldn't even identify in which phylum half of this stuff was. There was one thing that couldn't make it past my nose. When we asked what it was, we were told "Chinese seafood." As you might guess, there was a little left over:
Oh well. The braised duck was very good...
jlynch | May 22, 2007AP is reporting:
Female sharks can fertilize their own eggs and give birth without sperm from males, according to a new study of the asexual reproduction of a hammerhead in a U.S. zoo.
The joint Northern Ireland-U.S. research, being published Wednesday in the Royal Society's peer-reviewed Biology Letter journal, analyzed the DNA of a shark born in 2001 in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb. The shark was born in a tank with three potential mothers, none of whom had contact with a male hammerhead for at least three years.
The baby was killed within hours of its birth by a stingray in the same…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2007tags: coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, fish, living fossil, Indonesia
Indonesian fisherman, Yustinus Lahama, holds up a coelacanth, an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time of the dinosaurs, in a quarantine pool after he caught it in the sea off North Sulawesi province 19 May 2007.
Image: Stringer/Reuters
An Indonesian fisherman captured a coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, in the sea off North Sulawesi island near Bunaken National Marine Park in Indonesia. The coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-kanth) is an ancient fish once thought to have become extinct at the time…
grrlscientist | May 12, 2007tags: shark, octopus, streaming video
This video, courtesy of the Seattle Aquarium, shows what happened after the keepers moved a giant octopus into an aquarium containing five-foot sharks. In short; octopus and sharks do not get along with each other [2:02]
Giant octopus vs shark
mikethemadbiologist | May 10, 2007More scary food news from China: Chinese catfish have been found to contain fluoroquinolone residues. Fluoroquinolones are medically important antibiotics and include ciprofloxacin ("Cipro") and enrofloxacin (which has been banned from agricultural use in the U.S.). Not only can fluoroquinolones be toxic and cause allergic reactions, but this means that China is probably still misusing these vital antibiotics. From the Clarion Ledger (italics mine):
Catfish contamination at some Mississippi grocery stores could indicate a much larger problem with the safety of imported foods, state…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2007tags: salmon, wild Pacific salmon, commercial salmon fishing
Approximately 200 chefs from restaurants in 33 states have signed a letter that was delivered to legislators in Washington DC today, asking Congress to pass laws that will restore healthy habitats for the decimated wild salmon species along the Pacific coast. The letter was inspired by last year's federal shutdown of 88% of the commercial salmon fishing along 700 miles of coastline in California and Oregon and is led by renowned chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in San Francisco.
Marine scientists said the closure was necessary to…
grrlscientist | May 5, 2007tags: Orange roughy, South Pacific Ocean, conservation, trawling
Last month, leading scientists warned there would be no marine fish left in 50 years if current oceanic fishing practices continued unchanged. This month, thanks to an agreement reached by more than 20 South Pacific Nations in the coastal town of Renaca, Chile, one quarter of the world's oceans will be protected from the destructive fishing practice of trawling. The agreement will go into effect on 30 September 2007.
Trawling is a method of fishing where large heavy nets are dragged across the sea floor, capturing or destroying…
grrlscientist | May 3, 2007
Old Wives Enoplosus armatus.
The photographer writes; A very common fish in South Australia. They can be found in small schools or individually. Yesterday (25 April, actually), there were a number of pairs sitting quietly along the bottom edge of the Port Noarlunga reef. This pair were sheltering under an old ship's anchor located on a SCUBA diver's trail. There were several other pairs just out in the open above the sandy floor. This pair was at about 4-5m depth at low tide. I was only snorkelling but I was able to dive down a number of times to get several shots. The fish didn't swim away…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2007Scientists say that that an Ebola-like virus, viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), is killing all species of fish in the Great Lakes. Due to a lack of genetic resistance to VHS, fish populations could ultimately be damaged in the same way that the smallpox virus struck Native Americans and Dutch elm disease decimated elm trees, says Jim Winton, chief of fish health at the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle.
VHS was unexpectedly found in the Great Lakes in 2005, in addition to the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Niagara River and an inland lake in New York. Last year, VHS caused large kills that…
grrlscientist | April 27, 2007tags: hagfish, slime, streaming video
I learned about hagfish in my vertebrate zoology courses. Basically, hagfish are mysterious jawless fishes that live in the ocean. Despite being classified as vertebrates by many zoologists, they lack vertebrae, thus they are considered to be very primitive fishes. When threatened, hagfish secrete a mucus that forms threadlike fibers similar to spider's silk. When mixed with water, a small amount of this mucus can tranform itself into an astonishingly huge slimeball, as seen in the video below the fold. It has been observed that hagfishes use this slime…
jlynch | April 26, 2007So I noticed that visits to the blog ramped up after 2100 EST tonight with traffic increasing ten-fold. And the reason? Grey's Anatomy mentioned this little blighter.
grrlscientist | April 22, 2007tags: Atlantic salmon, conservation, fish, Goldman Environmental Prize, Orri Vigfusson
Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar. [bigger image]
Image: DNR, Cornell, NY.
Orri Vigfusson, 64, an Icelandic businessman, has been fighting to save Atlantic wild salmon from extinction by overfishing for 17 years. Vigfusson's efforts, which led to an increase in salmon numbers in the northern Atlantic Ocean, have been recognized with a top environmental award; the Goldman Environmental Prize. The award is known as "the Nobel Prize for grassroots environmentalism". Vigfusson, along with five other winners, will…
grrlscientist | April 20, 2007
Grunion spawning (California).
The photographer writes; Here's a fresh fish foto -- this is from last week's run, the first (official) of the season. It was a great run. More pictures from last week's run.
Image: Carl Manaster.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a…
zooillogix | April 6, 2007A 60lb, 44" shortraker rockfish was reeled in off the coast of Alaska last month. The fish has a bone in its ear that develops rings like a tree trunk, allowing scientists to approximate the fish's age to be between 90-115 years old.When I was your age, we didn't have "fins." Shortraker rockfish, sebastes borealisi
digg_url= 'http://zooillogix.blogspot.com/2007/04/giant-100-year-old-fish-reeled-i…';
jlynch | April 5, 2007
Over at Fark.com they are discussing this photo of a Goliath tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath) which occurs in the Congo River basin, the Lualaba River, Lake Upemba and Lake Tanganyika.
grrlscientist | March 16, 2007
Leafy Sea Dragon, Phycodurus eques.
The photographer writes; Though close relatives of sea horses, sea dragons have larger bodies and leaf-like appendages that enable them to hide among floating seaweed or kelp beds. Sea dragons feed on larval fishes and amphipods, such as and small shrimp-like crustaceans called mysids ("sea lice"), sucking up their prey in their small mouths. Many of these amphipods feed on the red algae that thrives in the shade of the kelp forests where the sea dragons live. As with their smaller common seahorse (and pipefish) cousins, the male sea dragon carries and…
zooillogix | March 12, 2007I was lucky enough to find myself in Atlanta this weekend and made a trip to the one year old Georgia Aquarium. The animals and exhibits were spectacular. The Georgia Aquarium is one of only four in the world with whale sharks and the only one outside of Asia.
The aquarium has the distinct advantage of being brand new, some of the enclosures seemed a bit small and it lacked the ubiquitous dolphin Vaudeville show, but it blows all other aquariums I have been to out of the water.Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) - Pictures don't do these guys justice. There were three of them, each 15-25 feet.…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2007
Taken while diving at port Noarlunga, Australia.
There are at least three species of fish known as "red mullet" in Australia This one is Upeneus tragula.
Image: stephenk at internode dot on dot net.
As long as you send images to me (and I hope it will be for forever), I shall continue to share them with my readership. My purpose for posting these images is to remind all of us of the grandeur of the natural world and that there is a world out there that is populated by millions of unique species. We are a part of this world whether we like it or not: we have a choice to either preserve…
jlynch | March 6, 2007
Four new species of Loricariid catfish have been described from the upper RÃo Orinoco of southern Venezuela: (A) Hypancistrus inspector, (B) H.
lunaorum, (C) H. furunculus, and (D) H.
debilittera, Full details are in Armbruster et al. (2007) "Four New Hypancistrus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from Amazonas, Venezuela" Copeia 2006(1): 62-79 (link).
Experts at Planet Catfish claim that the species have been sold under the following L-numbers: L201 (H. contradens); L129 (H. debilittera); L199 (H. furunculus) and L339 (H. lunaorum).