Re: the last post, the article mentions that some places use clams to test the toxicity of the water. It’s like that in Warsaw- we get our water from the river, and the main water pump has 8 clams that have triggers attached to their shells. If the water gets too toxic, they close, and the triggers shut off the city water supply automatically.
The clams are just better at measuring the water quality than any man-made sensors.
This is the funniest and most thoughtful I’ve ever seen an organization use a meme and it’s good people with good goals who don’t just want your money on top of it
For those of you who aren’t aware the Monterey Bay Aquarium is actually a really cool place!
• they are non-profit
• they have a living kelp forest!
• it focuses on local ocean wildlife
• they were the first aquarium to get a great white shark to eat and they are the only public aquarium to display a great white shark for more than sixteen days
• they have a seafood watch program where they promote sustainable seafood
• they are actively fighting against ocean pollution
So yeah support them, they’re awesome and I love them
why do internet people keeping hyping up the Mariana trench like its some kind of aquatic skull island were all tangentially ocean-related myths are true, its just a big hole there’s no megalodons or krakens down there its just snailfish and isopods.
For real - why is the Manta Ray not in the mainline games? If there was any ray species that everyone knows, it’s this guy. They were available for a few days in July 2020, and have only returned as recolored “special” versions since, but like - there’s nothing like the real thing. This will be a longer entry because I can’t shut up today.
So, there are actually two species of giant manta ray in the world - the reef manta ray and the oceanic manta ray. Often when you’re identifying fish, it’s a rule of thumb to consider coloring and markings last. This is because, just like people, fish have small differences that set individuals apart. For instance, in humpback whales, the white pattern under their tail flukes are so different you can name the individual, as real marine biologists who study them actually do. African penguin handlers at aquariums will identify individual penguins by the spot patterns on their bellies. Likewise, marine biologists who study mantas can also do this with the black spot patterns on their bellies. So, when we’re identifying separate species, we look for more physical traits, like face shape, gill raker or fin ray meristics (counts), etc etc. But when it comes to the two mantas, you actually can rely on color and pattern best. On the dorsal side (the top), the white patterns between the two species are different enough and consistent enough to tell them apart this way. The Giant Reef Manta Ray (Mobula alfredi) has gentle gradients from black to white, and those stripes are rounded. The Oceanic Manta Ray’s (Mobula birostris) white stripes are angular and sharp with no gradient. The black space between these stripes actually forms a “T” and so it’s really easy to see the ACPC species is the oceanic species.
The Giant Mantas are within Class Chonrichthyes, meaning they are fish with a skeleton made of cartilage, the same kind of flexible material that makes up your ears and tip of your nose. Within Chondrichthyes, the rays and skates are within the SuperOrder Batoidea, which are closely related to sharks and host the most species within the Class. Within this SuperOrder are the Myliobatiformes, which consist of all the stingrays. These fish sport a long, serrated spine on their tails for defense, though some species, like the mantas, no longer have it anymore. Within this group are the Myliobatidae, your mantas, devil rays, and eagle rays that spend more time swimming in open water than other rays. A manta’s best defense is its large size (a wingspan up to 7m (23 feet) across!!), which deter many predators that aren’t also very large themselves. Like most giants in the oceans, the manta is a gentle giant that strains zooplankton, fish eggs, and fish larvae out of the water column.
They are so gorgeous and divers and snorkelers alike flock to tropical areas that host Manta Rays on their reefs. Like, this is one of those animals that is worth more alive (via tourism money) than it is dead (for Chinese tonics that don’t really do anything). Still, it’s endangered, of course. It was actually the first ray species to be listed as “endangered” and start getting the protection it needed. As we talked about with the Dorado, many governments have been very very slow to protect fish species, which, no one’s surprised about right? That humans care more about mammals than any other group? Like, I get it, mammals are our closest cousins and they are very charismatic, and etc. But fish like the manta rays live like mammals, with long lives and very slow growth rates that make them so vulnerable to our quickly-changing world and growing appetites from their parts. Luckily, people are starting to see this, and whether they are protecting them because we love them or love the profits they generate, I don’t care - as long as they will be with us for the long run.
We haven’t done a deep-see species in a bit, so let’s do it. Also, funny that AC has done two fish with “splendid” in their names, and I’m here in my fish corner entertaining myself. Not sure if these fishies really are splendid, but the people who named them must think they are! So, today we’ll cover the Splendid Alfonsio, a fish that appeared in AC Pocket Camp for longer than a few days, from December 2021 to March 2022. I like how AC compensates for the fact deep sea fish appearing close enough inshore for you to fish them up from the beach is extremely unlikely, by having them show up in the winter when it’s dark and cold like their actual habitat. Who knows…maybe it will come back next winter!
The Splendid Alfonsio is named to species (Beryx splendens). This fish is a member of the Order Beryciformes, a group of nocturnal and/or deep water fish. These include squirrelfish and the Pineapplefish we covered a little bit ago. This group has a circumglobal (aka appears all around the world) distribution in the tropics and temperate regions. The Splendid Alfonsio is a native to the Indo-Pacific’s deeper water near the continental slope, or the area where shallow waters near land suddenly plunge down to the abyssal plain. Here, splendid alfonsio hang out around 25 and 1,250 metres (82 and 4,101 ft). Because of the depths it prefers, not much is really known about this fish, though research is happening, mostly because there is a fishery for this species. The more we know about a species’ life history (aka what it does during its life and how it does those things, and at what age/size) the better the fishery can be managed. Nevertheless, the Splendid Alfonsio is popular as a sushi fish in Japan - called kinmedai or golden eye snapper - and so explains why it makes an appearance in AC as well as other games, like Endless Ocean!
Now, the first thing you may notice about the Splendid Alfonsio (SA) is its giant eyes that take up most of its face. If you’ve been reading along or know a little bit about the deep sea, you’ll be familiar with the fact that deep sea animals take everything to the extreme in order to survive in their extreme environment. When it comes to eyes, fish either evolve huge ones so they can see in the dark or they have tiny eyes with very poor eyesight if any at all because there ain’t anything to see down there anyway. For the SA, those big eyes can let in a lot of light, which is helpful in the dark when you need every photon you can get. Not only that, but the SA also has a special reflective layer in its eyes called the ‘tapetum lucidum’ that reflects any captured light back through the eye to give the organ a chance to get the best picture possible in low-light conditions. Many nocturnal animals that rely on their eyesight still will have this layer. This layer is why your cat’s and dog’s eyes glow when you take a photo of them with flash. If you could take pics of the SA anytime you wanted in the deep depths where it lives, they would also show some eyeshine.
Man, fish are so crazy diverse that Pocket Camp could do a tourney every week and they still wouldn’t get through all of them for almost 200 years at the rate they’re going (3 per tourney, max). But, of course, they’re going to choose to feature the ones people can go see in an aquarium or while snorkeling on a reef first. So, today, we will talk about such a creature - the Splendid Garden Eel.
This guy showed up for a Special Goals Event called Surprise Eel Goals in July 2021.
The Splendid Garden Eel is a true eel as part of Order Anguilliformes. Like I’ve probably mentioned a bunch during this series, there are a lot of fish that *look* like eels, and are *called* eels, but if they aren’t in Anguilliformes, they aren’t true eels. Within this Order are the fish of Congridae that include conger eels and garden eels, like our guy today and his cousin we covered during ACNH, the Spotted Garden Eel. The Splendid is widespread across the Pacific tropics, including the southern archipelagos of Japan and south to The Philippines. You can also often find this and other garden eels quite regularly at an aquarium, since they’re so very peculiar and active.
Splendids like to live in groups from three to a thousand! Once they find a spot on the sand they like as settling juveniles, they make their little burrow - no more than a little hole in the ground - a they just live there unless they are chased out or, y’know, eaten. But there is another important reason they may move to a new burrow and that’s to be closer to a potential mate. Males will bite each other as they fight for a lady’s affections, and whoever wins that display gets the spoils. When they aren’t looking for love, they are looking for food (aren’t we all?) Splendid Garden Eels eat plankton floating by on the current, so the entire colony will be seen facing the same way into the current to catch food. Seems pretty weird then that you catch this thing on rod and reel in ACPC, but I guess that’s the limitations of video games.
We’re staying on the coral reef to explore more colorful camo. I know, it sounds weird, but last time we spoke about the Flame Angelfish, we discussed why coral reef fish are so colorful. It actually works in this clear, yet complicated environment where natural selection and sexual selection agree to create attractive colors that also help them hide. Today we’ll cover another denizen of the Indo-Pacific tropics to talk about one of the more popular methods of confusing predators - the eye spot. The fish that sports this today? The Threadfin Butterflyfish!
This one *just* appeared in AC Pocket Camp last month (March 2022) for the 48th fishing tourney. We may never see it again! Only time and Nintendo will tell!
Anyway. The threadfin is named to species - Chaetodon auriga, of the family Chaetodontidae, the butterflyfishes. Now, this group may look a lot like the marine angelfish - both groups sport some incredible colors and they are laterally compressed, which means they are really narrow when viewed from any angle by their left and right sides, which make them appear wider. This shapes is common in fish, but both these traits together make it really hard to separate which fish are butterflyfish and which are angelfish. The primary difference is that marine angels have a sharp spine on their operculum, the gill cover, while butterflies don’t. It’s such a tiny feature, but that’s the distinction. The threadfin itself distinguishes itself from other yellow-and-white fish with the long filament coming off its dorsal fin. AC did such a great, detailed work on that icon, dang!
One thing you’ll notice about some reef fish are a single black spot on the opposite end of their bodies, while their eyes are covered by a dark stripe. This is a common method to deceive predators into thinking the fish’s head is on the side with the false eye, or eye spot. True, no one wants a chunk taken out of them, but if you had to choose, I’m sure you’d choose dorsal fin over your face. This may also confuse even a smarter predator that thinks ahead - if it thinks the fish’s face is on that side of the body, it makes logical sense that it would move forward that way. In that instant, the butterflyfish can dart in the opposite direction and get out of dodge.
It’s an incredible play on mimicry and camouflage, but not every threadfin butterfly has the eyespot. Some taxonomists would say they aresubspecies of each other, and therefore they are named as such. The one without the eyespot - Chaetodon auriga auriga - is native to the Red Sea, while the one with the eyespot - Chaetodon auriga setifer - is native to the rest of the threadfin’s range, which is huge. It’s very widely distributed across the Indo-Pacific, from outside the Red Sea to Hawaii, north to Japan, and South to French Polynesia.
Okay, that’s enough freshwater for a little bit. Let’s get back to the ocean, where most fishies live (that’s not to say that freshwater fish aren’t amazing in their own right). Of course, we’ll be visiting the tropical coral reefs for our next few fish. Today we cover the aptly named Flame Angelfish.
Only appearing in pocket camp for a limited time in September of 2020, players could fish for this guy at Saltwater Shores. You may think the icon above is exaggerating those colors, but it’s not! The Flame Angelfish is one of the most vibrantly colored residents of the coral reef.
The Flame Angel is named to species - Centropyge loricula. It is a part of the Family Pomacanthidae, or the marine angelfish. The family itself is often placed in the Perciformes, the Order that comprises the greatest number of fish species. However, some taxonomists think they would belong in other orders, and some just say they are Incertae sedis right now, or that no one can agree where they go. I’m sure the fish don’t care.
Like some of the fish we have covered, the Flame Angel is a hermaphrodite - every single one is born a female, and they switch to being males when they find themselves the largest one in the group. These guys will swim in harems from 3 to 7 individuals, and both male and female are impeccably dressed.
Of course, there is stiff competition for the most lavish, most colorful fish on the tropical coral reef. The place is just bursting with color, no matter what phylum you belong. I’ve been asked quite a few times why that is. Why is everyone on the coral reef dressed to the nines? It may be because of the complexity of the habitat they inhabit. Fish and invertebrates living in this environment actually hide better being that vibrant against such a backdrop because they employ disruptive camouflage. Just like the zebra, these patterns of color disrupt the shape of the fish, and, when schooling, can make it really hard for a predator to target an individual. What’s more, corals thrive in clear water, making visual acuity super important to most things that call the day time coral reef home. That means that visual displays, signals, and color play a vital role in these animals’ lives. When you live such a life, it’s always a struggle between two fundamental questions: “Can my predators/prey see me?” and “Can my mate see me?” Most of the time, the needs to mate and to not-die are at odd, but on the coral reef, they actually agree, so everyone can go hog wild on their colors and patterns.
If you’d like to read more about this, read this article I used to help craft this AC Fish Explained!
I’m not a fan of April 1st. TBH I avoided Tumblr for the most part yesterday, but I couldn’t not-notice one of the running gags yesterday was about crabs. So, today, we’ll cover another little crab boi - the Freshwater Crab!
Here’s another little friend who appeared for one event and then was never seen again. The Freshwater Crab was introduced in June of 2020 and, yeah, that’s it. The nice thing about these event animals, though, at least from my perspective, is that *most* of them are named directly to species common name, so, like, I haven’t had to do some extended sleuthing in quite some time. Heh - that all ended today.
There are about 1300 species under the umbrella term “freshwater crab” in Brachyura - the true crabs. They come from a bunch of different SuperFamilies, so it’s speculated the move into freshwater habitats has happened multiple times over the true crab lineage. We actually covered another one when we spoke about the Vampire Crab who is closely related to today’s crab - they both come from Family Sesarmidae. Just like that cutie, this one is also popular in the pet trade for its small size and bright, varied coloration. I do believe this is Perisesarma bidens, the Red-Clawed Crab!
Although it’s called the Freshwater Crab, and it can live in freshwater, it is most at home in brackish water, which is much more salty than a river or pond, but not as much as the ocean. This is because these crabs’ natural habitat are tropical mangrove swamps, which typically border the ocean. On a wider scale, these crabs are widespread through the Indo-Pacific region, from Zanzibar to Japan. These are semi-terrestrial, meaning they spend much more time on dry land than you’d expect. At low tide, these crabs can be found on the mangrove forest floor just chillin’ and finding some grub to eat, which can be really anything they can get their claws into. Like, if it’s not a predator, it’s food. Which…can be problematic since they have been found to eat trash, too. Oof.
So, here’s the Master list of ALL of the fish explained posts, with links, common and scientific names, and the “extra” topics we covered, if any. The AC Fish Explained Series went on from April 6th, 2020 to March 2021! The series continued into the Museum Tour in June 2021. The series was started again for “fish past” in November 2021.
If you liked the fish/science posts, please let me know! It makes me so happy to hear that people learned stuff from these! Without further adieu, here they are:
#1Barreleye~*~ (Macropinna microstoma) ~*~ Science in Video Games #2Sea Bass ~*~ Japanese Sea Bass (Lateolabrax japonicus) ~*~ & Black Bass ~*~ Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) ~*~ Problems With Common Names #3Sturgeon ~*~ Atlantic sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) ~*~ Fish Migration #4Football Fish~*~ (Himantolophusspp.)~*~ Deep Sea SexLife #5Goldfish// Popeye Goldfish//Ranchu Goldfish~*~ (Carassius auratus) ~*~ Goldfish Deserve Better
#6Sea Butterfly ~*~ Common Clione (Clione limacina) ~*~ Problems with Common Names 2: Electric Boogaloo #7Coelacanth ~*~ West Indian Ocean Coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) ~*~ Lazarus Species & Evolution of Tetrapods #8Crawfish ~*~ Red Swamp Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) ~*~ Invasive Species #9Acanthostega ~*~ (Acanthostega gunnari) ~*~ Stem-Tetrapods #10Killifish ~*~ Japanese Rice Fish (Oryzias latipes) ~*~ Endemism
#11Oarfish ~*~ Giant Oarfish (Regalecus glesne) ~*~ Myths and Legends #12Loach ~*~ Japanese Striped Loach (Cobitis biwae) ~*~ Barbels & Mouth Position in Fish #13Clownfish ~*~ Ocellaris Clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris) ~*~ Sequential Hermaphroditism #14Surgeonfish ~*~ Regal Blue Tang (Paracanthurus hepatus) ~*~ The IUCN, Pet Trade #15Koi ~*~ Amur Carp (Cyprinus rubrofuscus)subspecies ~*~ Aquaculture
#131Blowfish ~*~ Fine Patterned Puffer (Takifugu poecilonotus) ~*~ Preparing Toxic Fugu #132Gulliver/Gullivarrr ~*~ Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris) ~*~ Seabirds #133Eusthenopteron~*~ Eusthenopteron foordi ~*~ You’re a Fish #134Octopus Villager~*~Octopus spp. ~*~ Anatomy of an Octopus #135Spider Crab ~*~ Japanese Spider Crab (Macrocheira kaempferi) ~*~ Big Animals in the Oceans
#136Beach Shells ~*~ multiple spp. ~*~ General About Spp. #137Penguin Villager~*~Sphenisciformes spp. ~*~ Penguins! #138Firefly Squid ~*~ Firefly Squid (Watasenia scintillans) ~*~ Bioluminescence #139Wardell ~*~ West Indian Manatee (Trichechus manatus) ~*~ Sirenia, the Manatees and Dugong #140Lyle & Lottie ~*~ Japanese River Otter (Lutra nippon) ~*~ Extinct River Otters
#141Spring Mackerel ~*~ Japanese Spanish Mackerel (Scomberomorus niphonius) ~*~ Scombrid Fish #142Moorish Idol ~*~ Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus) ~*~ Fish in Culture #143Barbel Steed ~*~ Barbel Steed (Hemibarbus labeo) ~*~ More F’n Cyprinids #144Nomura’s Jellyfish ~*~ Nomura’s Jelly (Nemopilema nomurai) ~*~ Native Invader #145Frog Villager~*~Anura spp. ~*~ Frogs vs Toads
#146Flying Fish ~*~ Bennet’s Flying Fish (Cheilopogon pinnatibarbatus) ~*~ How They Fly #147Pineapple Fish ~*~ Japanese Pineapple Fish (Monocentris japonica) ~*~ Armor #148Eel ~*~ Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica) ~*~ Catadromous Lifestyle #149Sea Bunny ~*~ Sea Bunny (Jorunna parva) ~*~ The Fuzz is a Lie #150Hippo Villager~*~ Common Hippo, (Hippopotamus amphibius) ~*~ Hippos
#151Largehead Hairtail ~*~ Largehead Hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) ~*~ Species Complex Confusion #152Lumpfish ~*~ Balloon Lumpfish (Eumicrotremus pacificus) ~*~ Suction #153Giant Catfish ~*~ Giant Lake Biwa Catfish (Silurus biwaensis) ~*~ Earthquake Fish #154Kapp’n ~*~ Kappa ~*~ The Legend of the Kappa #155 Achilles Surgeonfish ~*~ Achilles Tang (Acanthurus achilles) ~*~ A Fish’s Achilles’ Heel
Shrimp live adorable lives. There are so many different species that all do wildly different things with the same toolset - two claws and being super tiny. They live together in big groups, and, in some cases mate for life or become great friends with benefits. Either way, the social life of shrimps is an interesting one, especially for that of the Harlequin Shrimp.
Ah, yes, another Pocket Camp animal doomed to never return after it’s 4 days in the spotlight. This one was around just this January…maybe one day it will return?
Anyway, the Harlequin is a Crustacean, just like a great many of the fascinating animals we have covered in this ridiculous thing I’m doing here. (I’m so glad you all enjoy it~) As a review, Crustaceans are in Phylum Arthropods, meaning they have an exoskeleton that they shed in order to grow larger and they have joined legs. These include all manner of insects, spiders, and other creepy crawlies on land. In the ocean, we got Crustaceans. Within the SubPhylum Crustacea are thousands of species of familiar things, like crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, of course. However, those three crusties everyone knows all come from the Class (Malocostraca) and Order (Decapoda). Within Decapoda are finally the true shrimp of InfraOrder Caridea. Family Palaemonidae is next, which leads us to the Harlequin Shrimp, the only one in its Genus - Hymenocera.
I know what you’re thinking - hold on, this one is blue! And that’s true! The Harlequin is named to species, though there is debate about whether or not the species could be split in two. I didn’t mean the rhyming shit, but I ended up really liking it. Moving on - the Harlequin comes in two varieties - the blue-around-brownish-spots guy like above from the West Pacific and Indian Ocean (sometimes named H. elegans) & a more yellow-on-pink-and-purple-spotted one from the Central and East Pacific that retains the species’ original name, H. picta.
No matter what you call this tiny 2 in (5 cm) dude in the lab, he and his wife are dressed to kill out on the coral reef. Unlike many other shrimp species that may eat things tinier than they are or plants, this species goes after sea stars many times its own size, including the relatively massive Crown-of-Thorns that reaches 14 in (35 cm) across, aka seven times the Harlequin’s size. This shrimp doesn’t care, though. The male and female will work together to flip sea stars over and eat their tube feet, which very much cripples this otherwise monstrous, regenerating invertebrate from hell. As the saying goes, as bad as you are, there is always someone badder than you.
This snail lives mid-stipe in the kelp, sharing its high-rise home with other top snails above and below (channeled top snails live up in the canopy; blue top snails live close to the bottom). Each species knows its proper place, and if one gets knocked off, it climbs back up to its proper spot.
Conservation
Like an underwater rain forest, groves of giant kelp are home to fishes, snails, crabs and hundreds of other species. The kelp provides sheltered habitat where animals can feed and breed.
Cool Facts
Snails graze on algae with their filelike tongues.
The moon jellyfish, also known as the common jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) is a species of jellyfish found in every ocean but the Arctic. There are many species of moon jellies within the genus Aurelia, and most are functionally very similar. A. aurita are especially common among the coasts of North and South America and Australia, where they frequently wash up on beaches. They prefer warmer shallow waters around 18C, and require a salt content of at least 0.6%, although they can survive in a wide range of temperatures and salinity, and have been found as deep as 1,000m.
As jellyfish, A. aurita have no internal organs and exhibit radial symmetry, or symmetry around a central axis. The outer bell is transparent, ranging from 10 to 60 cm across. This bell also acts as a membrane through which moon jellyfish absorb oxygen, digest food, and move their bodies. Beneath the bell are distinct, colored veins which act as a reproductive organ. Most moon jellyfish have 4, but some individuals can have more. Small, non-stinging tentacles line the outer bell, and on the underside are 4 arms which stun and collect prey such as plankton, copepods, mollusks, fish larvae, and smaller jellyfish. Although they posess no caloric value, they have high amounts of fatty acids which makes them prime prey for seabirds, turtles, fish, and larger jellyfish.
Most moon jellyfish only live 2 years in the wild, though in captivity they can live up to 25 years. They reproduce sexually, although they exhibit no courtship behaviors. Male A. aurita release their sperm into the water, where they are carried by currents into the gastric pouch of female jellyfish and fertilize their eggs. These eggs are then re-released into the water. After 10 days the eggs hatch into a larval stage called a planula which settles onto the ocean floor and form polyps. These polyps can form buds that break off and form individual jellyfish through a process called strobulation. The whole process takes about 4-6 months, and usually begins in the summer when most mating occurs. However, A. aurita is capable of reproducing year-round and will do so whenever conditions are good.
Conservation status: The moon jellyfish has not been rated by the IUCN. However, in many places it is considered invasive; when resources are plentiful, populations can explode leading to diminished resources for other animals and increased bacteria levels in the water.
After almost a year, my local aquarium is finally letting volunteers return! If you’ve ever wanted to get your feet wet (literally) in the world of aquarists or have always been interested in marine biology, now may be the perfect time since many aquariums are hurting for help. Don’t be shy!
![[marine] bio studyblr](https://64.media.tumblr.com/avatar_6b8d8b41243d_30.gif){kind=avatar}
