On a “Black Friday” visit to Old Town Aquarium (so as to avoid having to shop with family on Michigan Ave…), I scoured over the tanks for something interesting and, not seeing anything that I had to have in the saltwater department, ended up purchasing a grip of neon tetra and a few plants for [...]
March 22, 2009
You don't need to be the adventuring type or dedicate your life to discovery to have a new species named after you - just have an Ebay account. The Australian Marine Conservation Society put an auction up on Ebay in which the winning bidder will get the right to name a new species of Lebbeus shrimp discovered only recently in the deep seas of southwest Australia. Hey, naming rights are sold all the time - why not? All proceeds go to saving the oceans, and, though welcome to bid, no corporate names are allowed - great in my opinion - the last thing we need is Lebbeus verizonwirelis.
February 5, 2009
Mother Nature never ceases to impress. Nor do National Geographic’s photos for that matter. These photos of recently discovered Pygmy Seahorse species are just awesome. My favorite is the fourth one down, sitting inside the polyp of an octocoral – really puts it in perspective. Check the photographs out…
January 30, 2009
In kind of a throwback to an old post on Glassbox Design, and adding to one of his more recent posts “The Remarkable Pico Reef of Marcelo“, I happened across some of Marcelo’s marine inspired artwork on flickr. His ‘Marcelocean’ collection of paper sculptures bear such titles as “Basslets & Soft Coral”, “Dascyllus aruanus & [...]
January 23, 2009
Now why would you want to pull out all these rocks with gorgeous, encrusted colonies? This may give me nightmares… One can only hope to never find something like this in their tank. The unfortunate reality is, you may already have one <cue theme from JAWS> From Zeovit.com: “The hunt for a 4 foot coral [...]
January 13, 2009
AIMS (Australian Institute of Marine Science) CORAL SEARCH BACK ONLINE?! LINK & LOVE If you hadn’t taken notice, the old Coral Search identification site has been down for quite some time, but it now seems to be back in a new and improved version! Forgive me if this is old news (!!!), but I was [...]
December 7, 2008
Took a walk yesterday and noticed this neighborhood mural has been updated at least semi-recently. The paint looked fresher (here’s a link to the old one on Google Maps street view), maybe a couple months old. Wonder if the artist has a tank? Click for larger view of any.
October 7, 2008
Deepest living fish ever filmed. Story @BBC News… . It’s exciting to me to imagine what we might find in 10, 20 or 50 years… remember that movie “The Abyss”…?! “The “deepest ever” living fish have been discovered, scientists believe. A UK-Japan team found the 17-strong shoal at depths of 7.7km (4.8 miles) in the [...]
August 28, 2008
Coral Morphologic posted an unreal video today, taken from an oil rig almost 8,000′ under. Check this thing out. Out of this world. The truth is out there … or under there…
May 23, 2008
Due to a case of spring fever, a common affliction for many Chicagoans as we finally get regular temperatures above 50 or 60*F, there is quite a lack of updates on StonyReef. Aside from daily kH checks, I haven’t tested my water since early April, nor have I done so much as a water change [...]
April 22, 2008
Today is Earth Day. Perfect time to do the “3 days of lights out” on the tank. It’s a also a good time to think about the impact we, as individuals, have on the world around us. At home, we try to be as prudent as possible in regards to the environment, but when it [...]
March 12, 2008
I always think it’s interesting to see the animals we keep in our aquariums in their natural habitat. Here are some photos I took diving & snorkeling in Kauai last summer. More photos can be seen here. There’s an obvious difference in quality of photos from rental camera from diving and cheap underwater camera from [...]
February 14, 2008
“This six-gill shark (Hexanchus) was filmed during a submersible dive off the northeast coast of Molokai at a depth of 1000m (3280ft). The 2 red laser dots are 6 inches apart, resulting in a length of about 18 ft for the shark. Great ecstatic live commentary by University of Hawaii Oceanography Professor Jeff Drazen! Many [...]
December 11, 2009
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