December is a busy month for all of us in the Giant Ocean Tank. As we try to wrap up projects and meet deadlines at the end of the year we also undergo a massive project that requires all of the staff and volunteers to work together. This project is our end of the year census which involves counting every animal in the GOT to ensure that everyone is accounted for. With over 1200 animals in the exhibit this is quite the feat!

Taking notes

We use underwater slates and pencils to write down our counts during each dive.

Slate with a list of fish. Yup, we use regular old pencils to take the notes.

The census is also an excellent opportunity for us to practice our fish identification skills. It is easy to get rusty on over 120 species IDs if you don't practice.

This year we are also trying something new. We are working to establish an average length for each fish in order to estimate a weight for that species. These PVC sticks are taped with sections of varying lengths to help us make these estimations.

A measuring stick allows us to approximate a fish's length.

At the end of our dives we record the number of fish we counted onto a worksheet which will get totaled and submitted at the end of the month. These totals are then made available to national organizations like the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Fancy spreadsheet help when you have lots of fish to count

Having an accurate record of our collection is important because it also helps us better develop our collection plan for the following year. (Check out the blogs from our most recent collecting trip.) We aim to have as minimal an impact as possible when collecting animals and knowing how many individuals we have in the collection helps us ensure that goal.

The Aquarium may be closed today but the animals inside still need to be fed and cared for. Some of our awesome GOT volunteers came in this morning to help care for the exhibit. Thanks guys!

Maris Wicks recently joined Aquarium divers on an expedition to the Bahamas. She was inspired by her trip, and spending so much time with all those beautiful fish, to create a holiday post for the Divers Blog. Enjoy! And best wishes for a delightful holiday season. — The Dive Team

Greetings humans!  It's me, Maris (previously seen on the Global Explorers blog).

Maris experiencing her very own Fishmas miracle with some salmon.

I was feeling quite festive this holiday season, and I thought that I would share with you one of my favorite carols: The Twelve Days of Fishmas. You heard me correctly: FISHMAS. This song celebrates just a few of the inhabitants of the New England Aquarium's Giant Ocean Tank (aka the "G.O.T."). Enjoy (and please feel free to sing along):

The coral reef habitat inside the GOT is actually made of fiberglass! Even though it's not real coral, it still provides shelter and a place to rest for many of the tank's residents (including this parrotfish).

There are actually four sea turtles in the GOT: one green sea turtle (Myrtle), two loggerhead sea turtles (Carolina and Retread), and one Kemp's ridley turtle (Ari).  Shown here are Myrtle and Ari. Oh, and I would also like to mention that turtles are NOT fish; they are reptiles!

French grunts are often found schooling in the lower area of the GOT (and obviously not in the above formation...they usually swim together in a group, but not for any fancy Olympic-style synchronized swimming moves).

Peacock flounder, to be exact!  You kind of have to sing this one "Flooooouuunnnder" to make it work with the song.

What would the GOT be without its divers?  They go into the tank five times a day to feed the more than 1,000 animals that call the GOT home, and to clean and maintain the 200,000 gallon tank.  Oh, and divers are NOT fish; they are mammals!

The green moray eels are some of the largest fish in the GOT.  If you see one, it already looks likes it's caroling on account of the way they open and close their mouths. They are not actually singing; they are getting more water to pass over their gills via their mouth. Follow this link to see how we care for our morays.

Snappers are another schooling fish; look for them hanging out with the French grunts!

There are three barracuda in the GOT, and they are most often found at the surface. Look for their black spots on their back! Oh, and same with the Flounder, sign this one "Barr-a-cuda" to make it work with the song.

This is a rather utopian portrayal of damselfish considering how territorial they tend to be. The defense of their habitat is not unjustified; damselfish are often protecting a clutch of eggs and have been the focus of a breeding program here at the New England Aquarium.

ANOTHER schooling fish, lookdowns are often found swimming higher up in the GOT (hence the whole "lookdown" part of their name).

Pufferfish, balloonfish, porcupinefish...they all have the ability to inflate when threatened  (see this article for some recent research about HOW they do that).

The GOT is home to one big black drum that likes to hang out on the bottom. Black drums have little fish-beards (ok, the correct term is BARBELS) that help them sense prey. But that's not even the coolest thing about them; they actually DRUM!  Well, they make a noise like a drum. Listen for yourself. Black Drums make this sound with the help of a specialized organ called a swim bladder. Normally, the swim bladder is used for controlling buoyancy, but in some species of fish, it also makes sounds.

I hope that you've enjoyed my stirring rendition of The Twelve Days of Fishmas. May your holidays be filled with hot cocoa damelsfish and Candy Cane Shrimps on a Snowy (Grouper) night!

cheers,
maris

Lauren and our other 30 or so volunteers and interns are the heart of our operation regarding taking care of all of the Giant Ocean Tank denizens.  From keeping the support area spotless, answering questions from the public, feeding our sea turtles and surface fishes, and of course prepping all of the food for over a thousand fishes each day, they work their tails off... and we are so appreciative!

When she's not chopping food for the fish or scrubbing corals in the big tank, Lauren will be training for the Boston Marathon® with the New England Aquarium. She's fundraising to support the Aquarium education outreach programs, which bring ocean programming to local classrooms in underserved communities. So while her video raises awareness about all that goes on at the Aquarium, these outreach classes raise awareness about our oceans and what we can all to do protect them in the community.

When she's not chopping food for the fish, you might find her scuba diving in the big tank

Because as Lauren sings in her song:

I know what I must do
to teach the public how we all live blue™
It's cool to be ocean-friendly—like me!
H-2-O, H-2-O
It's the basis of life on earth.
H-2-O, H-2-O
It's a resource with so much worth!

If you liked her video, you can support Lauren's marathon fundraising here.

Thanksgiving is a time of traditions—turkey, football, family, you know the drill. Here in the Dive Department we have our own traditions. One that's taken root over the years is the holiday blog post. So in honor of all the feasting across the country, we give you feasting in the Giant Ocean Tank.


Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Following up on the last blog about cleaner fish, I wanted to share something cool I caught on film recently.  I witnessed a stoplight parrotfish and a... well, just watch this video!



The cleaner is a spanish hogfish, known for removing parasites and debris from larger fishes. The cleanee—her patient—is a stoplight parrotfish, a fish that we've been keeping an eye on for a few weeks because of discoloration around its mouth.  But it's still healthy and behaving normally, and we'll continue to monitor it for any changes. This is the only stoplight in its juvenile/initial phase in the Giant Ocean Tank. Stay tuned for more on parrotfish phases!

Juvenile stoplight parrotfish

We are always talking about how BIG Myrtle is, and answering questions like "What's the biggest fish in the tank?" and "What's the wingspan of the southern stingrays" and "How long are the moray eels"... but perhaps one of the most interesting fish in the Giant Ocean Tank is also the smallest resident: the neon goby!  Neon gobies are cleaner fish and congregate in cleaning stations waiting for fish to require their services.  Check out this video of our Nassau grouper at the "neon goby spa".



Neon gobies, Elacatinus oceanops, reside in the Gobiidae family, which has 38 species alone in the Caribbean.  They typically don't grow any larger than 2" long, and as is obvious by their name, are recognizable by the electric blue body stripe running from eye to tail.

Nassau grouper in profile. This fish loves getting its picture taken!

Neon blue goby | Photo: Jmk7 via Wikimedia Commons

Moray eels also like to visit the cleaning station

As do some divers

You'll find neon gobies in another part of the Aquarium, too! Check out this video of neon gobies cleaning the Goliath groupers in the Blue Hole exhibit on Level 2.

There's a teensy bit of graffiti hidden away in the Giant Ocean Tank. And the only way you might be able to see it (besides being a diver in the big tank, of course) is to attend the daily diver presentations at 2:30 p.m.

Visitors can listen to divers speaking underwater while giant high definition video screens (not seen in this picture) relay scenes from deep within the Giant Ocean Tank

A new diver communication system was one of the high-tech additions during the renovations to this central exhibit. Divers fly a hand-held camera deep underwater, feeding live video to the top of the tank, while wearing a special mask that lets them hear questions from visitors at the top and respond to them—from 23 feet underwater! Not only can visitors find themselves in the middle of feedings or schools of fish, they can ask the divers about their favorite fish, explore those secret nooks that aren’t visible from the windows and even see what visitors look like on the other side of the glass.

Dan models the gear that makes all this possible

The divers speaking underwater require hours of specialized training and some fancy scuba gear. Here are the tools of the trade for divers and educators sharing the insider perspective of the Giant Ocean Tank.

Divers breath and speak through a full-face mask with a microphone. Without a regulator in their mouth, divers can easily speak.

A vibrating disc near the diver’s ear lets them hear the educator at the top of the tank. Since sound travels easily underwater, divers swimming nearby can eavesdrop.

The hand-held camera is shiny and sleek, about the size of a can of soup. Some of the fish are very curious about it, so they often have cameos.

A long cable connects the camera, earpiece and microphone to the broadcast systems. That’s because water is too dense for WiFi—imagine, no WiFi!

These interactive talks provide: exciting visuals that you can’t get anywhere else, plus an insider’s perspective on the animals and ecology of Caribbean reefs. So if you want to dive deeper and learn more about the Giant Ocean Tank and its residents, check the daily schedule of presentations during your next visit and make sure you’re at the top of the tank for these interactive diver talks.

Bet you never knew there was graffiti inside the Giant Ocean Tank

Oh yeah, and about that graffiti... At the very bottom of the exhibit, in the dark tunnel that cuts through the reef, you'll find the signature of the artists who created this coral reef. Peter Brady tagged the reef the first time in 1984, when the reef was first made. He signed it again last year when the Giant Ocean Tank was completely renovated. Ask your friendly scuba diver with the camera to show it to you during the next diver talk from inside the tank!

We are sure that most of you have heard of Farm to Table, but how about Farm to TURTLE?

Farmer Erica

This week at the Giant Ocean Tank we had some special visitors. Erica and Dave from Rustic Root Farms in Farmington, ME, brought some of their organically-grown produce down for our favorite vegetable-eating green sea turtle to sample! (That would be Myrtle, of course.)

Along with about twenty Aquarium employees, Myrtle receives a weekly delivery of produce from the farm. They are all members of a CSA, which is short for Community-Supported Agriculture. Being a CSA member is a bit like being a shareholder in a business, except that you get to eat your weekly return! What was on the menu this week?  A tasty salad of zucchini, cucumber, red beets, bok choy, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and beet greens.

Yummy

We knew she’d love the romaine lettuce – it’s a regular staple in her diet here – and were pretty sure she’d like the red leaf too, but everything else was a bit of a mystery for us!  And even we were surprised by some of what the Brussels sprout-loving reptile liked and didn’t like.

Feeding Myrtle at the top of the Giant Ocean Tank

Myrtle turned her beak up at the beet greens, and would only eat the zucchini and cucumber when stuffed inside a squid! The bok choy was hit or miss. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all? It was Myrtle diving down into the water to chase down the red beets! She gobbled them right down while beet juice squirted all around!

Myrtle on a beet pursuit

Erica and Dave (who is also the Manager of Visitor Experience here at the Aquarium) wanted to bring their vegetables to the Aquarium to show people that you can live blue™ by eating green (or more specifically, by eating your greens). Here are 10 ways you can make a difference for our blue planet.

Getting your produce locally means that food hasn’t had to travel lots of miles to your plate and is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. So be like Myrtle and buy local and sustainable – and support your neighborhood farmers!

Fish in the GOT are frequently observed spawning, or laying eggs, and we have been hard at work trying to collect some of these eggs in the hopes of hatching them out. These baby fish, or larval fish, can then be raised up in special tanks to hopefully one day make their way back into the GOT as adults.

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Redfin needlefish | Photo: Floret's Guide

This is a redfin needlefish egg. The numerous hairs help the eggs attach to floating sea weed in the wild

After the first week the fish embryos started to take shape within the developing egg

The clear sphere attached to the fish's belly is the remaining yolk from their egg. The larval fish are unable to feed for a few days after hatching and must gain nutrients from this yolk

Pigment develops in the fish's eyes a few days after hatching

By the end of the second week twelve larval fish had hatched out of their eggs

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In the wild fish lay thousands upon thousands of eggs and only a small handful survive to become adults. With only twelve larval fish we may not have any that reach adulthood. But the lessons we learn now will help us become more successful in the future when working with this species.

Ripples, fish and corals at the top of the Giant Ocean Tank

These larval fish are behind the scenes, and it likely will be a long time before you would see them on exhibit. But you can look for the adult needlefish at the top of of the Giant Ocean Tank. They can dart around just below the surface, racing for a morsel of food or to scoot out of the way of hulking sea turtle surfacing for a breath. Plan your visit to the Aquarium this summer and get to know these fish and dozens of other species in this 200,000-gallon Caribbean reef exhibit!

Snake eels share an Order (Anguilliformes) but are in a separate Family (Ophichthidae) than morays (Muraenidae). They are named so because of their strong resemblance to snakes, and you may know a diver that claimed to have seen a sea snake while diving in Florida or the Bahamas. Sea snakes do not inhabit these waters. They likely saw a snake eel!

Of the 300 or so species of snake eels, five are represented in Caribbean waters. Meet 1 of them: the goldspotted eel, a new addition to our Giant Ocean Tank.

Distinguishing the goldspotted eel from other snake eels is easy.  Look for the bright gold spots with black borders around them.  In comparison, the sharptail eel - a past GOT denizen - has gold spots but no border.


Goldspotted eels can grow to almost 3 1/2 feet in length, though 1-2 1/2 feet is more common.  Ours is a little longer than 2 feet presently.


Goldspotted eels - like morays - are nocturnal and feed mainly on crabs.  This guy hasn't eaten yet (as far as we know) but is being offered shrimp and clam tongue pieces daily.  In fact, every day during the 10:00 dive, we seek out all of our eels (6 morays, 1 snake eel) to offer seafood to each one.  Typically, only 1 or 2 eels will eat per day.  If you are at the Aquarium, look for a diver with a yellow stick (safety first!) and a blue catch bag.

The best spot to possibly catch a glimpse of our goldspotted eel, is at the top of the reef, in the center... though no guarantees - he likely will move around a lot!

Chris

Now don't you want to see this cool animal? Get in the door quicker. Buy your tickets online and print them out at home.

We love our morays, I mean after all "that's amore."  Sorry for that.  Honestly though, our green morays are an awesome group of the Giant Ocean Tank population of fish. They look menacing, yet are docile animals. We offer them food every day (though some eels will not eat for weeks on end), and because of that we are quick to notice any odd behavior or physical issues. One day recently it was observed that our largest moray had a distended abdomen and a swollen vent, so we decided that a trip to the Aquarium Medical Center (just down the hall) was in order.  How do you catch and transport an eel anyway?

 


Once out of the tank and behind the scenes, she is wheeled down the hall to the medical center, where the vets take over.  First step--after closing all the doors just in case--is to add anesthesia to the water and wait for the eel to go into a sleepy state.

Having a look to see if she is asleep from the anesthesia yet

An inside view

Moving her to the exam table

After turning her 180 degrees to get closer...

...she began to expel eggs.  A LOT of eggs.

Like, almost 3 GALLONS of eggs!

Stitching her back up

And a quick blood draw for tests

Back in the eel bag she goes

Once back in the eel bag, she is put back in the barrel and wheeled back down the hallway for her return to the Giant Ocean Tank.  I'm pretty sure she feels much better :-)




Green morays, Gymnothorax funebris, typically range between 3 and 5 feet when seen in the wild, however this eel is close to 8 feet long and is the biggest of the five we have in the Giant Ocean Tank.  Green morays are nocturnal by nature, but it is not too uncommon to see one of ours swimming around the tank during the day. Come have a look and see if you can spy all five as you spiral up the Giant Ocean Tank ramp.