Showing posts with label moray eel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moray eel. Show all posts

7/24/14

Meet the snake eel

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.
Posted by Chris at 10:37 AM 1 comments
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6/29/14

Moray Eel Checkup

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.


Posted by Chris at 10:00 AM 8 comments
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5/6/09

#4: Patience and Planning

These are the virtues needed to catch fish. Here's why ... we go down 30-40 feet underwater with long hoses attached to a large tank, wetsuit, flippers, mask, two vinyl nets and a vinyl catch bag. We do NOT use any chemicals to knock fish out, we do NOT use dynamite to stun (or kill) them, nor do we trawl the ocean floor to catch them.

With the minimum impact methods we use for collecting, the only advantage a person can have over the fish they're trying to catch is patience and planning. I have very little patience, but I'm working on it, and planning how to catch a fish with your dive partner is really hard underwater while breathing off your regulator. You can do some planning before you go underwater, but all you're plans change as soon as someone sees that scrawled filefish or some other prize fish.

Deb, our Director of Visitor Experience at the aquarium, says she learned a very valuable lesson in patience today from a Queen Angelfish. Deb floated with her nets over a coral head for 5-10 minutes before the fish decided to dart out of the coral and right into one of her nets.

This was particularly exciting for Deb since she had to let a beautiful Queen triggerfish go, and it was her first catch! But ... Queen triggers are listed on the IUCN redlist of endangered and threatened species, and we won't take anything that is on that, or any other threatened or endangered list.

Had I been more patient I may have noticed this creature tucked under some coral. One of our participants, Terry, who has logged over 400 dives, had to flag me down and point it out.
Here's one end of it.

Wanna take a guess as to what it is?


It was a spotted moray eel. Thanks Terry!

After all the patience and planning underwater, we surface to take breaks between dives. Planning ahead is critical to ensure that there are plenty of cold things in the fridge to drink...the air from the scuba tanks is very dry and I come up pretty parched.

The drink of choice for Sherrie (our expedition leader and Senior Aquarist) is Yoo-hoo. That is correct, Yoo-hoo. And I have to say, despite the high fructose corn syrup, it is surprisingly refreshing after a dive...or maybe I'm just so thirsty I don't care. Let's see what Chris thinks.

I guess you'll just have to try it. (I sense a sponsorship coming our way!)

A preview of tomorrow...

Find out why we put the tallest person on the boat inside a small, boxy, net looking thing.

-Bronwyn
Posted by NEAQ at 12:56 AM 0 comments
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5/12/08

Blog #7: The Catch

11:15 AM: Seacrest Marina, Bimini Harbor. We've spent the last two hours clearing the decks of the Coral Reef II in preparation for our seven-hour voyage back to Miami. All hands are rather quiet, as Capt. John has warned of a rough passage home with small craft warnings and 25 knots of wind dead in our face. We've been cautioned to tie down all our belongings, and you can hear the gulping of dramamine throughout the cabin.

The four main fish wells, each about 3x3x10 feet, have been secured as well, along with the six other tanks carrying our precious cargo. A pumping system will circulate sea water through all of the tanks until we get within an hour or so of Miami. From that point on, the water quality begins to deteriorate (Nice to be back home, huh?) and cannot be used. About ten 50-gallon barrels have been filled with fresh seawater as well. That water will be used to fill the plastic bags within which the animals will be shipped back to Boston.

So, how did we do? 377 fishes, 58 different species; 153 invertebrates, 44 species. We feel pretty darn good about this collection. In fact, everyone is extremely pleased! Among the wonderful animals we'll be loading on to airplanes for shipment back to Boston tomorrow are:

  • 4 indigo hamlets (Hypoplectrus indigo at right) These fish have not been exhibited for several years at the Aquarium. Somewhat rare in the Bahamas, the fish we caught were first spotted by Captain John on a morning dive at Whale Cay, then retrieved later the same day. We all believe, of course, that the four fish were precisely the same fish that the Captain had seen four hours earlier.

  • Two moray eels: a goldentail (Gymnothorax milaris at right) and a purplemouth (Gymnothorax vicinus). Both are about 12-14 inches in length. The purplemouth moray will be new to the Giant Ocean Tank in Boston. It was caught by our soon-to-be-married couple from the Netherlands, Marcelle and Bas. If they are as determined in their relationship as they were chasing fish, we have no doubt they will have a long happy life together.

  • Three trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculates), which will complement the one trumpet now on exhibit in the GOT. The NEAq aquarists on board say this new quartet will hang well together--literally straight up and down -- delighting visitors with their ability to respond to visual targets (a small plastic green cup) during feeding time (shown at right).

  • One cowfish, a juvenile, that we can't yet identify definitively. He's got horns, so we know he's belongs to the genus Lactophyrs. He's about the size of a quarter, now, and ultimately will grow to about a foot. He's destined for one of our smaller tanks in the Tropical Gallery until he's man enough for the GOT.

  • One yellow stingray (Urobatis jamaicensis shown at right) headed for the new temporary "shark and ray touch tank" we'll be installing on the east side of the Aquarium this summer. There, he will be joined by coral catsharks and cownose rays already in holding tanks back in Boston. We were careful not to take a female also seen off Bimini because she was pregnant with pups. Kids visiting the Aquarium will love this new touchtank.

  • Two basket stars (Astrophyton muricatum), fascinating invertebrates with intricate branching arms that fold up during the day and open at night, when they are used to filter plankton. This species can often be found on fan coral. We're not sure yet where they will be found in our galleries in Boston, you will have to come on down to find out!

  • Five red snapping shrimp (Alpheus armatus), each about an inch long (how the other divers found these on the bottom beats me! As a new diver, I could barely find the bottom sometimes.) This species makes a unique clicking sound. Like the other creatures mentioned above, you can find them in the ocean in the Bahamas or the beautiful exhibits at the New England Aquarium in Boston.

4:00 PM. Hey, land ho! There's the Miami skyline in the distance. And did I mention the rough seas? The passage actually turned out to be rather tranquil, with long and peaceful naps enjoyed by all. See you in Boston!

Posted by NEAQ at 9:57 PM 0 comments
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