Today we have a first: the saltwater aquaria of reader Mark Richardson, of which he was rightfully proud (as the notes below indicate, he gave up the hobby a few years back). Although they are not in the wild, the animals are certainly found in the wild. I can only imagine how much trouble it is to keep these aquaria healthy and vibrant, and to keep corals alive! His notes are indented below (be sure to click the photos to enlarge them; there’s a lot of detail here).
Mark added this: “Sheesh, the copy on this got really long, but I figured WEIT is a community of readers so it would be ok. I wanted to showcase the aquariums themselves because that’s the real story, but there is so much going on, even an overview takes some explaining. I did my best.”
I used to maintain a number of reef tanks before I moved from Wyoming to Washington in ’07. After relocating I abandoned the hobby, deciding the beautiful reef creatures didn’t need my help with increasing market demand. I miss the tanks, especially when I go through the photos, but I know I made the right decision. It’s easy to get lost in a reef tank (especially the really big ones) and that’s what I miss the most. It is a challenging and edifying hobby that in my case turned into an obsession…perhaps that is why those in the hobby are called “reefers”.
The first 2 photos are of a 65g and a 170g tank. These two tanks housed mainly soft corals (Alcyonacea). Soft corals do not produce calcium carbonate skeletons, and aren’t reef builders. Though Wiki says: recent findings suggest that colonies of the leather-coral genus Sinularia are able to cement sclerites and consolidate them at their base into alcyonarian spiculite, thus making them reef builders.
65g: The large coral in the center is a yellow finger leather-coral, family Alcyoniidae. The tree-looking coral on the bottom right is a pink heteroxenia polyp (family Xeniidae). The herteroxenia is contracted because of some disturbance, most likely from the dwarf zebra hermit crab (Calcinus laevimanus) on its right. When the hetereoxenia is not contracted, it looks like the pink pom-pom at its 11 o’clock. There are also a smattering of green-striped mushrooms and electric-blue mushrooms, family Actinodiscus. The floor is littered with more pink herteroxenia and pink tree-coral, family Nephtheidae. I never put any fish in this aquarium to keep down the levels of ammonia and nitrite…corals are ultra-sensitive to pollutants.
170g: The fish at the far left is a Royal Gramma Basslet (Gramma loreto). There is a close-up of this beauty below. The triple stump tree-looking cream colored coral at the upper center is a mushroom finger leather-coral and the coral at its 4 o’clock is a yellow toadstool leather-coral; the coral directly right is a cabbage leather-coral. All are in the family Alcyoniidae. I nicknamed this tank the “shroom tank” because it contained all the mushroom species I ever obtained: red, green-striped, electric-blue, green hairy and purple hairy. Can you spot them all?
The 3rd and 4th photos are of a 220g aquarium- front and side-view.
220g: This was my pride and joy, and housed my favorite type of corals- Scleractinia, or hard corals. In the hobby (I don’t know how scientific this is) hard corals are put in 2 groups based on their polyp size. LPS (large sized polyps) and SPS (small sized polyps). This tank is too difficult to describe without circles and notations, so I’ll give some generalizations. Along the top (requiring the most light) are SPS acropora. Acroporas (family Acroporidae) have a distinctive finger or horn-like growth pattern and are the primary species of reef-builders. In the mid-section are both SPS (though not acropora) and LPS. The LPS include candycane coral, torch coral, frogspawn coral and brain coral- all in family Dendrophyllidae. Some of the corals on the floor are a giant mushroom, a purple gorgonian or sea-whip (family Gorgoniidae) and a Hawaiian feather duster (family Sabellidae). There are two fish on the right, Hawaii’s famous yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens) and a two-tone dartfish (Ptereleotris evides). This photo was taken when the tank was “young” and I hadn’t introduced the 10 or so fish I eventually had in the tank. Disclosure: I selected the tank’s background and Gaussian blurred the hell out of it so the hardware wouldn’t detract from the “reef”.
Side view:
The 5th photo is a Royal Gramma Basslet (Gramma loreto). One of most beautiful and vibrant colored fish in the Caribbean. These fish are extremely territorial, so only one fish per tank please.
The 6th photo is a macro shot of a LPS named candy cane or trumpet coral (Caulastrea furcata). One feature of LPS corals are sweeper tentacles or nematocysts which are clearly visible in this photo. Like jellyfish, LPS corals use these appendages to both sting and capture prey (even small fish) and sting other corals that are encroaching on their territory. Most corals feed at night, and that’s when you’ll see their extended nematocysts.
The 7th and 8th photos are a SPS coral aptly named elephant skin coral (Pachyseris rugosa). This coral has no visible polyps and gets the majority of its nutrition from photosynthesis created by a symbiotic single-celled algae called zooxanthellae. This algae lives in the tissue of most coral species and provides different levels of photosynthetic nutrition depending on the species of coral. They are also responsible for the brilliant colors found in many corals. The 8th photo is a macro shot of its ridged “skin”.
The 9th photo is a lovely powder blue tang (Acanthurus leucosternon). It actually is more “powder blue” than this photo reveals. The blue actinic lighting of the reef tank intensified the fish’s blue coloration.
The 10th photo is a maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) hovering over a long tentacle plate coral (Heliofungia actiniformis). Clown fish are anemonefish that form a symbiotic relationship with sea anemones. Their thick mucous coating protects them from the stinging tentacles of its host anenome. This clownfish already had a symbiotic relationship with a carpet anenome, but it seemed to like this anenome-looking coral as well (two timer!). All clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites. They are all born males (protoandrous) and turn into females when social pressure dictates.
The 11th photo is a macro shot of a brown staghorn acropora (Acropora cervicornis). Each polyp is an individual coral. What we generally call a “coral” is actually a colony of corals (polyps) and can live for centuries.
The 12th photo is titled “A plethora of reef life”. This 120g tank was in our living room and held a diverse assortment of corals and fish. You will probably recognize some of the corals from other photos. On the far left is a LPS green galaxy coral (Galaxea fascicularis); notice the single sweeper tentacle extended from the top. This is an aggressive coral that could extend its tentacles over 6 inches. Above and to the right is a yellow cup coral (genus Turbinaria) which happens to be the very first coral I obtained. One of my favorite corals is the big purplish LPS in the center called a thin branched frogspawn coral (Euphyllia divisa). This is also an aggressive coral with 6″ long sweeper tentacles. The fish starting on the left: the pretty orange fish with the purple posterior is a flame angelfish (Centropyge loricula); on it’s right is the aforementioned maroon clownfish; directly behind the clownfish is the head of a spotted yellow eye tang (Ctenochaetus truncatus) and on the far right is just the head of my all-time favorite reef fish the flame hawkfish (Neocirrhites armatus). This fish seems to have a real personality as it perches on corals and looks around with its bubbly eyes searching for food.
Very nice. Puts my tank of Labidochromis caeruleus to shame!
Good grief. I did not know such things were possible given the complexity maintaining what I thought was a necessarily open ecosystem.
This was an awesome series of pictures, and the narrative was perfect. I can see why you had this hobby, but I don’t think I could maintain it as you did.
Did you ever keep sponges or sea squirts? I have a soft spot for those groups — pun not entirely intended.
I did purchase a sponge once, but it didn’t do well. There is a black sponge and smaller yellow ones (forget names) that were commonly found on the “live rock”. Live rock is what makes the foundation for reef tanks. It is essentially made from the aragonite skeletons of dead coral and have lots of nooks and crannies for marine organisms and more importantly aerobic and anaerobic nitrifying bacteria that create a biological filter. It was always fun watching live rock come to life in a tank. Sometimes it would take a couple months for the sponges, clams and other invertebrates to appear. The purple/pink you see in the tanks is coralline algae which is an important food source for some marine life and is also introduced via the live rock.
Sea squirts are notoriously difficult to keep because of their diet and I stayed away from them. They sure are neat though.
I well remember the live rocks used in the marine aquarium at work. That aquarium went through some generations of livestock, and it was interesting to see what would pop out of the rocks. Once is was a lot of little sea cucumbers.
Beautiful!!
I had a tank with a clownfish once. I suspect it would be a lot easier to maintain that hobby today. Unless you go “reefer”…
As lagniappe, I suggest the LRO Earthrise scenery that puts the iconic Apollo image to shame. The description on how they got it is a read too. [ http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/lro-earthrise-2015 ]
Thanks for the lagniappe. That should become the new iconic image of the earth. Beautiful.
+1
I have dived in the Caribbean many times and am thrilled by the diversity of coral and fish. The tanks here are amazing in that they compress many species into a tight space. It almost overwhelms the senses.
Of course not all dives show diversity and health among the corals. Some areas are completely destroyed or are on the way toward total collapse.
Do you gather your own samples for the tanks, or do you buy them from a commercial collector?
I lived in Wyoming at the time so I didn’t have easy access to coral reefs. Also places like Hawaii won’t let visitors take anything from the reefs. I purchased the corals from commercial reef retail stores in and around where I lived and many I purchased on-line. Many of the corals (especially the acropora) were cultured in captivity. They are called ‘frags’ and are usually pieces of coral the size of a small finger. If the conditions are right, they’ll grow and flourish. When I left the hobby, the sustainability of reefs was becoming very important and therefore the aquaculture of corals and fish was gaining a lot of momentum. I’d be interested to see what is being cultured in captivity nowadays.
It is sad how many reefs around the world have died due to pollution and climate change. Though if conditions change, corals can come back rather quickly.
“if conditions change, corals can come back rather quickly.”
While that might be true, I’m pessimistic about many species surviving. Estimates are that half will be lost. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is only now beginning to be dealt with. The oceans are acidifying rapidly. The latency built into our future already dooms many sensitive species. If we succeed in halting heating at 2 degrees C, we will need to somehow find a way to remove those trillions of tons of carbon to reestablish conditions. Remediation is likely to be too little, too late.
It is interesting to think that perhaps many species can be preserved in tanks for about 200 years, to be used to seed the oceans when conditions are restored.
I concur with you. It’s probably not the best stance to be optimistic about the environment bouncing back nowadays. Perhaps the hobby will ironically save species instead of deplete them in the wild. I’m sure there are some corals that only exist in tanks by now.
Is it just me, or are grey squirrels getting redder? Lately, every photo of a grey seems to show at least a patch of fur with a reddish tinge…
Beautiful work, Mark. Wow!
These are wonderful Mark!
The health of our planet’s coral reefs is something that’s concerned me for a while – it’s good to know they can come back fairly quickly given an improvement in conditions and all is not lost.
Now that this post has run the gamut, I’d like to say thanks for all the compliments! It’s nice to be able to share these photos that not many people have seen.
“All clownfish are protandrous hermaphrodites. They are all born males (protoandrous) and turn into females when social pressure dictates.”
The next ‘Nemo’ sequel pretty much writes itself.