Trip to the GA Aquarium

Evie and I just had a Father-Daughter weekend.  This may sound a little off-topic, but the highlight was a visit to the Georgia Aquarium.  I was hoping she would enjoy it as much as she did last time, and her expression as we were waiting in line gave me some hope!

The first view we had was the Jack Crevalle exhibit, where the jacks swim around and around on either side of the aquarium entrance.

The next stop was the Pacific Sea Nettles (jellyfish).  This is the one display where the creatures swam slowly enough for me to photograph with my camera phone!  (No iPhone here...)

Evie seemed to enjoy watching the jellies float by (they were somehow floating in a loop from top to bottom) but was not overly impressed.
















The next stop was the highlight of the trip- the Pacific Reef Slope.  We spent a lot of time watching the reef fish (and a couple of blacktip sharks) swim by.  This display earned a good number of claps and excited yells!

Here is a video of Evie enjoying the fish swimming by:




Of course, we visited the famous Whale Shark exhibit on the way out.  It was interesting, but not too exciting- where did all of those colorful fish go?

At the end of the afternoon, there was one tired baby (and Daddy!)  We hope to come back soon.

New Coral

I picked up a bright pink Porites coral frag over the weekend.  It cost more than $5, but it didn't cost $20, but still... don't tell Dave Ramsey.

Here is a photo of the new coral:

 And a random photo of Big Girl and Little Boy swimming in formation.   :)

Coral growth update

As I mentioned earlier, the Acropora corals are looking especially good since we left them in Chris and Emily's care.  :)

Here are some recent photos of the yellow $5 frag, and green just-a-little-more-than $5 frag.  Looking back, the green coral has grown radially very visibly whereas the yellow one has only encrusted, but substantially, since July.  I think it is about to branch; look at the lower right side of the colony where the corallites are extending noticably from the face of the colony.  I still have no idea what the common or species names of these corals are, although I saw a similar yellow frag at a store in Orlando a couple months ago.  Please post a comment if you have an idea...

    

Here is the same area again from the side.  The area that is hopefully about to branch is more visible from this angle:

 

This is the same area in July.  You can barely notice the yellow Acropora, and its color is much more muted.

 

 

I don't think that  a photo of this Montipora digitata frag has been posted before.  It was such a pathetic little nub originally, stuck in the back of the aquarium, that I doubt I had any desire to publicize it...  It has encrusted on the rock pretty well now, is starting to form 4+ new branches.  I'll post another photo once it grows out some more.

 

Aquacultured Coral Spawning

The below link has a description and videos of aquacultured Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals spawning at Molasses Reef in the Florida Keys.  These colonies were originally started by the Coral Restoration Foundation at their undersea nursery as small fragments in either the spring of 2005 or the spring  of 2006, and were transplanted to their current location at Molasses Reef in the summer of 2007.

http://www.coralrestoration.org/CRF/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12:articlespawningcorals&catid=4:categorynewsreefblog&Itemid=13

This is a great success story!

Thanks Chris!

... and Emily too of course!  Chris with Einstein Aquatics came by the house a couple of times while we were on vacation to check in on the aquarium.  This let us relax just a little bit more on vacation, and it seems like the corals are in better shape now than before we left...  :)