Tag Archives: Ballan wrasse

First Dive of 2017

Posted on by under Canon G16, crustaceans, diving, fish, invasive species, seaweeds, Silver Steps, tunicates, worms

Finally, time for a (solo)dive last Saturday, at probably the most accessible local site: Silver Steps in Falmouth (you can just make out the steps in the photo above). The sun and high tide had attracted quite a lot of other divers too, including University of Exeter and Falmouth University students learning the ropes. I was very keen to get in the water and take photos but my approach is probably not the best: I just shoot whatever happens to be in front of me. Better results could be obtained to specifically look for macro subjects, to stay in the water column and search for jellies, befriend the Ballan wrasse or stay put in front of a Leopard-spotted goby hide-out (or check out seaweeds of course). I’ll do one of these things next time, for now, some random shots. I spotted several Spider crabs; these are always shy and try to quickly retreat, except for one. This big crab came after me as soon as we spotted each other. I should have tried more shots, as unfortunately he did not fit the frame. You can see in the short movie why I didn’t!

The viz was not great (I find it hard to estimate it in meters though). In the water I noticed a small hydrozoan Leuckartia octona. The underside of some wreckage harboured Light bulb sea squirts (see previous post) and some were predated on by Candy striped flatworm Prostheceraeus vittatus. (I brought my new LED light with me to help bring some colour out but I just ended up with combinations of glare and shadows so stuck to my normal natural light pics.) Next, a curious Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta. Finally, some not so clear shots that nevertheless give a good impression of how tall the invasive Wireweed Sargassum muticum are growing. Hopefully more dive posts soon!

Aquarium Update 16

Posted on by under anemones, aquarium update, fish, not suitable for the aquarium, Red Sea Max 130D, seaweeds

It has been more than five months since the last update on my Red Sea Max 130D so high time for nr 16. I have bought a media basket to force the water more through the filtration material, which cannot be a bad thing, but otherwise have done very little. I have not been diving as much as I wanted, and still have not gone to any of the deeper sites where I perhaps could have found some Dahlia anemones, larger Brittlestars or other interesting things. I have a red seaweed growing from the rocks; it has encrusted all rocks in a deep red colour and grows out of in a bit of a lettuce-shape. At first I thought it was the invasive species Grateloupia but the shape and colour are a bit different, I will enquire at the Seaweeds of the NE Atlantic facebook group what it is. I have some green algae but they grow in tufts that can be easily removed so I cannot complain really. Below a shot of the tank, it does not look great but there you have it:img_7419The anemones are still so-so. I think that plumose anemones need very fines foods and water changes, which I do not really do and as a result they are often closed and not growing. The strawberries and beadlets still don’t do as well as they did, no idea why. My Red-speckled anemones (Anthopleura ballii) on the other hand do great and are my favourites. Below a photo of a specimen I collected at a good low tide in Flushing this week and one in my aquarium that has grown quite a bit. It fluoresces in the middle. img_5611img_7401I have some squat lobsters rummaging around as well as a cool hairy crab. I have got rid of prawns as they are so aggressive! Every time I opened the hood and stopped the pump, they came swimming to the top, legs tickling and scraping on the plastic and attacking my fingers. They are part of the reason that my fish have not fared too well. I had some Pollack for a while but they eventually succumbed. I believe my flow is on the strong side, and with an occasional missed feeding and less energy, the prawns and anemones will not tolerate any slip up! I caught some Sand smelt (see here for two videos) with my big net from the quay but these formed a meal for other inhabitants within the day. I caught a Topknot (by hand) (see here) but that disappeared after a while too. I have two or three Cornish suckers that do well though. As soon as I feed they stick their noses from under rocks and dart out to catch some defrosted shrimp but otherwise you hardly see them. I was lucky to catch a bright green juvenile Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta of the quay which does great (they are not as nervous as the more common corkwing wrasse). I caught another individual (I only ever caught three) but the first one started picking on it, changing from bright green to a more subdued marbled green. I was not in time to release one of them and the second fish died unfortunately.

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more netting from the quay

Posted on by under crustaceans, fish, nets

In a recent post I showed some pictures of fish I caught off the quay in Flushing. I have since quite regularly scraped the sides of the quay with my net and netted a bunch more species. No good pictures of the Shanny, Rock Goby and Two-spotted goby yet, but here are some OK pictures of other species (I do not like to keep the fish too long out of the water so it is a bit rushed). Besides many juvenile individuals, occasionally I catch an adult Corkwing wrasse Symphodus melops. I have only once I managed to cath a bright green juvenile Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta:IMG_2998

IMG_3192Twice I have caught a Sea scorpion Taurulus bubalis, they look a bit like gremlins. Once I caught a Greater pipefish Syngnathus acus, very cool:IMG_2710

IMG_2991My friend Thor is a very good photographer with a very good camera and he made some great pictures of fish in the cuvet this week. Two Corkwings, a Fifteen-spined stickleback Spinachia spinachia, some Thick-lipped (probably) grey mullet Chelon labrosus. The latter are more difficult to catch as they are in open water and the net has a small mesh size. As a bonus the most common catch, a Common prawn Palaemon serratus:_MG_5851 - Copy

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new year’s resolutions

Posted on by under cnidarians, echinoderms, molluscs, not suitable for the aquarium, public aquarium, Red Sea Max 130D, seaweeds

It has been a while since I last posted about the aquarium, mainly because I had a problem with algae and did not like the look of the tank in general. Combined with being away for two weeks over the holiday season, I decided to remove the rocks and most animals from the tank. Only left are some snails, Cushion stars and a Spiny starfish (who seems to do fine except for being less brightly coloured than when I caught it). The snails made a good start and cleaned up a lot of algae but it was too little too late. Also, (non Spiny starfish-related) mortality was quite high. Of all snails, the periwinkles fared least well (as I had noticed on earlier occasions); the Grey top shells seemed to do best. A main problem is that the snails move out of the water and often die there. Grey top shells can be found in the intertidal but are also common in the subtidal and so might be more suitable for the aquarium.

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Anyway, time for a fresh start in the new year. I have decided to buy a chiller (and pump), mainly so I can switch off the noisy hood fans, but also because a more natural temperature regime might help keeping some of the more difficult species (see eg here and here). I have trawled the internet to find recommendations for the least noisy chiller but to no avail. I will stick with a more expensive brand and hope for the best. I will also invest in LED lighting. LED lights give a nice shimmer effect, generate less heat, use less electricity, need less replacement and are more easily dimmable. I’ve found this interesting Red Sea Max 130D retrofit kit:solderless_rsm130_dimmable__09721.1361404356.640.640I will need to buy a separate dimmer and probably will have to ask my local sparky for help fitting it in the hood but it seems like a good investment. I’d like to supplement white LEDs appropiate for shallow water with some blue ones so I’ll be able to get a deeper water feel as well. This week I saw an inspirational aquarium back in Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam: a deep water reef with gorgonians, many brittle stars, Boar fish (or Zulu fish) Capros aper, Snipe fish Macrorhamphosus scolopax and John Dory Zeus faber. A crap photo:

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However, I will go for a more brightly lit seaweed aquarium first. I will switch to finer gravel and reduce the amount of rocks to improve water flow. This time I will also focus more on fish. Marius has a great picture of a Two-spotted goby Gobiusculus flavescens in his Irish rock pool aquarium here and I definitely want to have a couple of these (I had a tiny one recently but it was eaten by one of the Snakelocks…). The other fish I definitely want to have is a bright green juvenile Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta (although the other species are pretty too):

wrasseSmall wrasse can be caught using a hand net but I reckoned it would be easier using a cast net. After my first trial run with such a net in the Helford river a while back I am not so sure though: loads of leaves and twigs but no fish. Youtube has hundreds and hundreds of ‘how to throw a cast net’ videos but these all use slightly different techniques which sometimes involve a throw whilst holding the led line between the teeth… Anyway, I’ll have to practice!

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first dive in Cornwall

Posted on by under diving, fish, seaweeds

A couple of weeks ago I went for a bit of a spur of the moment after-work dive with colleague Andrew (like me a quite unexperienced diver) and his friend Charlotte Sams. Charlie is an experienced diver and natural history photographer, who has her own blog: Charlottesamsphotography, which you should check out. We dove in Falmouth off Pendennis point. The water was not very clear (maybe 5-6 meters visibility) but the temperature was quite nice. We saw (amongst others) Sand eels (do not know which of the two species), Pollack Pollachius pollachius, Dragonets Callionymus lyra, Two-spotted gobies Gobiusculus flavescens, a Tompot blenny Parablennius pararugine, very large Ballan wrasse Labrus bergylta and a beautiful little John dory Zeus faber:

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We also saw some very large Common starfish Asteria rubens and also a nice Spiny starfish Marthasteria glacialis. We dove only to about 5-7 meters, which meant we could stay in quite long, over an hour. At seven meters, the bottom was a sandy expanse, interspersed with mounts of Laminaria Kelp covered in hydroids. In-between the kelp were other seaweeds, such as Red rags Dilsea carnosa but I was more focused on the animals during the dive. In shallower water were enormous bundles of Wireweed Sargassum muticum (also known as japweed but that is not very pc…) and the very long slimy Mermaid’s tresses or Bootlace weed Chorda filum. Snakelocks anemones were very common, and we managed to also see Leach’s spider crab Inachus phalangium, which lives associated with these anemones. All in all a fantastic experience, and I hope to find the time to go diving very soon again!