My birthday is in April but I will accept gifts for shark week, Christmas, or even a day ending in ‘y’.
(Photo by Richard Ling)
Steephead parrotfish (Chlorurus microrhinos) are usually green-blue overall with a pinkish bar on each scale. The tooth plates are blue-green, there is a blue-green band above the mouth and a wider one below, and an irregular blue-green line crosses the cheek. This species also has a less common red phase.The Steephead Parrotfish grows to 70 cm in length and it occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western and Central Pacific. See this post for more on parrotfish.
(Source)
(Photo by Mark Laita)
The porcupine pufferfish (Diodon holacanthusare) is very well protected against predators. Any animal that attempts to make a meal of this pufferfish will almost certainly not repeat the mistake! It can reach a size of 90 cm, which is large for pufferfish. Pufferfish are found throughout the world in tropical waters. They can adapt to a wide variety of habitats, searching at night for prey such as sea urchins, crabs and gastropod molluscs, amongst coral reefs as well as sandy flats, eel grass beds and rocky shorelines. In South East Asia, the skin of the porcupine puffer is sold in its fully expanded form as a novelty lamp, with a light bulb placed inside.
(Source)
Seriously awesome photograph of blacktip reef sharks
Source: tupac
(Photo by Leihla Scharlau) Lion’s mane jellyfish (see this previous post)
(Photo by Thomas Peschak) Manta Ray (see this post).
Sea pens. New Zealand, 2006.
(via Conservation International)
Sea pens are colonial marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea. Sea pens are grouped with the octocorals (“soft corals”), together with sea whips and gorgonians.
Unlike other octocorals, however, a sea pen’s polyps are specialized to specific functions: a single polyp develops into a rigid, erect stalk (the rachis) and loses its tentacles, forming a bulbous “root” or peduncle at its base. The other polyps branch out from this central stalk, forming water intake structures (siphonozooids), feeding structures (autozooids) with nematocysts, and reproductive structures. The entire colony is fortified by calcium carbonate in the form of spicules and a central axial rod.
“Video of Effective Sea Lamprey Repellent”
Still think that they should’ve done the test in a bigger tank. It seems cruel to not give the lampreys any way to escape the repellent.
Fuck yeah multiple mantas
………. The diamond shaped rays are Blue Spotted Stingrays (Neotrygon kuhlii) and the more rounded one at the top is a Blue Spotted Ribbontail ray (Taeniura lymma) .
These are Manta’s - they are not bottom dwellers, and are much much much larger. And cooler.
Source: oh-whiskers
