Rich Ross

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Stop using the top of your tank as shelf, use magnets instead

April 29, 2010 No Comments

From Reefbuilders

Most reefers have a ton of tools laying around to manipulate corals, make frags and retrieve lost items from the bottom of the tank. Tweezers, hemostats and clippers have become an important part of reefkeeping. Annoyingly, they are often kept out of reach, or worse, rested on top of the tank where they can rust or worse – bumped into the tank breaking corals on their trip to the sand. A magnetic tool holder is a cheap and easy way to avoid these issues. The can be installed out of the way in the canopy or in the stand, keeping reefing tools secure and out of the way. I put one of these magnetic strips above my tank years ago and its one of the best things I ever did. You can even slap a small metal wire basket to the magnetic strip for storage of odds and ends like superglue and algae scrapers. There are a variety of magnetic tool holders available – click here for the one pictured at right.Keep your metal reef tools handy and out of the way

 

Reef Aquarium Rock Wall Aquascapes can be interesting

April 12, 2010 No Comments

From Reefbuilders

This deep reef tanks rock wall is on the left side of the tank, making it feel like the wall extends upwards and like there is more water space than there actually is

Reef Aquarium ‘Rock walls’ have gotten a bad rap over the past , as Adam Blundell recently pointed out. This reputation is not necessarily undeserved as there are plenty of rock walls that are unappealing, flow stopping, detritus collecting piles of ugh. Quickly stacking rock against the back wall of a tank is not something we advocate or enjoy looking at. However, with a tiny bit of thought and effort, its not all that hard to make unique and interesting looking rock wall reef aquarium. Continue reading to learn more about two creative reef rock walls on display at the California Academy of Sciences.

 

The reef rock walls were constructed the same way in both tanks – a bottom plate and back wall of fiber grate onto which rock is affixed with underwater epoxy and cable ties. The fiber grate armature prevents the rock structure from touching the walls of the aquarium, allowing water to move around and under the wall. Instead of filling up the back wall of the tank, these tanks use the empty space on the back wall to create a feeling of depth and openness. In the case of Matt Wandell’s ‘Deep Reef’ tank pictured above, the rock wall is on the left side of the tank, instead of the back wall. This allows for good, fast vertical flow against the rock wall that not only brings food the non photosynthetic corals, but gets the anthias all swimming in a very natural vertical orientation.

The Rhinopias exhibit is one of mine, and the rock wall is in one of the back corners of the tank. This tank has intermittent high flow to help the SPS thrive, but also has ‘eddy’ spots to allow the display fish spots to hang out. The point is that rock walls are not bad things in and of themselves. If you are willing to spend a little time planning the build instead of just stacking rock, you can make a rock wall, well, rock.

 

This rock wall is in the back left corner of the tank giving a visual focal point.

 

Wyoming Whites on a Blue Carpet

April 7, 2010 No Comments

From Reefbuilders

Last MACNA in New Jersey I picked up a pair of brand spanking’ new Wyoming White (Amphiprion ocellaris) clownfish just released to the market by C-Quest via Ocean Gallery II. I flew the expensive little freak beauties home and set them up in their own 25 gallon tall, plumbed into my home 250 gallon culture system. They have their very own Stichodactyla gigantea carpet anemone which they share with a pair of porcelain crabs (Neopetrolisthes ohshimai) for neighbors. Light is from one 150 watt DE 20,000K bulb and one 24 inch Reefbrite actinic LED light strip. The water motion is provided by a Vortech MP10ES set to 70% on the longest interval of Short Pulse mode. I dig the freaks.

Steinhart Aquarium working to raise Rhinopias scorpionfish from their own fertile spawns

March 8, 2010 No Comments

From Reefbuilders

One of the advantages of working at the the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences has is being able to care for, and observe so many different animals that we might not be exposed to anywhere but a public aquarium. For instance, we display not one, but two Rhinopias Scorpion fish. These venomous fish are not overly abundant in the industry or the wild, and they don’t have the best track record in captivity, often living for less than two years and then dying mysteriously. We thought very hard before committing to putting them on display, and decided we would give it a go when two of them, a Rhinopias eschmeyeri and a Rhinopias frondosa (though there is some debate as to their being different species), became available last November. Since going on display they have been eating well, shedding regularly (normal behavior) and challenging guests to spot them among the corals.Even though we have been thrilled at our success with these fish so far, we never expected to find what we found in the tank a week and a half ago – an egg raft. The eggs were hard to spot, being almost completely clear, and they may mimic a comb jelly to prevent predation. Apparently these are the first Rhinopias eggs that have been laid in captivity. We assumed the eggs were infertile, but were surprised to see development on the day after discovery, and even more surprised when they hatched. At the time of writing, we have collected two batches of eggs and larvae are still alive after 8 days. It has been amazing to watch the larvae develop through the microscope, growing fins, a mouth and a gut where none existed before.Raising larval marine fish is tough, so every day they survive we are thrilled, and, though we aren’t done with this batch yet, we hope that we can build on this experience so that if more eggs are produced we have a better chance of getting them through the larval stage. Special thanks to Matt Wandell, Matt Pederson, Frank Marini, Andrew Berry, Gresham Hendee and Reef Nutrition for their support and advice through this ongoing process.

Richard Ross interviewed about Cuttlefish breeding program at California Academy of Sciences (ABC7)

March 3, 2010 No Comments

By Ryan Gripp
From Reefbuilders

The California Academy of Sciences which Reef Builders’ own Richard Ross works for has been getting busy in the maternity ward. A local TV station (ABC7) interviewed the different programs that have had success, those of Asian horned frogs and cuttlefish (cuttlefish starts at around 1:48). In regards to the cuttlefish breeding project Rich said “Oh, they are just the coolest animals in the world, aren’t they? They are like little humming birds in the sea who look at you.” Yes Rich, we agree.  It is interesting to point out that the work Rich is doing is the only cuttlefish breeding program in the United States, “about 350 cuttlefish have hatched so far. Both this and the frog breeding program have been so successful and the academy is now shipping babies to other aquariums and researchers around the country.” Way to go Rich!

CEPHALOPOD BREEDING

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