Anyway, enough biology. We are naming them Hera and Zeus. And they are really cute already!
We also got a Rose Anemone, which we are cleverly calling "Rose." She (we'll go with the female sex since she has a female name) was born right here in an aquarium in our home town! Clownfish live with Anemones in the wild. They actually bring food to the Anemone. We are really excited to feed them and watch the relationship. Hera and Zeus took to her immediately, playing and swimming in the Anemone right away! Here are two pictures, the first is one of Zeus in the Anemone, Rose. The second is of Hera swimming along.
4 comments:
So cool! I can't wait to see them.
Too Cute!!
That's pretty cool about the clownfish changing sex as needed. I've heard there are street corners in big cities that work kind of like that, too.
I think it's especially cool that you can get (and seem to be getting) tank-bred animals. The aquarium trade is one of the biggest threats to many reef ecologies (aside from global warming), and that's one reason I've never thought seriously about getting a salt-water tank (or many of the more interesting freshwater species).
Frank: The street corner comment reminds me of a little game we used to play when we lived in a bigger city - prostitute or dude?
We were concerned about the exact same thing before getting our tank. When we looked into it, we saw that the number of tank bred animals is increasing. But you do have to be careful what you buy, where it came from, how hardy it is (meaning are you taking things in which don't do well in captivity). There are some fish which are more likely to have been collected in ways which damage reefs. We talked to the guy at our fish store and he said the prices of fish have gone up considerably, reflecting different capture and that the tank raised fish should be cheaper in the future (and tend to do better in the long run). We also read that US is the largest importer of these kinds of aquarium species and consumer pressure is really important for enticing countries to act in responsible ways regarding reef ecology. Many tank owners are very ecologically-minded and there is a real push from those kinds of groups for ecological management. So there seems to be a fair amount of pressure on countries to maintain reef practices in a sustainable way. That said, our point is really important to think about.
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