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Last week, I was at the right place at the right time, and my good friend Ricky aka Inka4040/Pabloxanibar hooked me up with a clutch of Rhinogobius Zhoui eggs hanging from a rock. The beautiful parents are above.

The eggs have been in a 2.5 gallon tank with an air driven sponge and powerhead for the past week, with water pouring over them. They generally take around 10-12 days to hatch. Today, the first of the bunch started hatching out.

In the photo above you can see the tail of the first one to hatch, as it is struggling to escape it’s shell. Below, a video of the same scene, in which you can see several individuals twitching.

Interestingly enough, the hatch is starting today on a full moon, and started late in the afternoon. Being a thorough fishkeeper, Ricky has tracked his last few hatchings, all which have fallen within 24 hours of a full moon. Makes you wonder…

Tagged breeding, eggs, fish, rhinogobius, video on February 9, 2012 | 2 Comments

Here’s a juvenile red devil that I just moved from the main tank into holding. He has just begun to get his new red colors.

Tagged Crab, Geosesarma on February 2, 2012 | No Comments

For the last few weeks I’ve been helping my friend Rachel O’Leary put together a fun new site over at Msjinkzd.com. We even had a photo contest and everything! Congrats to the winners, and congrats to Rachel!

Msjinkzd.com

Tagged invertebrates, msjinkzd on February 2, 2012 | No Comments

I often try to imagine what animals see and how they see it. Especially my Red Devil crabs, which appear to have a 360º field of view. Their eyes seem to always be looking in my direction, but I think that’s a bit of an illusion to me, probably resulting from the black center of their eye floating inside a clear bubble.

ARS Technica has an article about Jumping spiders, and a study that investigates how they see their prey. A very interesting read, check it out.

Jumping spiders pounce using blurry green images of prey

Tagged spiders on January 30, 2012 | No Comments

I was just checking out this great video showing the benefits of starting planted tanks from marginally grown wabi-kusa. Who’s got a link to the substrate mix?

ADA View 46

Tagged ADA, Amano, wabi-kusa on January 5, 2012 | No Comments

It already seems so long ago that the massive earthquakes struck Japan last March, and it’s impossible to imagine the condition that the most affected regions must still be in. What you might not realize about the event, was that it kept going, and going. The area continued to quake all year long, at what would seem like an elevated rate after the March event. The video above is an excellent visualization of the activity over the year and really illustrates how much pounding the Japanese coast has taken in the past 12 months.

on January 4, 2012 | No Comments

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Tagged Crabs, Geosesarma, paludarium on October 1, 2011 | No Comments

Keep an eye out for me at ACA 2011 in Washington D.C. this weekend and check back soon for all new Mellowvision Aquatics products, coming very soon!

Tagged ACA, design on July 19, 2011 | No Comments

This month I’ve been asked to write a quick species profile for one of my favorite aquatic plants, Hemianthus callitrichoides. The smallest known aquatic stem plant, HC is known for it’s lush, compact growth and is often used to carpet the foreground of high light planted tanks. I love growing HC emersed along the waterline where it spreads rapidly.

Find out more about this marginal stem plant from Cuba over at AquariaCentral.com.

Tagged plants on July 5, 2011 | No Comments

The fourth and final installment of Adventures in Aquascaping hit the shelves this month, with the release of the August issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist. Available now online, and in stores in the first week of July. I’ve just finished a 45 gallon paludarium for my new Geosesarma Crabs. This month, check out the finishing touches, planting, and the introduction of crabs and shrimp.

If you are a TFH Digital subscriber, the digital magazine page is http://www.tfhdigital.com/tfh/201108#pg39 but for anyone without a subscription, you can also find it at Barnes & Noble, and on select news stands nationwide. For all you iPhone fans out there, you can also read the article via TFH’s new iPhone app, which is free and comes with 3 free issues!

Don’t forget to check out the TFH AIA Blog for a full tank shot and a quick plants list. And if you missed last months article, check out how I used cork to build up the hardscape.

Keep an eye out for continued coverage, including more photos, video, and a review of the Reef Brite LED fixtures that I’ve been testing. And if you like plants, take a peak of the list of plants I posted, along with links and photos.

Tagged Crabs, Geosesarma, paludarium, plants, TFH on June 29, 2011 | 4 Comments

There are many things to consider when building a paludarium, but I think one of the most important aspects to any habitat is the choice of plants. The 45 gallon tank I’ve been building for my Red Devil crabs contains over 30 species of tropical plants, including ferns, mosses, orchids and many creeping vines. I’ve compiled a partial list here, with a few links to information and pictures around the web that are a good starting point, to get to know some of these fantastic plants. I’ll be adding links as I find interesting information, let me know if you’ve got anything good for me to read or add. Thanks to all of the growers who, in one way or another, contributed plants to this project. They come from magical, distant places, like Hawaii, New Jersey, Ohio, and Times Square.

See a list of the plants, and a gallery of photos, after the jump… (more…)

Tagged paludarium, plants on June 12, 2011 | 1 Comment