Reef Ramblings

Since the announcement of SAIA (Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association) we’ve been receiving encouraging mails and calls supporting our vision. The following letter I received by email from a prospective reefkeeper who found out about SAIA after a search for “sustainable marine aquariums” on Google came up with a link to my article on Reef Ramblings about SAIA.

“Tim,
Had tropical fish when I was young, been told cannot do sport this year by my doctor for medical reasons, so as got some time on my hands thought I could use this to potentially set up a saltwater tank.

As it has been some years I thought the industry would be professional now, but can honestly say I was horrified when I checked out the LFS’s. Many freshwater tanks have fish floating around in them, obviously dead for some time (gone furry) and generally don’t look too healthy. Found saltwater conditions a bit better (presume because they are more expensive) but after some research was saddened to find me constantly given bad advice, such as “yeah these Nano tanks are great for beginners, I have 5 fish in mine”, ummm don’t think them 5 fish will last for long in 45 litres!

Have found a LFS with good conditions, and with an interest in the fishes well being and when asked he could tell me where they came from, that his live rock is not natural and can provide me with traceability, but no MAC cert. It seems no one does have MAC cert?

I started off just wanting to try a new hobby out, I do though have ethics, am concerned about the environment and sustainability (I admit though I do eat meat and fish!), the more I read about saltwater though, cyanide etc, the more I find myself in disbelief.

Looks like SAIA could be the answer, I hope it goes well. Can you tell me, can I do this hobby whilst somehow helping conservation? Can I by keeping saltwater fish somehow help conservation? It would be nice if my interest in this hobby could also do good. I have of lately been thinking of getting involved somehow in conservation and if I could do this with my hobby that would be great!

Much appreciated

Keith”

Thanks for your interest Keith.

Your experience in checking out the LFSs is not really surprising, I’d guess that in the UK poorly run shops, giving poor advice, far out number the responsible well-informed ones.

It is sad and distressing to realize that the aquarium industry in the UK is virtually unregulated. Yes, aquarium shops must possess a pet shop license but this requirement is of very little significance; the requirements for a pet shop license vary around the UK depending on the local authority involved, in some areas it seems that the license can be arranged via the phone and just requires the payment of the fee, in others an inspection is carried out (usually by a council employee with no special knowledge of the trade) which seems to merely look at how tidy the premises are, and rarely their local council may require the owner to have a certificate  demonstrating some rudimentary knowledge of pet care (not necessarily relevant to the aquarium industry).
Personally I find this unacceptable, especially where marine organisms are involved.

Membership of OATA, the UK aquarium industry trade association, doesn’t appear to be that effective an indicator of quality, seeing as membership isn’t inspected or policed, with a certain percentage of the membership merely appearing to use membership as a “badge of respectability”.

Nano tanks, ah there’s a conundrum! Aquarists have been keeping small volume reef tanks for years but given the recent popularity of Nanos it’s encouraged beginners with little knowledge to start small reefs and all too often the temptation is there to add “just one more fish”. Shops should know better, but this is actually one area where generally the shops aren’t at fault, rather it’s the over enthusiastic hobbyist. I frequently hear from retailers, that after informing a customer that he or she has all the fish their reef can support at its current stage of development, that it’s not unusual for the customer to return a week or two later complaining of losing fish – that they’ve purchased from another shop after being told not to add any further fishes!! This is an area where the hobbyist needs to be educated but unfortunately only a minority buys magazines or books these days.

MAC membership and certification – the lack of take up in the UK is a further mystery to me. There has only ever been one shop certified in the UK (apparently no longer trading) and I was in part responsible for encouraging this shop to sign up. So the question for me has to be what has TMC been doing over the past few years? Why have they never managed to encourage a single shop in the UK to become certified?
It’s partly due to this failure of MAC presence in the retail sector that has caused SAIA to come into being.

Can you participate in this hobby while aiding conservation? Briefly, yes you can, but at the moment it will require some diligence on your behalf. Indeed there are at least two separate ways of doing so.
The first is the way you started off, questioning retailers about the provenance of their stock, and trying to buy only animals that have been collected in a responsible manner.
The second way would be to concentrate on purchasing only captive bred and / or aquacultured animals. For example, there’s little excuse for buying wild collected clowns when they are readily available captive bred, see Reef Ramblings June/July 2008 for more on this subject.

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Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2004 - 2008

Introduction.

Yet again we’ve had a couple of busy months at Midland Reefs leaving me little time to prepare monthly Reef Ramblings, so it’s another omnibus edition, this time combining June and July.

News.

You might ask why Midland Reefs has been so busy of late; well the big news is that we’ve recently moved into our own new warehouse, closer to home. As you could expect, this has meant something of a chaotic disruption of life for all at Midland Reefs. So, it’s thanks to Jon, Rob, Ruth, and Sue for all the hard work everyone’s put in to make the move a successful one. We’re still not quite as organised as I’d like but given a little more time to get into the swing of things I hope that we’ll soon be offering an improved service to all our customers.

“Clownfishes in Danger of Extinction!” or “Losing Nemo!”

At least that was the way some online newspapers presented a report from Dr Billy Sinclair of the university of Cumbria. It’s fortunate that none of the print papers really ran with this story in its lazy, online form. I contacted Dr Sinclair to find more about his report and he was good enough to forward me a copy of his paper.

It turns out to be a both interesting and disturbing report, detailing a dramatic drop in the numbers of clownfish on the Great Barrier Reef, outside of the no take zone. An example was given of one coral reef that was studied in Keppel Bay, where the size of clownfish populations, that’s the number of fishes living together in a family group in association with an anemone, had dropped from twenty five to just six, in two years.

Studies of the catch data from commercial boats operating in this area seem to back up these findings as they show large drops in the numbers of clownfishes caught over the last five years.

Studying the report, it would appear that the fall in clownfish numbers has been caused by a combination of factors, collection for the aquarium industry at a time when anemones are being lost to bleaching, with a resultant reduction in the number of anemones and their accompanying population of clownfishes.

It’s very worrying to see the reef aquarium hobby’s signature fish apparently under threat. This also reinforces my belief that there’s no excuse for taking clownfishes from the wild when they can be readily bred in captivity.

The manner of collection on the GBR is reasonably responsible, with usually only the Alpha and Beta clowns being collected with the rest of the group being left. This means the female and male are taken leaving the remaining fishes to establish a new hierarchy; the largest or most dominant fish becoming female while the second in the pecking order becomes male.
This sort of collection practice ensures that there’s a group of clowns left to associate with, and protect, their anemone.
In areas where less scrupulous practices are observed all the clowns associating with the anemone can be collected at once, leaving the anemone vulnerable to predation by Butterflyfishes unless it’s fortunate to have new clowns move in within a very short period of time. As clownfishes are not the best of swimmers they rarely travel far from their host anemone as their style of swimming makes them easy pickings for predators. The chances of fresh clowns moving to a new anemone must be rare except where anemones are grouped close together.

A Cautionary Tale.

The other Saturday I was reminded of the importance of hygiene when dealing with aquarium foods. On a Saturday evening I tend to have an aperitif before settling down to a nice meal and a movie. Whilst savouring my pre-meal drink I like to go round my tanks at a leisurely pace, feeding the inhabitants. I take my time when doing this so I can really study each animal to assess their health and condition, I find slowly sipping my drink adds to my enjoyment of the exercise. It’s important to take a little time out and really look at your animals, I feel that far too often people just throw some food into the tank, give the fishes and corals a cursory glance and then go off to do something else, perhaps only paying full attention to the tank when carrying out maintenance.

I guess I should have been paying full attention when preparing the food, my usual mix of PE Mysis, Cyclop-Eeze FreezerBar, and DT’s Oyster eggs. Imagine my surprise when I took a sip of my drink and encountered something slightly chewy and fishy … Yep, you guessed it, I left my drink right next to the jug where I was mixing the frozen foods, agitating them with a baster until they’d separated out. My previously tasty aperitif, I now realised, contained rather too much Mysis for my taste!

Product News.

We’ve added some great new products to our range of late.

There’re the new fantastically efficient Hydor Koralia Magnum circulation pumps, see last week’s online article for more on these.

We now have the second generation of the Hydor Performer skimmers in stock. These have been upgraded and improved to produce a drier skimmate and come with the fitting kit and feed pump included in the price. With each of the larger skimmer pumps drawing 26 watts or less, it makes them the skimmer of choice for the Cost Conscious Reefkeeper. Interestingly we’ve been seeing quite a few shop staff purchasing these for their own use after seeing how well they perform on shop systems.

If you use Poly Filters on a regular basis you might like to take a look at our new PURA pads, these are about twice the area of a regular Poly Filter for around the same price. The manufacturer has had these filter pads independently tested against others on the market and the results indicate that the PURA pad out competes the others, both in quantity of pollutant removed and the speed with which pollutants are removed. Another one for the Cost Conscious Reefkeeper! We’re getting these into the shops at the moment but won’t be adding them to our online shop until next month when we’ll also post the details of the independent testing.

Hints ‘n’ Tips.

Although at the time of writing the weather seems to have deteriorated I’d like to remind you about the perils of warm weather. At this time of year reef aquaria can often reach potentially dangerous temperatures. This brings with it two distinct problems: heat induced coral bleaching and depleted oxygen levels.

Saltwater has a lower capacity for carrying dissolved oxygen than freshwater, as temperatures increase this carrying capacity reduces, in a reef with poor gas exchange the level of oxygen in the water can easily drop low enough for animals such as fishes and mobile invertebrates to asphyxiate.

I’d suggest checking that all pumps are working properly and efficiently and making provision for increasing your water movement in case of a prolonged period of hot weather. Making sure that the surface of the water is sufficiently agitated will both enhance gas exchange and aid temperature control via evaporative cooling. I’m currently recommending around a centimetre of “wave height” on the surface of the water, you’ll find that this will also enhance the effect of glitter lines, especially in an aquarium lit with fluorescent lamps.

Although you can mitigate the effects of high temperature induced oxygen depletion by increasing gas exchange, this will only go part way to helping corals to survive. This additional water movement can greatly enhance your corals chances of survival at higher temperatures and may be all that’s needed in some reefs, but ultimately you need to control the upper temperature reached in your aquarium.
It’s unfortunate that the cost of cooling a reef can often be as great, if not greater, than the cost of lighting it. Some reefs may need some form of cooling for the best part of the year owing to the way they’re lit. Your choice of methods of temperature control includes: refrigerant based chillers, evaporative cooling chillers, fans, air conditioners, and extractor fans.

Refrigerant based chillers and evaporative cooling chillers are the most expensive options.

Air conditioners are also expensive but they do have the bonus of controlling room temperature, which you and your family may well appreciate (it may also be a selling point to ”the significant other”, who may well have objected to the purchase of that expensive aquarium chiller!).

Extractor fans are useful to a degree but may make little difference once the room temperature is the same as outside.

Fans can be usefully employed to blow along the surface of the water to promote evaporative cooling, they’re cheap but do remember to take care in their placement as the last thing you want is a mains fan ending up in the aquarium! If possible choose a low voltage fan for safety.

Fans can also be extremely useful with enclosed aquariums and may improve how the tank runs on a daily basis, rather than just at times of high temperature, by improving gas exchange at the surface.

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Next week I hope to be bringing you another article in the ongoing series: The Cost Conscious Reefkeeper.

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Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2004 - 2008

In these cost conscious times of increasing energy prices it’s good to see some manufacturers taking energy efficiency seriously.

The new range of Koralia Magnum high flow circulation pumps, made in Italy by Hydor, gives fantastic performance by delivering high volume water flow for minimal power consumption.

In terms of litres per hour per watt these are probably the most energy efficient pumps available to the aquarium hobby! I’ve listed the entire Koralia range below so you can see the efficiency of these pumps at a glance.

New Technology.

There’s a lot of new technology gone into the Koralia Magnum pumps. They are equipped with an electronic start up system to guarantee unidirectional start up and include what Hydor describes as an Anti-Heating System (AHS). AHS is there to guarantee extra safety, it detects whether some foreign object has blocked the impellor, after three start up attempts it automatically cuts the power to the pump to prevent it from overheating or damaging the internal circuitry. In the event of this happening all that needs to be done to restart the pump is to unplug it, remove the cause of the blockage, and then just plug it back in again.

Maintenance.

Maintenance of the Koralia Magnum is a quick and easy job. Simply rotate the upper chamber, or shroud, anti-clockwise, and then separate it by gently pulling it away from the main pump body. The impellor can then be easily removed complete with the rotor holder. Note: These pumps feature a new shaft less design.

Recommended maintenance consists of:
A monthly clean of the impellor assembly, impellor chamber, and both bearings with a soft brush (Hydor list a brush for this job on their spares list – part no. XP1509).
Every three months check that the grids of the upper chamber and the main pump body are not starting to become obstructed by calcareous algae or coral growth. If this is the case, clean away any material obstructing the grids to ensure that you maintain optimal water flow.

Pump Attachment.

Koralia Magnums are compact in size given the flow produced. All Magnum circulation pumps come complete come with a powerful magnet-suction cup support featuring a ball and socket joint that allows the pump to be easily rotated to direct water flow in any direction you want. The magnetic-suction cup securely holds the pump in position on the glass anywhere in the aquarium and is suitable for use on glass or acrylic of up to 20 mm thick.

Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular products you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

Support IYOR2008. www.iyor.org

Following on from part 1 of this article, I’ll continue to look at pumps and water movement by examining energy efficient ways of achieving increased flow and of generating surge or wave movement.

Eductors.

Fancy increasing your water flow for no additional energy cost? Well then, try using an Eductor.
This is a special form of nozzle that can increase the flow rate of a given pump by a factor of 4 through the use of a venturi effect. At the same time the Eductor also modifies the pattern of water flow, spreading the flow making it more suited to reef organisms, much in the way that a Koralia pump does.

For best results with an Eductor it should be used with a high-pressure pump, in aquarium terms the higher the Q max of the pump the better. I wouldn’t recommend use on anything less than a 1200 litre per hour pump. It can be used directly attached to a pump in the aquarium or as a nozzle used in conjunction with a plumbed in system.

Note: many Koralia style pumps impart a rotational component to the water flow as a result of the flow being generated by a screw type impellor of the type used to propel model boats. This form of flow is not commonly found in the wild. The design of the Koralia impellor minimises this effect, while an Eductor imparts no rotation to the flow at all.

Mechanically Generated Surge.

A very cost effective way of improving your water movement is to employ some form of mechanically generated surge such as a SCWD or Hydor Flo.

The SCWD is a water switching or current generating device, best described as being a tee piece on steroids, water is fed into the bottom of the tee by a pump and is then directed alternately out of the two outlet ports giving a surge effect. The higher the volume of water flowing through the SCWD, the faster the switching response.

The Hydor Flo is best described as a rotating water deflector. It fits directly on the outlet nozzle of a powerhead style pump, such as a Hydor Pico evolution. The water flow from the pump makes the Flo rotate and, as the outlet of the Flo is off centre, this constantly changes the direction of the water flow, creating a surge effect.

This is a useful inexpensive device for adding an element of surge in even the smallest reef aquaria.

The beauty of both these devices is that no additional electricity is required to generate beneficial water movement and they have none of the disadvantages associated with mains voltage pumps being turned on and off to create surge.

Closed- Loop Systems.

It’s not just the electricity consumption in generating water movement that is a concern, there’s also the heat transferred to the water by the pumps employed. Getting rid of excess heat in the reef aquarium can be an expensive process, both in terms of purchasing equipment such as chillers and air conditioners and in the electricity costs of running them. If you take the pumps out of the water less heat gets passed on to the aquarium water so there’s less requirement for cooling the system.

So instead of having lots of pumps cluttering up your reef (and your power outlets) why no try using a larger more powerful pump, such as a Hydor Seltz, outside the aquarium, which is dedicated to water movement. This pump just sucks water out and then returns it to the reef to generate water movement, a closed–loop system. It’s quite possible that by choosing the right pump you might actually be consuming less electricity than if you were to use multiple pumps in the aquarium.

Your closed-loop can be made even more effective by running it in conjunction with a SCWD plus eductors as you’ll increase water flow and gain surge at the same time. All with less visible equipment in your reef.

Low Voltage versus Mains Voltage Surge Systems.

The majority of wave makers or surge systems employing mains voltage have the disadvantage of long term damage to pumps and impellors resulting in shorter pump life.
By using a low voltage surge system, such as the Hydor Koralia Wavemaker 2, long pump life is assured along with the advantage of a modern pump with low energy consumption. Additional advantages are the many different settings possible with electronic control: alternate flow, synchronous flow, surge periods of anywhere between 2 seconds and 6 hours, low flow night mode (automatic with the use of a photocell or manual), and low flow when feeding at the touch of a button.

Pump Modifications.

You can get more flow, delivered in a far better manner, by modifying an existing Maxi-Jet pump with a Sure Flow 1600 Maxi-Jet Upgrade Kit. This modifies any Maxi-Jet 400, 600, 900, or 1200 into a Koralia style pump delivering a massive 6000 litres an hour!

The Sure Flow 1600 Kit is made up of a Shroud with a built in anti-vortex shield (see note above, under eductors), a full rotation bracket (designed for use with a Sure Grip magnetic powerhead holder), a medium flow propeller with impeller magnet plus Stainless Steel shaft and end caps, and an adapter bracket to attach the original Maxi-Jet brackets to the full rotation bracket.

It works very well with Sure Grip magnet holders, indeed you can mount two modified Maxi-Jets off of one Sure Grip magnetic powerhead holder.

So. if you’ve got some of the ubiquitous Maxi-Jets lying around in your bits box this is a very cost effective way of getting Koralia performance on the cheap.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

In this second article, aimed at aquarists concerned about the costs of running their reef tanks, I’m looking at pumps and water movement.

Your concerns may be purely about the financial cost of running your reef or you may have wider environmental concerns regarding the carbon footprint of your reef, either way, this article looks at how you can make economies that will effect both areas of concern.

Pumps.

If you’re looking at having to buy new pumps, protein skimmers, or the like don’t buy cheap, no-name Chinese manufactured items, indeed this could also apply to some items from known names which are simply the same items re-branded. Why not? Two factors often render these products poor value for money, poor build quality / quality control and energy efficiency. (There’s also a third factor, that of product safety, but that’s not strictly relevant to this article)
To me, a cheap item that fails in under a year and then needs replacing does not represent good value for money. I’d much prefer to purchase a product that will work reliably and consistently for years rather than be continually buying cheaper products that need frequent replacement. Then there’re also phenomena such as rusty impellor shafts on supposedly marine safe pumps as a result of using inferior materials …

Don’t forget, that where the reef aquarium is concerned, reliability is a major factor in equipment choice given the potential costs in dead or injured livestock in the event of a failure.

Energy Efficiency.

Many of the cheaper pumps prove to be inefficient when it comes to energy consumption. You can check the energy consumption of a pump by looking at the label that’s usually attached to the pump body. This will detail the voltage and frequency, the wattage, and the capacity of the pump in litres per hour (l/h). It should also feature the letters “CE”. The CE marking indicates that the product has been tested for safety under the “EU Low Voltage Directive” (this is for equipment using between 50 and 1,000V AC or 75-1,500V DC) and for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) by a Notified Body laboratory. It’s worth noting that there may be products on the market that appear to be CE marked but have been tested in a non-recognised Chinese lab.
For Europe the voltage and frequency should read 230V - 50Hz. The wattage (W) will read, for example, 9W and the flow capacity  1050 l/h. Broadly speaking, to compare the efficiency of two different pumps look at both the wattage and the flow rate; the lower the wattage for a given flow rate the more efficient the pump. Good examples of energy efficient pumps are those manufactured by Hydor.

 Sump Pumps.

When it comes to pumps that are lifting against gravity, like a sump return pump, there’s the additional factor of the static head of the pump, often shown as Q max, which is the maximum height it can pump water. The capacity of the pump can be read from its Q-H curve (flow vs. height). This information should be available from reputable manufacturers. It’s important to understand that even though a pump may be labeled as, say 3000 litres /hour, this flow rate will gradually reduce to zero the higher it’s required to pump. I’ll cover this at greater length in a future article.

Hints ‘n’ tips.

It’s worth noting that quoted wattage isn’t always given accurately. Buy an energy meter and check the consumption of your existing pumps. Discard any pumps using excessive amounts of energy and replace with modern, low energy pumps such as Hydor Koralia and Hydor Pico Evolution (Picos are an inexpensive, high quality, replacement for Juwel aquarium pumps).

Maintenance.

Regularly stripping and cleaning all the pumps used in your aquarium will help in a number of ways.
It’ll prolong the serviceable life of your pumps.
It will maintain the efficiency of the pump along with optimal water flow within your reef.

Hints ‘n’ tips.

If you’re running Koralia pumps don’t let calcareous algae or corals grow over the pump body, as this will reduce flow. Placing your hand over the front aperture of the pump while it’s running will allow any loose debris effecting the flow to drop free of the pump body (just be careful not to insert any part of you anatomy inside a working pump!). Any attached algae or corals will need to be mechanically removed; this can usually be carried out with a plastic bladed scraper. Pumps that are heavily encrusted with calcareous algae may benefit form being left to soak in a mild acid, such as white vinegar, which will dissolve away the build up of the calcium carbonate based algae.

Next time, in part 2 of this article, I’ll continue to look at pumps and water movement by examining energy efficient ways of achieving increased flow and of generating surge or wave movement.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

Welcome to a new series of articles aimed at those aquarists concerned about the costs of running their reef tanks. Your concerns may be purely about the financial cost of running your reef or you may have wider concerns regarding the carbon footprint of your reef, either way, in this series of articles I’ll be looking at how you can make economies that will effect both areas of concern.

All of a sudden times seem hard, food prices are up and energy prices, both electricity and petrol, have risen substantially in a short period of time. You’re feeling the pinch and may be worrying whether you can continue to afford to run your reef.
The question is what should you do? If you pack your reef in you’ll make a large monetary loss, as you’ll never realise the full amount of money you’ve spent on it over the years. But you can make your existing reef more energy efficient and cheaper to run by reviewing the equipment you’re running.
You can also save money by reviewing the kind of reef you keep and by looking at the way you feed and maintain your reef.

Although I’m going to cover lighting in a future article in this series, I am going to briefly touch on the subject in this first introductory article.

Do You Really Need All That Light?

The cost of lighting a captive reef is often the greatest expense reefkeepers have to contend with. There are two expenses involved here, the cost of replacement lamps, the cost of the electricity consumed by the light. On top of this there may also be the less obvious cost of managing the heat build up, resulting from the level of lighting used. This heat build up often necessitates the use of chillers, or other means of cooling, to maintain a safe temperature within the aquarium.
Guess what?
That additional cooling can be as much as your lighting bill if not more!

So What to do?

There’s been a trend over the last few years to use more and more light over reef aquaria, the question is whether it’s really necessary. If faced with the choice of having to give up your reef as it’s becoming too expensive to run, why not consider scaling back the amount of lighting used?
Just remember, there’s no “best” level of lighting, just the level of lighting appropriate to the species being kept.     If you’ve been keeping SPS, maybe consider selling them or trading them, and then change the theme of your reef, making it into a soft coral or LPS reef. LPS corals and soft corals are often found in lagoonal conditions where the water may be turbid, hence they can be maintained happily under lower levels of lighting than required by SPS corals such as Acropora.
There are many different types of reef and these can be split into many different zones. If you need to reduce the amount of money you’re spending lighting your reef tank I’d suggest doing a bit of research into these different forms of reefs and the different zones that they can be split into. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to find something that will suit you and save you money by reducing your electricity bill.

For coral information I’d suggest: Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman.

For more book recommendations see my review of reef aquarium literature.

Any questions or comments, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

 Brief Ramblings …

News from Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

One of the male Weedy Seadragons, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, at the Georgia Aquarium has recently been observed to be carrying eggs. This is quite a rare occurrence, and reportedly this is only the third time this has been seen in a US aquarium.
Seadragons are closely related to Seahorses and Pipefishes, and although looking more like a Seahorse they have non-prehensile tails and exhibit the same sort of brood care as pipefishes. Rather than the male keeping the eggs in a brood pouch, as with seahorses, the eggs are carried on the ventral surface of the male’s tail.

 A first for Georgia aquarium and a seldom-seen occurrence in captivity.

Photo: Marcus Yam/AJC

The incidence of seadragons breeding in captivity is low, as the biological or environmental triggers for spawning, and the age of maturation, are currently poorly understood. Georgia aquarium had made a couple of recent changes to the seadragons’ tank, the lighting had been altered, and the number of plants had been reduced in the tank with the aim of giving the sesadragons more room to court each other. These changes may have been enough to trigger this spawning.

It’s worth remembering that Weedy Sea dragons are temperate animals so in the wild they’d be subject to a number of environmental variables, any of which (or perhaps a combination of) could act as a trigger for spawning. It would be worth correlating these environmental variables, day length, temperature, salinity, lunar cycle, tidal variations, seasonal food availability etc. with what’s known of their natural behaviour in order to gain insights into breeding these endangered animals in captivity.

If you’re trying your hand at breeding any marine animals it’s worth bearing in mind that environmental variables exist even at tropical longitudes, with the variations increasing the further you move away from the Equator. Other variations can exist that may be localised to the area where your species originated from, making it worthwhile learning as much as you can about the original habitat.

The aquarium’s seadragon has about 70 fertilized eggs attached to his tail and is expected to give birth in early to mid-July. In the wild the female may transfer up to about 250 eggs to the male, which then incubate for around eight weeks before hatching. The juveniles grow rapidly on a diet of mysids, reaching a length of 7 cms in as little as three weeks. In the wild, the survival rate juvenile seadragons is thought to be low, it’s hoped that in captivity with appropriate nutrition a greater number of the young Seadragons will survive to maturity.

Weedy Seadragons grow to around 45 cms; they are wonderfully well-camouflaged fish that usually live amongst the algae on kelp-covered reefs at depths of 3 m to 50 m, feeding on mysids and other small crustaceans.

This species is endemic to Australian temperate marine waters, ranging from the central New South Wales coast around the south coast of Australia to southwestern Western Australia.

This fish is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species, mostly because of pollution and population growth in its native Australia, but also because of its intrinsic life history traits such as limited range and population size, and habitat degradation.

Seadragons are protected by law with only limited numbers being allowed to be caught, and are subject to export controls, consequently there’re only 50 aquariums or so worldwide that have these marvellous animals on display.

www.georgiaaquarium.org/

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

Support IYOR2008. www.iyor.org

Introduction.

It’s been a busy couple of months at Midland Reefs, so busy in fact that I’ve decided to combine April and May Reef Ramblings into a single article.

Interzoo 2008.

Towards the end of May the Midland Reefs team (myself and Jon) drove over to Nurnberg for Interzoo 2008. Interzoo is one of the largest pet trade shows in the world, it’s held every two years in Nurnberg (last show was 2006 and the next show will be 2010). People in the pet trade come from all over the world to visit this show, making it the show of choice for launching new products. As we were taking a few of the Green Skies LED lights we decided it would be good to drive to the show, a mere 750 miles or so …
As usual, when we decide to go to the continent via the Eurotunnel, the French respond by messing up our journey; last time it was the French ferries on strike, this time it was French fishermen protesting about fuel prices. When this happens the ferry ports get shut down, leading to the police turning the motorway into a lorry park, forcing us to take a detour to get to the tunnel. We arrived at our hotel at around two in the morning where we found an envelope waiting for us with the keys to our room - one problem though - we couldn’t get the keys to fit any of the doors! After an hour or so of faffing around we decided to “liberate” the keys to a couple of rooms that had been left for another customer and eventually got to bed. It turned out the next morning that we’d been left the keys for the guesthouse across the road from the hotel - a shame no one told us it was there!

My main reason for going to Interzoo, apart from checking out anything new for the hobby, was to help launch the Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association (SAIA) and ascertain the level of support for the proposed organisation. See the last two articles in Reef Ramblings for more on SAIA plus the temporary SAIA website www.saia.de.gg/.
I teamed up with co-founder Christiane Schmidt and we toured the show looking for interested parties while Jon went off in search of new products.

The amount of interest for SAIA from retailers and wholesalers from all across the continent was astounding. It seems that with the apparent failure of MAC (the Marine Aquarium Council) to deliver the goods, i.e. MAC certified organisms into the trade in Europe, everyone is eager for an association to represent the hobby and industry in a responsible manner, and that can deliver certified or sustainably collected animals for resale.

Christiane and I were invited to attend the MAC meeting on the Saturday afternoon. An interesting meeting to say the least …
MAC seemed to be interested in SAIA perhaps implementing some of MAC’s initiatives in Europe, while the UK contingent at the meeting, OATA and TMC, were very negative about any new trade association in Europe.
I was unable to attend the meeting of SAIA supporters on the Sunday as I needed to drive home in preparation for going on to the US, but the feeling at this meeting was overwhelmingly in favour of SAIA continuing as planned.

There is a need for an association such as SAIA in Europe, an association comprised of industry professional (i.e. those with hands on knowledge of the animals we deal in), with ethical ideals, and with the aspiration of fulfilling the promises that MAC has so far been unable to deliver in Europe.

IMAC 2008.

The Wednesday following Interzoo saw Sue and myself setting of for IMAC (the International Marine Aquarium Conference) in Chicago.

It was very exciting for me as this was my first time speaking in the US. I had some initial trepidation, whether my Mac would make it through the presentation. I’m not the most computer sympathetic person in the world, in my view the laptop is a tool that I should be able to use without having to resort to being a techno geek, unfortunately this has the consequence of a Mac that keeps telling me that its start up disc is full - just before it decides to shut down! It was right down to the wire with a bit of last minute fine-tuning of the presentation 20 minutes before I was due on!

The talk went really well. Afterwards it was great to have so many people coming up to me to tell me how much they’d enjoyed my talk. As a result of all this enthusiasm, Adam Cesnales is looking to put together a mini US tour for me, giving talks to marine aquarium clubs. So, if you’d like to hear me talk in the US, give Adam a call.

This was my 4th trip to IMAC, a conference I’ve always enjoyed for its friendly atmosphere, so it was a little disappointing to hear that this year’s event was most likely to be the last. After six years of IMAC, founder Dennis Gallagher has decided to step down from organising the event owing to ill health and, unfortunately, at the time of writing Dennis has not been able to find anyone to take over the organisation of the event. I’m going to miss coming to Chicago for IMAC and I’d very much like to thank Dennis and his wife Rhonda for organising an event that I’ve had so much fun attending over the past four years.

One of the great things about events like IMAC is the way you can meet up with old friends year after year. These are often people you don’t actually know that well, that you only meet once a year, yet there you are - sitting in the bar having fun, drinking beer, and talking fish. I hope I’m going to meet up with all you guys and gals somewhere else - you know who you are!
I find it a great shame that we don’t have events like this in the UK, perhaps with the exception of NAW, the UK public aquarium conference. I mean, what could be more fun than “Drink beer, talk fish!”? Aquarists in the UK don’t know what they’re missing.

While in Chicago we had the pleasure of visiting with Matt Pederson, co-founder of MOFIB (Marine Ornamental Fish & Invert Breeders). Matt has done some amazing things in the way of breeding and attempting to raise 10 species or so, all with a total of less than 100 gallons of volume to work with. I’d mainly wanted to see Matt’s Orange-spotted filefishes (don’t try this at home kids) that he’s been successfully maintaining for sometime now, but went away impressed that he’d done so much with so little in the way of facilities. Given the lack of facilities it’s amazing seeing so many fat, healthy fishes in such a small volume of water (again, don’t try this at home!), especially considering how much food Matt feeds over the course of a day.
I took plenty of photos of the parental fishes and then spent a frustrating time trying to get shots of a single Mandarinfish larvae and possibly a couple of Centropyge argi larvae in a 20 gallon plus tank before giving in to the pain in my knees. Trying to find 2 or 3 larvae, each less than 5mm long in such a volume of water is a near impossible task, especially when trying to get them in focus with a Macro lens. But at least I saw them, not many people can say they’ve seen larvae of these species so I feel privileged. I also have this strange urge to breed and raise something new when I get home!
Congratulations on all your efforts Matt and best of luck with your continuing breeding program.

If you’re interested in breeding marine fishes, I heartily recommend taking a look at the MOFIB website www.marinebreeder.org/. And also look out for a future article in Practical Fishkeeping (PFK) later in the year, looking into fish breeding and why it’s so important to the hobby.
Thanks again to all the friends, old and new, that I met up with at this year’s IMAC. I hope to meet up with you all again, somewhere at a future time.

We finished off our time in Chicago with a visit to the Shedd Aquarium, courtesy of Allen LaPointe, Director of Environmental Quality. Allen was kind enough to give us a tour behind the scenes showing off some of the remarkable facilities of the aquarium. There are aquariums in the UK who’d kill for lab facilities half as good as those at the Shedd!

Some Thoughts on Computer Based Water Testing.

It was interesting discussing water testing with Allen, in particular the use of computerised systems by hobbyists. Having researched the use of measuring probes in the UK on a visit to Hach Lange, manufacturers of professional water testing equipment, I’m of the view that most hobbyists are kidding themselves when it comes to readings from probes such as pH, Redox, Conductivity, etc. Allen confirmed my thoughts on this subject, saying that he often suggests hobbyists stick to test kits or even dip strips!

Ok, so what’s the problem with using probe based test equipment?
Well there are a number of problems to consider here, the three main ones being: the quality of probes used in the hobby, probe maintenance, and probe calibration.

Probe quality.

It’s worth noting that given the mark up required by the manufacture, wholesaler, and retailer, those probes that you think are a little on the expensive side may actually be some of the cheapest probes available. Where costs are low, quality is inevitably compromised. Hence problems encountered calibrating probes. and with probes staying in calibration.

Probe Maintenance.

The marine aquarium environment is particularly unforgiving, there is no surface that will not become colonised by some form of biological film, bacterial, algal, etc. which in turn will become colonised by further creatures such as molluscs, sponges, and invertebrates. To ensure reliable readings from your probes they do need to be regularly cleaned.

Probe Calibration.

Following on from probe maintenance is probe calibration. All probes drift over time so it’s essential that they should be regularly calibrated. Frequency of calibration will depend on a number of factors: the particular biological characteristics of your aquarium, probe quality, probe cleanliness, and the calibration fluid used. Calibration fluid shouldn’t be a problem as most calibration fluids used in the hobby are of professional quality, where the problem lies here is if you feel that you can economise by reusing calibration solutions, time and time again. Re-use of calibration solutions is poor practice as these solutions become contaminated through use and the calibration value shifts through contact with the air.

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Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2004 - 2008

I found the recent announcement regarding the new animal protection legislation coming into effect in Switzerland from 1st September 2008 extremely interesting for a number of reasons. It wasn’t just the fact that fishes are to be protected under the new legislation for the first time, a laudable move, but particularly the fact that it would be considered abuse to keep sociable fishes singly. This is an aspect of animal welfare that’s much neglected in reef keeping.
Although in my articles I’ve always stressed that we should aim to keep our fishes in a more natural aggregation it’s not something that you actually see that often in captive reefs.

An aspect of this that might be considered worrying though is the fact that this is government legislation, well meaning but possibly not as well informed on the subject as it should be. I’ll come back to this towards the end of my article.

Preserving social groupings in the reef.

There are obvious difficulties when it comes to keeping some species that are either larger fishes, say 20 cm or more, or those that live in vast shoals in the wild. Most hobbyists’ reefs are far too small to cope with both the space required by many fishes to act in a natural manner, or with the often-lethal consequences of territorial behaviour in a small volume of water.

As hobbyist’s reefs are generally on the small side it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not possible to keep reef fishes in natural social groups. There are plenty of small fishes available to us that can be kept in a more natural social grouping. Indeed some fishes should definitely not be kept without co-specifics.
Personally I think it’s criminal to keep say, a lone specimen of Chalk Bass (something I unfortunately witnessed recently), Clownfishes should be kept in pairs, not as a single fish in a ridiculously small nano reef. Royal Grammas can be kept as pairs or in small odd-numbered groups.

I’m not going to go through the entire list of which fishes can be kept in pairs or social groups and how these groups can be assembled, that’s something you can do. A good starting point being the books of Scott Michael.
What I want to emphasise is how easily it can be done, even in fairly small aquaria. All it takes is a little research.
You’ll then be rewarded by happier, less stressed fishes, who’ll live longer and demonstrate far more natural behaviour in your reef.

Government imposed legislation or aquarium industry self-regulation?

It’s worth reflecting that one of the aims of the newly proposed European aquarium industry, provisionally named the Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association (SAIA), is for the marine aquarium industry to show responsibility through self-regulation. The idea being that if we can, as a hobby and industry, demonstrate that we can self-regulate in a responsible and sustainable manner, then we may be able to avoid legislation being imposed upon us by government. We need to argue that it’s better for us to clean up our hobby/industry’s image ourselves, following guidelines generated by those within our sector who have in depth knowledge of the subject, rather than having external legislation forced upon us, generated by people without knowledge or experience of aquarium care and husbandry.

I’m not saying that the Swiss legislation is necessarily a bad move; the majority of it makes perfect sense. It emphasises the importance of maintenance and water quality in the aquarium, stating that parameters such as temperature, oxygen levels, and salinity should be correct for the species concerned. All good stuff. Where it might have benefited from expert advice is, for example, that under the new legislation aquariums in Switzerland must not be transparent on all sides. I can see the rationale behind this idea perhaps as being the prevention of stress. This is something that can be easily accomplished with a little creative aquascaping designed to give fishes the cover they require to feel comfortable. But no, this legislation effectively outlaws aquaria used a room dividers, a use of aquaria that can be architecturally striking and at the same time create an attractive healthy environment for these wonderful animals we so admire.

More information about SAIA and its aims can be found elsewhere in Reef Ramblings and at www.saia.de.gg

If you’d like to become involved in this new initiative please get in touch.

More information can be found about this new legislation and how it might affect the aquarium hobby on the Swiss Federal Parliament’s website.

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

In January 2008 I had the following article published in the UK trade magazine Aquatic Trader.

Towards a More Responsible UK Marine Aquarium Industry.

A few months ago when I wrote about how the Internet was affecting traditional aquarium shops, in particular those catering to the marine sector, I suggested that specialising in livestock might be one of the keys to survival. I still believe this to be the case but I think the time has come to differentiate between the shops that are truly competent when it comes to livestock and those that merely pay lip service to the concept of animal welfare.
The fact is that many of the shops’ customers are novices, and have little idea of what a healthy, well cared-for animal should look like. It seems bizarre that a company that actually quarantines its livestock in an attempt to prevent disease being passed along to its customers, has no way of demonstrating their greater standard of care compared to the shop that just dumps newly imported animals straight into its sale tanks.

In answer to this predicament I’d like to propose the establishment of an organisation where membership entitles a retailer to display a quality mark in recognition of their expertise in handling and holding marine livestock.

Any such organisation would no doubt be considered controversial by some, but I believe it’s something that the trade needs to demonstrate that it is a responsible industry. To me it seems that far too many of those involved in our industry are merely interested in product shifting, giving little thought to animal welfare. It’s important to remember that we’re selling living animals, not just bits of hardware, and that where live animals are concerned certain ethical standards should be maintained.

What should membership of this organisation demonstrate? Well this is a bit of a wish list on my behalf but here goes:

• I’d like to see quarantine or, at the very least, a reasonable resting time, before newly purchased animals are put on sale.

• A practical demonstration of the retailer’s knowledge regarding the livestock that they sell.

• A commitment to educating sales staff.

• An end to stocking animals that are doomed as a result of being unsuitable for captive maintenance.

• Discourage the stocking of animals that may be endangered in the wild owing to small population size or inability to reproduce quickly.

• A commitment to educating the customer.

• Ethical practice in terms of not selling an unhealthy organism, not selling animals unsuitable for the customer’s facilities or level of knowledge.

• Adhere to an acceptable standard of water quality parameters.

• Regularly monitor and record water parameters.

• Keep records detailing the number of animals coming into the shop along with associated mortality figures.

• Discouraging the keeping of the oversized animals destined to either die in unsuitably sized tanks or to be offered on to a reluctant public aquarium industry.

• Popularising the use of aquacultured animals.

• Whenever possible, to know something of the provenance of imported animals and to give feedback concerning any problems back along the chain.

• Pass on to the customer information sheets detailing captive care of the animal purchased. *

*This I feel is particularly important as it will put the marine aquarium industry ahead of the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 where, as part of the Secondary legislation and Codes of Practice, there may be a duty of care on the part of the retailer to pass on information pertaining to the care of the animal in question. Although the Animal Welfare Act only applies to vertebrates I feel we should be applying the same standards of care to the invertebrates traded in the marine aquarium industry. This is quite a complex area given the fact that so many different species can be present in a reef aquarium, often with differing environmental requirements.

Instead of merely paying a fee to sign up this scheme and then proudly (or cynically) displaying your membership, the proposed scheme will depend on a certain amount of policing to be credible. After all, what is the value of an animal welfare policy that’s not policed? Retailers would have to agree to say, twice yearly, unarranged visits to ensure that facilities are up to scratch; that water parameters are consistent; and to see that unsuitable species are not on offer (unless specifically ordered in for advanced aquarists).

I don’t see what objections there could be to such a scheme, the best marine retailers are those that care about their end users, and try hard to give them good advice to keep them in the hobby. After all, any successful hobbyist who keeps animals alive can be considered to be an investment that will continue to generate income for years to come.
As far as the standards listed above go, I don’t think that there’s anything there that the best marine retailers wouldn’t already be doing. It’s also worth noting that if you’re not paying attention to some of the above already, you may find that you’re actually in breach of the animal welfare act as it stands.

Additionally, there’s a good argument for including livestock suppliers in the scheme, both those that import and hold livestock as well as those that import directly. One of the major aims here is to demonstrate that we belong to an honest, ethical trade that is knowledgeable about the husbandry of the animals it deals in.

You may ask ‘What about the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC)?’ MAC has yet to make any impact at the retail end of the trade, and I for one am fed up with waiting, why don’t we do it ourselves? In fact with an organization such as the one that I’m proposing, any shop joining up would be at least 90% of the way towards complying with MAC certification requirements, so this could be considered a stepping-stone towards MAC accreditation.

Currently there is a move into the marine sector by retailers feeling the need to expand. Many of these have no previous knowledge of marines and could benefit from an organization that could offer guidance in the holding and husbandry of these sometimes difficult animals.

So what would a retailer get in return for all the effort of complying with the requirements of the proposed organization? If the scheme is properly publicized through the aquarium press it should encourage an awareness amongst fishkeepers that not all aquarium shops are run to the same standard. It will attract customers to you in the knowledge that the livestock you have to offer will be healthier and of a higher standard. Hopefully, for those who feel beleaguered by the online sales of aquarium equipment, it will also have the knock on effect of increasing your sales of dry goods. And, in the long run, may help keep us all in business by giving those against the keeping of live animals fewer reasons to criticize our industry.

If you find this concept to be of merit please contact me, either directly, or through PBW/Aquatic Trader. If sufficient retailers and importers are interested then perhaps together we could come up with a way of putting this all into practice, enhancing our industry both commercially and ethically.

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2007/8

Afterword.

Note my comments about MAC. Since this was published, MAC seems to have become a spent force and has contracted to the point where it is no longer viable.

Following on from my initial proposal I’ve been in contact with other likeminded individuals in other countries across Europe and, given the comparatively small size of our industry/hobby, it seemed sensible to join forces with them and work together.
At a time when increasing legislation seems inevitable within the EU it seems appropriate to move onto another level and look at the possibility of a European aquarium industry association. An association representing the European hobby and industry within Europe.

An Introduction to a Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association for Europe.

Following this brief introduction is an information sheet regarding the proposed new European marine aquarium industry organization, provisionally known as the Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association (SAIA). This is a consultation document inviting you to discuss your views with us to help bring about the formation of this body.

The aims of SAIA include:
(a) Conservation of the natural resources of the marine aquarium trade by using best sustainable practices in the handling, husbandry and transport of aquarium organisms as described in the organization’s Code of Best Practices.
(b) Representation of the European marine aquarium industry, at both EU and national governmental levels, on matters concerning legislation affecting the trade.
(c) Cooperation with the industry and projects/programs in supply countries, which are in compliance with criteria set by the association, to support sustainable collection and post-harvest handling as well as fair trade with producers in developing countries.

SAIA is looking for support and cooperation from all parties interested in the marine aquarium trade such as importers, wholesalers, retailers, hobbyists, breeders, public aquariums, governments and legislative bodies, environmental organizations, education, and science.
SAIA is currently seeking funding towards the establishment, promotion, and running of the organisation.

Founder members include Tim Hayes (marine aquarium writer/researcher, UK) and Christiane Schmidt (marine biologist, former MAC staff, Germany ).

Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association (SAIA)

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NOTE: This information sheet lists ideas and suggestions by the initiators on the mission, goals, and services of a new European aquarium industry organization. We want to invite you to share and discuss your opinion and interests with us to design and form such body.

What we want to do:

The Sustainable Aquarium Industry Association (SAIA) members want to contribute to the conservation of natural resources of the aquarium trade by using best sustainable practices in the handling, husbandry and transport of aquarium organisms as described in the organization’s Code of Best Practices.
Moreover SAIA cooperates with the industry and projects/programs in supply countries, which are in compliance with criteria set by the association, to support sustainable collection and post-harvest handling as well as fair trade with producers in developing countries.
SAIA is actively seeking the support of and cooperation with stakeholders of the aquarium trade such as governments and legislative bodies, environmental and educational organizations and science.

Service:

• Code of best practices in handling, husbandry and transport of aquarium organisms for importers, wholesalers, retailers, breeders, aquarium maintenance companies and public aquariums in the EU, developed through the collaborative effort of the EU Industry and its stakeholders, to minimize the ecological footprint of the aquarium trade.
• Continual review and revision of the Code of Best Practices to ensure high standards in the care and welfare of aquarium organisms.
• Evaluation of membership applicants against the criteria of the Code of Best Practices by an elected committee of members to built a trustworthy label.
• Training materials on best practices for membership applicants and partners.
• List of organisms unsuitable for the aquarium trade based on experience and mortality data from the organization’s members.
• Organism Care Sheets for aquarium hobbyists based on recommendations of the industry.
• Representation of the EU aquarium industry during discussions of legislation of the trade with governments and legislative bodies.
• Partnership program with industry and projects / programs in supply countries to ensure sustainable supply and an ethical and fair trade with producers in developing countries.
• Development of sustainability criteria for partners in supply countries including Fair Trade program for producers in developing countries.
• Corporate Support Program for manufactures of aquarium supplies to contribute to a sustainable aquarium trade.
• Cooperation with consultants and science in the development of and research on best practices in handling, care, breeding, packing, transport of aquarium organisms
• Awareness raising regarding the aquarium industry, its contribution to the conservation of aquatic resources and how the trade can create an economic incentive for conservation among non-industry members and the general public

To register your interest as:

• Founder member, or
• Potential SAIA member, or
• Supporter, or
• Financier, or
• Partner Organization

please contact:
Tim Hayes tim@midlandreefs.co.uk for UK & Eire.
Christiane Schmidt fishfood@gmx.net for rest of EU.

Tim Hayes & Christiane Schmidt

SAIA ©2008