OZ REEF Marine Park is progressing well with an article on the taxonomy, written by DBW, of organisms.

Editorial

Well, what has happened since the last time ... hmmm better go back and read what I wrote last month so that I don't repeat myself.. Hang on a sec.......

OK, back now and I know what to fill you in on all the happenings. I made several water changes during the cycling period and had the lighting on for a limited period as Marther pointed out last month. Hopefully this assisted to reduce the number of organisms dying due to the elevated levels of ammonia and nitrite. And this has appeared to have worked, with life of some sort or other popping up everywhere.

When the cycle was over, a larger water change was made, about 20%, and the time interval of the actinic lighting increased. And now was the time that I scrambled to make the lighting hood and tank canopy so that the metal halides could be used. Details of these projects are yet to be put online, but some photos are online under the D.I.Y. Plans section. I am very happy with the way both projects were finished, as you can see from the following photos it really sets the tank off. Note that I am yet to build the door to the front of the canopy, so that is why you can see the lights and pumps.

At night more critters are ment to come out and play, so quite a few nights I have been in front of OZ REEF with a torch peering in. Well, I have not really found anything of any appreciable size crawling around. It is quite possible that they are too fast to be seen and disappear as soon as the torch is switched on. Will have to try with a red cellophane cover on it to see how that works. But what I did see was there very strange critters. They are about 3mm long and 0.5mm wide, a bit like a worm. And they moved in the most unusual method, rippling their body rapidly a little bit like a snake. It gives an amazing effect as they swim along the glass. Have absolutely no idea of what these things are either.

I would like to mention that there is now a IRC chatting channel for reek keeping available. It is called #reefs, and to find information on how to connect and find where it is then checkout the website. The website also has an archive of all the Sunday night meetings that have taken place.

Sorry this is a bit brief, but I am currently rather busy. 'til next month, happy reef keeping :)

Welcome OZ REEF's New Residents

This month I have the pleasure of welcoming a Psychedelic Mandarin, Synchiropus picturatus. He was in very health condition when purchased from the store, and takes brine shrimp very readily. These guys are so quiet and almost totally ignore anything else going along around them, forever searching the substrate and live rock for a meal. And I don't think anyone has really mentioned this online, but I think that the mandarin's face looks a lot like a frog ;).

Two corals were added, a Euphyllia divisa, Frogspawn coral, and a Gonipora sp., flower pot coral. The Euphyllia was not very happy for about two weeks as he adjusted to the lighting in the tank. For around one week he would expell some of his zooxanthellae in long brown strings of mucus. After this he was very happy, and now fully expands everyday, sometimes with a short period of contraction.

Then there are also two brittle stars, one black with red spines and the other black with brown spines. Also 4 additional snails, to try and cope with the algae. More will be required I feel, but currently they are almost keeping up with the growth, with a total of around 10 snails.

Resident of the Month

Dear Marther ReefKeeper

Dear Marther,

I am concerned by the fact that I have spotted a couple of aptasia, or rock anemones on some rocks nearby. These are not the sort of residents that I want to share the neighbourhood with, with them being known to proliferate at a high rate and sting anyone that comes too close to them. Once they are established in a region then it is very difficult to remove them. Is there something can be done about this nuisance to the OZ REEF community, before it is too late?

From,
Euphyllia Divisa

Dear Euphyllia Divisa,

Aptasia are quite rightfully labelled as an undersirable in a reef community such as OZ REEF. They indeed do reproduce at a high rate and sting most corals. Because of this, if unchecked, then aptasia can easily take over a whole community. Another thing about aptasia is that if they are fragmented in an attempt to remove them from a piece of rock, and not all the tissue is removed, then they can grow back.

In order to remove the menance, the following methods can be utilised:

• Copper-Banded Butterfly, or other Butterflies that eat corals, will clean up aptasia rapidly. Problem is that the Butterflies are highly like to have a munch on other residents such as yourself as the supply of aptasia deminishes.
• Peppermint Shrimp. Some of this species will eat the aptasia, but problems may also arise with them hassling some of the other desirable coral residents.
• Cataphyllia sp., Elegance Coral. These highly aggressive corals have such a strong sting that they will sting the aptasia. Just brush the elegance coral against the anemone over a couple of days and the aptasia will die.
• Acid, such as vinegar. This is injected into the anemone base. Make sure that the acid actually goes into the anemone and not just out the other side. You have to be quick with this before the aptasia can retract back into the crevice that they are anchored in. This technique works by really messing, so much major damage is done by an extreme property fluid, with the anemones internal tissues.
• Boiling water. Same technique as the acid.
• Base, such as calcium hydroxide. Concentrated solutions such as what may be dosed into a reef tank to maintain the calcium concentration are injected by the same technique as for the acid.
• Screw driver, this is the most satisfying of all the methods. Crushing the little buggers into oblivian. Not that I condone violence or anything ;)

Hope that this is off assistance, and helps you in controlling this before it becomes a problem.

From,
Marther ReefKeeper

Tom's Bit

by Thomas S. Heo.

Sorry, but Tom has been busy getting a job. He is working on a couple of articles currently, so next month (Fingers crossed ;)).

Special Feature

Taxonomy: The science of the classification of organisms.

Many different organisms exist here on this planet, with it estimated that there is at least 5 million species. In order for everyone to know which one you are talking about each on has to be given a name. With such a large number of organisms, how is this achieved in such a way that it is easy to understand and follow? Well, this is where the field of taxonomy comes in. Taxonomy deals with the classification of organisms in a logical manner.

So how are organisms classified? Originally people grouped organisms into basic groups, such as fish, horses, cats etc. During the Middle Ages these were written in Latin as this was the language of the scholars of that period. This works fine unless you are talking about a specific type of fish or want to know how each is related to each other. So up until around 1750 a whole series of additional terms were used, each one describing something in particluar about that organism. These string of terms could be up to 12 words in length, and each scholar would make up their own name or alter a previous on to suit themselves. This method as you can see is rather cumbersome and makes it difficult to know that you are talking about the same organism.

In the 1750's a biologist, Carl Linnaeus, introduced a shorthand way of naming the organisms. This consisted of two parts, and was found to be a much more convenient method that is was very quickly adopted as the standard. A precise set of rules were established such that no matter where or what language is spoken a uniform method of communication is used. The first name is the Genus of the organism, with the second designating the Species.

Now that there is a uniform method of naming organisms, how are these classified, showing the relationship between them all? This is achieved by grouping organisms with similar characteristics under the one group. And each group is contained within another along with several others with similar characteristics and split internally into more groups. Therefore there are 'levels' to this classification, if you start at the top, this group consists of some further groups. Then each of these groups are further broken up as you go down the levels, until the species level is reached. Each one of these taxonomic categories or groups is called a taxon.

On the first level is Kingdoms. Five currently are recognised; Prokaryotae(single celled bacteria and blue-green algae), Protista(protozoa, nucleated algae, slime molds), Fungi(absorbers), Plantae(producers), and Animalia(consumers). Each of these is then divided into Phyla, or Divisions for the plants, fungi and algae, of which there is currently 92 in the five kingdoms; such as Arthropoda, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Anthophyta, Chlorophyta. These are then further divided into; Classes, Orders, Families, Genus then Species. There are seven levels present here, but taxonomists also add additional levels such as suborders, infaorders. These are used to clearly define the evolutionary separation of each of the groups. As an example the classification for humans is as follows: Kindom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Primates, Family Hominidae, Genus Homo, Species Homo sapiens.

On the final level, species, these are separated based on the following criteria: Species differ from one another in at least on characteristic and generally do not interbreed freely with one another where their ranges overlap in nature.

The good thing about this level based, or hierarchical, system is that if you know which group an organism belongs to, on any level, then you know some of the important characteristics. For example if a organism belongs to the Kingdom Plantae, then it is know it; is a eukaryotic cell, a nuclear envelope is present, mitiochondria is present, chloroplasts are present, cell wall consists of cellulose and other polysaccharides, fertilisation and meiosis is the means of genetic recombination, nutrition obtained via photosynthetic chlorophulls a and b, and has no nervous system.

References:
Moe, Martin A., The marine aquarium reference: systems and invertibrates, Updated Ed, Green Turtle:Plantation, 1993.
Raven, Peter H., and Johnson, George B., Biology, 2nd, Times Mirror/Morsby College:St. Louis, 1989.

You Wouldn't Believe It!

..... how much macro algae that is showing up on the live rock. It is really amazing that so many different species can be present in such a small space. I estimate that there is something like 10 types of green, 5 red, and 5 brown macro algae. This is just a rough guess, I will have to go around and count them and see what number I come up with.

..... how fast a brittle star can move. They move by bending their arms and dragging themselves along, unlike the starfish which use the small tentacles present on the bottom of their arms a bit like a centipede. Because of this method of moving, you can actually see them move along from a distance, unlike the starfish which seem to glide alone.

Bereavement Notices

Snails
I have managed to kill off three snails so far :( Not really sure why they died, as it cannot be what they are eating as the others are fine. And something can't be killing them as they all died just a short time after being added to the tank, think it was a couple of days. This indicates to me that there was something wrong with the snails when they ewere purchased.

Other than these, I am happy to announce that these have been the only deaths of things that I know are in the tank.

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