Bandtail puffer – Tetraodontidae

The Bandtail Puffer are with their cute face one of the most toxic fishes that we can find in the waters of Atlantic. The poison existing in this fish by the presence of tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin which are found in their skin, viscera and gonads. They can as their other members in their family puff up them self as an defense if the deadly poison is not enough.

This nasty little critters are mostly found in shallow waters but are as well documented to been sighted as far as 45 meters. They prefer staying at reefs and seagrass  where they hide and haunting for their favourite food. Ranging from crustaceans, mollusks polychaetes, plants and even living fish heads by there own family members.

These little sea monsters reaching an not to impressing size of 30 cm. But what to become impressed of is that they manage to spread their cuteness globally from Canary island, Central América, United States and even so far as Haiti.

They are extremely cute and that would proberly be the reason why it is the most common fish that people have in their aquariums. It’s tough to be that cute…

Extremely cute monsters aren’t they?

Bandtail puffer & parasite

Bandtail puffer

Bandtail puffer

The Seahorse – Hippocampus

The seahorse belongs to the family of hippocampus which in Latin means horse seamonster. Their size are ranging from tiny 1.5 cm up to 35 cm. They don’t have any stomach and because of the missing stomach these horses needs to eat all the time. To be exact they need to find at least 3000 tiny shrimps in the water every day otherwise they would die of starvation.

The male seahorse has really give the woman a break of giving birth in the nature. In this relationship the male are the one to carry all eggs in his pouch. Of all the eggs only one of thousand survives to an adult size. Some studies shows that they are extremely faithful to each other. Once they find a sea horse partner in their taste they stick with each other for the rest of their life. However it is showed that some of this horses can change partner as soon as the possibility rises. To answer the relationship we need to study this subject a bit further.

To great exercise can kill this guys so mostly they are sitting on the same coral relaxing and eating. Except to gain to much weight the only thing this guys need to worry about is the hungry crabs. If the dwarf sea horse needs to run from the crab he faces a problem. Since the top speed in this horsepower is 1.5 meter per hour.

The seahorse are endangered by over fishing and habitat destruction. The Chinese medicine market has a huge responsibility since they convinced the chines people that seahorses cure impotence, wheezing and pain. Which has nonscientific proof. 20 million seahorses are estimated to been taken from the sea by this reason every year. The consumption are also wild spread in Indonesia, Philippines and other ethnic groups.

The fishing of the endangered seahorse has been controlled by CITES since 2004. CITES is a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Sadly enough Norway, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia didn’t sign the law. And therefore we are going to a future without this lovely creature.

Support CITES and other ocean fighters that supports our ocean with knowledge among the local people. And of course ban all sort of seahorse consumption and we might give my favorite fish a opportunity.

Tigertail Seahorse; Thailand

Master of camouflage

The cuttlefish are part of the family cephalopod, which includes squids, octopus and nautilus. Nautilus are weird looking pelagic octopus.

The master of camouflage has three hearts and trough this three hearts green blood circulating. The blood of a cuttlefish has another kind of protein, hemocyanin. Hemocyanin are full of copper which giving the exclusive green color to the blood.

The buoyancy are adjusted by the air that is filled up in their cuttle bone. By increasing and releasing air in the chamber they are adjusting their buoyancy.

This buoyancy method inspired today’s submarines!

In an everyday life this creatures are hovering around over the reef on the haunt for small fish, crabs and shrimps. Which they catch with their two super arms that break apart the prey with the suckers. The final kill is by inject a strong poison in to their prey.

All cuttlefish has a venom to use on their haunt. But the flamboyant cuttlefish has a venom that been discovered to be as poison as the blue ringed octopus. A poison considered to be one of the world’s most venomous from marine animals.

The cuttlefish has a camouflage that is admired all around the world. By a mere second they can change to all different colors and shape by special powers in their skin cells.

If this is not enough they can simply submerge in the sand bottom and become invisible with the sand pattern.

The last defense this guy are using is confusing ink and a yet propulsion to shoot them self away from danger.

The cuttlefish are estimated to be the smartest invertebrate on earth.

The pictures below show you the change of the cuttlefish. Amazing.

 

Same cuttlefish

Same cuttlefish

Same cuttlefish

Same cuttlefish