A cup of fish

Sometimes new discovered fish end up with remarkable names. Most names refer to particularities of the body, the place of origin or the name of the first collector. The basslet pictured here, described in December 2013, is named for its coloration. The authors have explained that the overall coloration of the basslet reminded them of cappuccino. So Starbucks, there's a new item you may add to the list: Acanthoplesiops cappuccino.  

The first desciption is available online: Gill, Anthony C., Sergey V. Bogorodsky & Ahmad O. Mal (2013): "Acanthoplesiops cappuccino, a new species of acanthoclinine fish from the Red Sea (Teleostei: Plesiopidae)" - Zootaxa 3750 (3): 216–222

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The Real Thing

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It's nice to mesh around (on paper that is) with fish. Yesterday's entry is a nice example, but  Copperband Butterflies are natural beauties. Is there anything which can beat the 'real thing'?

Lance

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I've been working on a small sculpture lately, based on the beautiful "Copperband Butterflyfish" or Chelmon rostratus. These long beaked coral fish, are found in thePacific and Indian Ocean, fluttering around coral reefs.

Copperbands are easily identified by the yellow banding and long snout, their compressed, deep-bodied form, long dorsal and posterior fins and most of all the typical, vertical yellow stripes on a greyish-white background.

First designs of my sculpture not only emphasize the long and slender snout, but also the ocellus (dark eye-spot) on the dorsal fin. As the sculpture isn't meant to be a realistic image, I have played with the Copperband's specific characters by enlarging the snout and pelvic fins and cutting out the ocellus and one of the vertical bands.
The long beak is used to eat invertebrates, hidden within coral rock. One of the main reasons of its popularity in the aquarium trade as it also eats glass anemones, Aiptasia, which is considered a plague in the marine aquarium. The long needle-like beak inspired me to name the sculpture  'Lance' (as in 'lancet'). 

As the sketches hereby indicate, it will be available in several color patterns. Size approximately 20cm. 

Multicolored ID's of the image above are available in mu ETSY-shop. ID's, short for Identicals, are handmade copies, similar to the orginal., handmade and therefor not 100% identical but they are 100% original!
Note this series of copies is limited to 30 ID´s.

Eat dirt.

We humans prefer to chew chewing gum, or some other stuff which probably isn't to good for your health (or maybe addicting...). Some fish just like to chew upon some heavier stuff, like gravel! Valenciennea eats dirt. The grudgeons chew upon it, spit out the real dirt through their gills trying to keep anything eatable within their mouth. A great thing to obseerve in an aquarium. It will surprise anyone who never has seen this behavior before. To the Valenciennea it is simply a matter of survival.
So...anyone in for a Gravel Burger?

P.S. Valenciennea comes in a wide variety of colors. Most species have a rather dull greyish body with vertical bars in red, ore brownish red. Some however show great coloration, like this Valeciennea strigata, well known for its striking yellow head, with blue iridescent stripes.

Seriously?

Oh come on! Did you really think I can't make a drawing of real clowns? Made this study for a painting which will have clownfish in several, non existing, colors. (No need to get really serious, do we...?)

Cirque de sous-mer

Ask anyone if they know a fish and they will answer you "Clowwnfish!". Or as a matter of fact: "Nemo!". 
Nemo seems to be the official alter ego of clownfish nowadays. I must admit, the beautiful Amphiprion ocellaris, as it's officially named, still is one of my favorite marine fish. Kept them for many years and even have been able to breed them myself. 

Clownfish are one of the marine fish which are commercially bred. More and more species are being bred in captivity, which is good. But the clownfish have become the 'guppies of the sea'. Breeders have taken advantage of the natural diversity of the funny clowns, so now the anemonefish are available in a large variety of colors. We've got snowflakes, misbars, goldflakes, platinums and even Picasso clownfish. 

No doubt about the role of Picasso in art history, but he cannot compete with the inventivity of M.C. Escher. No breeder will be able to create a real life version of my image of an 'Escher Clownfish'...  

The way up

Those were the days... As a young boy I used to catch my own pipefish. Along the beach of Monster. Yep, believe it or not, there is a village called Monster! Located along the North Sea, only a few kilometres south of The Hague. The pipefish my brother and I caught, were simple, a bit drabby colored 'Small Pipefish' (Syngnathus rostellatus). They accidently ended up in the shrimpnet which we had fabricated ourselves. And after a nice bit of begging, we were allowed to take some of the 'pipes' back home. There we took care of them in a mini-aquarium we had placed in the backyard.

Nowadays several species of Pipefish are available for the tropical marine aquarium. Nicely colored and all having this awesome shape. The 'Banded Pipefish' is one of the most well known species. In nature, adult specimens are living in pairs, while the juveniles are living in groups. Its fancy, quiet behavior combined with its remarkable black and white bands and the flashing red caudalfin are making them real eyecatchers. Sometimes they are hanging above corals, hovering like a helicopter, only their eyes actively moving around. Most of the times they are actively hunting for small prey. Their elongated beak gives them access to the smallest holes between the coral. There they catch their prey. Maybe I should say 'suck' their prey, because, just like seahorses, they suck up their food. There's an interesting study about the development of this hunting procedure: Sam van Wassenbergh, Gert Roos & Lara Ferry: "An adaptive explanation for the horse-like shape of seahorses". - Nature Communications, Volume 2, no. 164. During evolution from pipefish to seahorse the hunting procedure has evolved and been perfected. 'Modern' seahorses can now hang around at their territory, just waiting for small prey to pass by and then...the little suckers are sucked. Pipefish are a little bit old fashioned. They still have to move around to catch their meal. So, no drive-in for them, but drive around...

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