“You feel lucky punk? Well, do you?”

I still dream of having my own cuttlefish army one day.  Until that happens, I’ll settle for making weird hand gestures at the aquarium.

After a couple minutes, one smallish cuttlefish turned red, grabbed a shrimp that was in the tank as a snack for the cuttles, and pushed the shrimp up against the glass in front of my hands. It seemed to be offering it to me. Then a larger cuttlefish turned white, grabbed the shrimp from the smaller one, and the big cuttlefish then repeated the effort to push it through the glass to me! The small cuttlefish turned gravel patterned, shot a jet of water out, and went to hide behind a tank decoration.

(link)

Disturbing news about the state of the coral reefs in the Carribean.  They’re flat:

You know those underwater pictures of pretty branched coral rising up from reefs in the Caribbean? Well that lovely coral is all but gone. Not disappearing, gone—on more than 75 percent of coral reefs in the Caribbean.

(link)

“OK people. Nothing to see here”

This is the best story I’ve ever read about reefing.  I’m sure every reefer who’s sold frags in a parking lot out of the back of his car has felt the same way.  I’m still waiting for the police helicopter to land in my backyard ready to bust me for my ‘grow house‘.

When I told the cop about “reefers” my meaning was not related to marijuana or date-rape drugs. Really, my friend and I were only involved with the reef-keeping community, which is an upstanding and rewarding hobby! The cop stared at me blankly and then stuck his radio near his mouth.

(link)

Now, an Akron, Ohio LFS named Aquatic Interiors Seacave was broken into and has thousands in livestock losses.

From the article (the comments at the bottom are a big *headdesk* so be forewarned):

An aquarium owner said a customer who was angry because his fish died caused $50,000 of damage and killed hundreds of fish in his store.

*snip*

Mills said he is still trying to pick up the pieces.

“It was just awful,” he said. “I sold him an exotic saltwater fish for $150 last year. The fish died three or four days after he bought it. I told him he should have started out with a less expensive fish — these are sensitive and difficult to raise.”

Mills said Davis wanted a replacement, which he refused.

“He didn’t call me until days after the fish was dead,” Mills said. “I went to his house and asked him what he thought I could do at that point, with a decomposing fish. I asked why he didn’t call me when the fish was sick, I might have helped. He was pretty angry with me.”

I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often: expensive fish + dead soon after aquiring + hot-headed reefer = $50k in damages

People don’t seem to like fish. They’re slithery and slimy, and they have eyes on either side of their pointy little heads—which is weird, to say the least. Plus, the small ones nibble at your feet when you’re swimming, and the big ones—well, the big ones will bite your face off if Jaws is anything to go by.

So, the obvious answer is a different name.  Hey, it worked for Amway.

They’ve started a Google bomb to point all searches for “sea kittens” to their site.

I’m not sure I want to comment beyond this.

Do you think that red line is magic?  Maybe somehow it prevents the flow of water from the right to left side.  Maybe it helps ‘cure‘ the rock.  Maybe anything to the left of the line speeds up the Nitrogen Cycle.

Even with 20% off, I somehow avoided buying any live rock that day.

Versace, the renowned fashion house, is to create the world’s first refrigerated beach so that hotel guests can walk comfortably across the sand on scorching days.

The beach will be next to the the new Palazzo Versace hotel which is being built in Dubai where summer temperatures average 40C and can reach 50C.

The beach will have a network of pipes beneath the sand containing a coolant that will absorb heat from the surface.

The swimming pool will be refrigerated and there are also proposals to install giant blowers to waft a gentle breeze over the beach.

Seriously?

Link.

I’m not the only one calling people out on false photos.  In some of these pictures, the coral doesn’t even look real.  One reason I keep my coral under 14,000K metal halides is that I prefer the colour; to me it’s more realistic.  I’m going with 10,000K lighting the next time I buy bulbs which is less blue and should give me more realistic colours.  I want to see what my coral looks like.  I don’t want a pastel approximation.

Some of the stores near me run 20,000K halides with super actinic T5 supplements.  Some stores run 8 bulb T5s with 6 actinic bulbs.  It’s next to impossible to see what the coral’s going to look like in my tank.

Which brings us to this picture.  It was posted on a local aquarium board as part of a shipment by our friends at The Bad Vendor.  I’ve created a new award and I propose that it’s called The Purple Finger.  The Purple Finger would be awarded to the most obviously doctored photo of coral.

Here’s the first winner: