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EDITORIAL
by TERRY SIEGEL
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While editing Ron Toonen’s column on Linckia
spp I found myself inspired to try one of these beautiful sea stars again. For too many
years I watched them disintegrate in local pet stores, and the one I tried in my own reef
tank barely lasted a week, before meeting the same fate. I purchased a blue sea star from
one our sponsors, which was overnighted to me from California. I immediately tested the
specific gravity of the water in the bag that the sea star was shipped in. It was 1.017
and my system water was and is 1.025. Following Rob Toonen’s advice I began to very
slowly exchange the water in the shipping bag over the course of the next 24-hours. I
added an air-stone to the bag that the blue Linckia came in. After the 24-hours I
place the animal on a large Echinopora, where it remained for almost a week. During that
time, however, it did not show any signs of disintegrating. A few days ago, finally, it
began to move about the corals in my reef tank, hopefully finding things to eat. A few days ago a local reef keeping friend got a mail-order
shipment from another California vendor, who was offering red Linckias (Linckia
multifora?), three for the price of two. My friend gave me the third one. I checked
the specific gravity in the bag that the red linckia came in, and it was very close
to my system’s - 1.023. Like the blue Linckia, I slowly exchanged water, but
this time for only 6-hours. What I found particularly interesting is that this sea star
only stayed where I put it for one day, after which it began moving about and hopefully
feeding. If these two sea stars acclimate successfully to my 10-foot reef tank I have Rob
Toonen to thank. I understand that my limited, anecdotal experience with acclimating Linckia
sea stars is hardly constitutes scientific proof, but it is comforting to know that my
experience is consistent with the advice given in Rob Toonen’s column. Bottom line,
if you go sea star shopping, go with a hydrometer, and ideally with a print out of
Rob’s column. |
This issue of Advanced Aquarist brings us
two new columnists and a new feature author - Alf Nilsen. Not wanting to
sound like a groupie at a rock concert, let me simply say that when it comes
to aquarium husbandry there is no one more versatile or accomplished than our
new columnist Greg Schiemer. Greg begins his series of columns on how to
successfully maintain one of the more difficult wrasses to keep in captivity -- The
Psychedelic Wrasse (Anampses chrysocephalus).
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| These sea stars pictured on this page are
recent additions to the author’s reef tank. |
| Martin Moe’s contributions to our hobby are simply
legendary. At a time when most of us were simply happy to keep a marine angelfish alive in
captivity, he was spawning and raising their young. Let me quote just a little about
Martin Moe’s activities which have had and clearly still have an enormous impact on
our hobby: "He entered the private sector in
1969 and developed the basic technology for breeding Florida pompano in 1970. He
accomplished the first commercial culture of marine tropical fish (clownfish and neon
gobies) in a garage in 1972, and over the years has reared over 30 species of marine
tropical fish, including spawning, rearing, and even hybridizing French and grey Atlantic
angelfish. His latest rearing project was the propagation of the Red Sea orchid dottyback
in a small fish room at home. Moe is the author of a definitive book on tropical Atlantic
lobsters, Lobsters : Florida *Bahamas *the Caribbean, as well as his popular and
best selling marine aquarium books, The Marine Aquarium Handbook : Beginner to Breeder
and The Marine Aquarium Reference: Systems and Invertebrates, and [Breeding The
Orchid Dottyback]. He founded Aqualife Research Corporation in 1972 and Green Turtle
Publications in 1982. He and his wife Barbara now write and publish books on marine life
and aquarium topics, and work with experimental keeping and rearing of aquatic
organisms." To say that Martin Moe is one of the best friends our hobby knows is
itself an understatement. |
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