Summer is over; fall has seized Long Island. The waters are cooling down, the tropical fish that we’ve enjoyed collecting all season will soon be gone from our bays and inlets. At the LI Aquarium, the summer exhibits are closing and the visiting crowds have changed from the wall-to-wall traffic of the summer to the school groups that descend on us in the fall. You might assume our job slows to a lull now, but you would be dead wrong. This is actually my busiest time of year. I have started ramping up my copepod productions and setting up my rearing vats, because guys… it’s aquaculture time! I am still in my first few weeks of egg collecting, and boy am I off to a great start. Last week, I saw my biggest spawn to date from my broodstock of Swiss Guard Basslets (Lipproma rubre). Pictured above is a newly-hatched rubre prolarva. At only 12 hours post-hatch, this prolarva is stunning- not only is its fin folds unique, but it is also bright and shiny in my rearing vats. Hatched at a whopping 3mm, these are one of the smallest prolarva I have ever worked on. I am only a few days into their long larval period, and it’s hard to tell what will happen. Thankfully, I can get advice anytime I need it from the Basslet Overlord, Todd Gardner. One day soon, I hope to conquer this species, so that I can learn even more about pelagic larvae. The swiss guards aren’t my only spawning broodstock. There are a few new species that I have added to the mix. And one of them has began to spawn. What is it, you ask? You won’t find that out until I raise them. Just to add to the excitement, here is a picture of one of the new species’ eggs:
I am also collecting eggs from the reef tank. Remember the blood moon, that every single person in the universe was talking about a few weeks ago? I was very curious to see how that increased gravitational pull would effect the spawning in the tank. My answer? The fish didn’t care for it, and I collected a measly 300 eggs – one of the smallest spawns I have recorded to date! My only reward was I received more variety than usual; out of the 300 eggs, I had at least three different types of prolarvae.… More:
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