EELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

November 2009
Eelvis, our conger eel, had been feeling lonesome in our kelp reef exhibit and on a bright November morning, we set him free for a once in a lifetime chance to find a mate.

Eelvis was resident at the aquarium for over 5 years and was named after the King of Rock and Roll at the time it was discovered that Elvis had family connections to the North East of Scotland. He made somewhat less of a splash than his namesake, though, and spent most of his time hiding in a pipe in the kelp reef, only getting ‘all shook up’ over offerings of squid and mackerel. However, during the autumn he took to swimming around the tank and lost his teeth – sure signs that he was ready to leave the building and undergo the massive swim that all congers undertake once in their lives – to the deep Atlantic waters off the Azores to breed and then die.

Eelvis may have felt that it was ‘now or never’, but to get a 2m, 35kg, fish out of the aquarium’s tank posed technical challenge for our aquarist team. Previous conger eels at the aquarium have been set free by being lifted by crane out of the tank and hoisted over to the sea, and it took a little time to organise the equipment, the dive team and reasonable weather to carry out this special mission. We were grateful to the good folks at Water Weights in Aberdeen for lending us the specialised equipment and to Macduff Shipyards for subsidising the crane.

Eelvis took some persuading to swim into the lifting bag, and we can only imagine what he thought of being swung in mid-air, but our aquarist Chris was on hand in a choppy sea to open the bag again and Eelvis shimmied to freedom! We’re a little worried that Eelvis was a late bloomer as conger eels usually start their migrations to the Azores in the spring, but we’ve done our best for him and given him a fighting chance. Let’s hope his star quality helps him to find true love!

NEW LOOK FOR AQUARIUM STAFF!

September 2009
The aquarium staff are sporting new uniforms, thanks to our friends at Filpumps Ltd who have kindly sponsored new t-shirts, fleeces and body warmers for us all. We are wearing kelp-green t-shirts now and looking very smart and feeling stylish! A big thank you goes to to all at Filpumps for their generous support.

UNUSUAL CRYSTAL JELLYFISH MAKE STAR APPEARANCE

September 2009

A jellyfish species that is usually found in the North West Pacific Ocean seems to have made its way to the Moray Firth, discovered this summer by Banff-based wildlife watching tour operators North 58 Sea Adventures. Individuals of the beautiful crystal jellyfish Aequorea victoria  were collected from Aberdour Bay , about 18 miles east of the aquarium, and were brought to us to display in our Jellyfish Zone.

Ian Page, skipper with North 58, first saw the unusual jellies at the beginning of August and notified aquarium staff of his find, having first trawled the internet to identify the species. The jellyfish range in size from 5cm to 20cm diameter and are transparent, with purple coloured lines radiating from the centre to the margin of the bell (the umbrella-like part of the body). Like other jellyfish, the crystal jelly has stinging tentacles around the bell, used to catch small planktonic prey .

 

Peter Richardson, the Marine Conservation Society’s Biodiversity Programme Manager, confirmed that there had been no records of sightings of crystal jellyfish in Scotland up until now. He said, “It’s very uncommon to find crystal jellyfish in British waters and they are usually considered to be an open water species. It’s difficult to say whether its appearance in the Moray Firth is indicative of any changes in climatic conditions – we might be able to build up a better picture of their distribution if we get more reports through the MCS jellyfish survey”.

Crystal jellies are short lived but our exhibits are currently happily drifting in the Jellyfish Zone, along with the moon jellies. We're really excited to host these very pretty jellyfish and hope they survive for while. Apparently, they are phosphorescent and glow green at the edges under blue light, although no-one seems to know why. This species has provided the green fluorescent protein that has been used in science to produce fluorescent pigs and goldfish. Adult crystal jellies die off in the autumm months and the new generation appears in springtime - we will be looking out for them again next year.

 

WOLF FISH BABY BOOM

September 2009

Earlier this summer we were thrilled to announce the safe arrival of some new baby wolf fish here at the aquarium. A wolf fish couple from the ray pool laid eggs in January and they successfully hatched in May. The eggs had been kept in the dark and at constant cool temperature throughout their development and our aquarist team monitored them closely as they could clearly see egg yolks, then eye spots and eventually little wiggly embryos. The first eggs hatched on May 3rd and the baby wolfies were about 1cm long, each with a yolk sac still attached to their bodies as a food source for a few days.

 

Soon after that, the whole batch of eggs had hatched and we had around 200 babies swimming around in the nursery tanks in the quarantine room, looking like weird tadpoles with googly eyes! Since the eggs were kept at a cooler temperature than the rest of the aquarium displays, the aquarist team had to slowly warm the wolf fish nursery tank so that the babies got used to the warmer water of our exhibit tanks. They are now on display in the sea lab area.

 

To successfully hatch wolf fish babies is a first for us here at Macduff – and we’re pretty sure no other Scottish aquarium has managed it either! It was a bit of a learning process for our aquarist team to find out the optimum conditions for the eggs and the hatchlings, and what to feed a pack of miniature wolves (they like to eat live planktonic brine shrimp) and they are feeling like proud parents! Assuming all goes well, we will keep as many of the babies as we can house and will send some to other aquaria around the country for their exhibits as we often swap fish or other marine animals. Some of the babies have already been posted to the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth and Exploris aquarium in Northern Ireland – an unusual delivery for the Royal Mail!!

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