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03/31/2014, 12:44 PM | #26 |
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do sea urchins hurt?
hi,my name is arieyonna and i was wondering if sea urchins hurt because,they look spiky and i was also wondering if they were hard or soft sea urchin.Are there different types of sea urchin's? sincerely,arieyonna
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03/31/2014, 12:53 PM | #27 |
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This is Will. I am a student in Mr.Rutherford's class. I am a helper on Reef Central. I like seahorses. But I was wondering if the coral below (pictures) are sensitive. I was wondering that because it moves a lot but it LOOKS hard.
Thanks, Will
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03/31/2014, 12:56 PM | #28 |
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what coral is this?
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/rutherbr/Desktop/coral.jpg[/IMG] hello my name is Kayla. I am in Mr.Rutherford's class. I would like to know what type of coral this is.
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03/31/2014, 01:37 PM | #29 | |
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good question! That is a coral and soft coral called a gorgonian or octocoral. The one in the picture is called a candelabra gorgonian. It does not have the same skeleton type as a hard coral, like a brain coral, it is more like a tree in the way it composed. They are very easy to take care of, and grow really fast. Soon you can ask Mr. Rutherford about 'fragging'...or another word that describes this is propagation. That gorgonian is like a plant in your house, you can grow it and as it grows take some cuttings off of it and start new gorgonians! Richard TBS ww.tbsaltwater.com Last edited by BrianD; 03/31/2014 at 02:48 PM. |
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03/31/2014, 01:47 PM | #30 | |
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Yes, the urchins spiky spines would hurt if you accidentally touched it too hard. Their spines are designed to break off as a defense mechanism against predators that want to eat them. There are many different types of sea urchins.
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03/31/2014, 01:49 PM | #31 | |
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I can't see the picture. Maybe Mr. Rutherford can help you get the image to show up.
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03/31/2014, 02:47 PM | #32 |
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Adrienne, is right. (she is very smart) There are different sea urchins and I have some pictures of them.
This kind is very sharp and the spines hurt. It is almost impossible to pick up this creature because the spines will turn towards your hand when you try to touch it. It is not poisonous, but the spines feel like needles, only sharper. This kind of sea urchin is kind of silly because he carries things on his back to shade him from the sun. Here he is carrying a small coral. This sea urchin is not as sharp as the first one so you can pick it up if you are careful not to squeeze it. This is the way sea urchins look in the ocean. This is in Hawaii and if you look in the holes in the rocks, you will see many sea urchins because they are very common animals and they help us by eating the extra algae on coral reefs.
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I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971 |
03/31/2014, 02:54 PM | #33 |
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This is the way gorgonians look in the sea. They are soft and sway with the currents. Seahorses often hang on to them because seahorses can't swim very well.
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I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971 |
03/31/2014, 08:45 PM | #34 |
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Mrs Perez and her daughter stayed after school with me til 8pm learning how to care of the new reef tank. Her class couldn't keep their eyes off it all day and have a thousand questions. They have a Post It question/comment board going. Students start their training with awesome squad tomorrow.
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03/31/2014, 08:49 PM | #35 |
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This is Brandon. Lisbeth made like 4 comments and asked 5 questions. She's going to be the first Reef Boss (student in charge of teaching her peers).
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04/01/2014, 12:22 PM | #36 | |
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04/01/2014, 12:44 PM | #37 | |
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04/01/2014, 03:27 PM | #38 | |
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Yes I did. I live in Key Largo, Florida. We are known around the world for our amazing reefs, which is found in the Atlantic ocean, and wildlife, which can also be found in the Everglades. With that, schools in these areas teach students the importance of our Ocean and Wildlife since we live very close to it all. In my 3rd grade class, we had a saltwater reef tank as well as many other animals. Once I took that class, I attended many other classes throughout schooling that taught me about marine organisms. Not only will you learn about the oceans and reefs, but also how to respect it because it is a major part of our environment. |
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04/01/2014, 08:38 PM | #39 |
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Hey Everyone, This is Brandon. I'm trying to learn how to best take care of the new additions to our tank and I thought that the RC family might give some advice to both me and the kids.
Does anyone know what kind of starfish this is? It is crawling up on the glass, does that mean it's hungry? How could we feed it? I tried putting small prawns under both but neither starfish would it it. Here's a picture of the underside of our slipper lobster. Here's a stock photo of what he looks like from the top: How should we feed him? I read that he likes fish. We feed frozen food every day that contains pea sized pieces of meat, will that be enough for him? Is this a Purple Brush Gorgonian? I read that they like strong water flow so no algae lands on them. I have them in strong water flow but the polyps (little white tentacles that catch food) are opening much. Any suggestions?
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04/01/2014, 08:42 PM | #40 | |
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04/02/2014, 03:47 AM | #41 | |
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The lobster you have is a slipper lobster, not the same as the one in the picture you posted, the one you have does not get much bigger than it is now. It is gravid, Try the 'wait and see' feeding method. Get some raw shrimp, like the ones we eat, cut into very small pieces like the size of your fingernail. Put a piece up at the front of the tank by the glass.....and wait and see.....what comes to get it. If it disappears in a few minutes, put another piece in it's place, and repeat. Keep the rest of the shrimp frozen until use. The starfish is from the Gulf where the rock comes from... when hungry will be on it in no time, as will the pink pincushion urchin and serpent stars, both love shrimp. Any food that is not eaten be sure to remove. Shrimp is the food of choice. The purple sea fan, will start to open when hungry, and you will see white polyp extension when he does. Does not require strong flow...just normal tank movement! sea ya Richard TBS www.tbsaltwater.com |
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04/02/2014, 06:57 AM | #42 |
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04/02/2014, 08:53 AM | #43 |
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Giniah, that is a very good question and it depends on what type of sea urchin you are talking about as there are many kinds. The long spined urchin I posted first is very sharp and the spines can easily get into your skin. I have had many of them stuck in my belly because I SCUBA dive and sometimes you get to close to them. You can't remove those spines from your skin because they are so sharp and skinny that they break if you try to remove them. In a few weeks they disolve in your skin and usually don't cause you any permanent harm.
The second picture of an urchin is not as sharp and will only get into your skin if you squeeze it. An urchin can move those spines like we can move our arms and will point them at whatever is touching them. Urchins have no eyes but they can tell between light and dark. Many sea urchins have rounded "spines" like a baseball bat and can not get stuck in your skin. A sea urchin will not attack you or try to hurt you, it will just try to protect itself and since it can't see, it will think you want to hurt it if you try to touch it. Sea urchins eat algae and as you can see from that picture I took in Hawaii, there is no algae there because the sea urchins and some other creatures eat all the algae as it grows. I hope I answered your question and keep asking as there are a lot of very smart people here. Paul
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I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971 |
04/02/2014, 09:45 AM | #44 |
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Questions from Lizabeth
Hi, this is brandon. I just spent some time teaching Mrs. Perez's student Lizabeth about how to care for their new tank. Lizabeth can't type well so I'm doing it for her.
She just fed the crabs and sea stars, is her response: "The crabs reached out and pulled the shrimp with their hands (claws) and then they eat it. They are happy to get the shrimp because they were hungry. The crabs ate it right away. My favorite part so far is the crabs, they have lots of different colors." Here are some of her questions: "What do snails eat?" "Do crabs lay eggs? Do they put them on the rocks?" "How does he (mantis shrimp) kill things to eat them?"
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04/02/2014, 12:29 PM | #45 |
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-sincerely Jenna
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04/02/2014, 12:44 PM | #46 | |
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hi my name is Jenna from mr . Rutherfords third grade class and I thought the fish in your pic was so cool and I was wondering what kind of fish it was and i was also wondering if it is yours by that I meant the fish of course and if so how big your tank is (in gallons) -sincerely Jenna
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04/02/2014, 12:45 PM | #47 | |
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are all sea cucumbers spiny or can they be smooth or spiky thing. My questions are do you have to put your hand in the water or can you just squeeze it in the water.I want to know if it is hard for you to feed the stuff in your tank or if its easy -Gaby
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04/02/2014, 12:47 PM | #48 | |
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Its epic
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Sincerely, Alex
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04/02/2014, 12:57 PM | #49 | |
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Jenna, that slug that I posted is called a Lettuce Slug and it only comes in green. It is called a lettuce slug because it kind of looks like lettuce, and it is green. Slugs come in many different colors but a lettuce slug only comes in green because it is the only kind of slug that can suck the juices out of algae and then, some how get the stuff in algae juice to move to the slug's skin and help the slug by turning sunlight into food in the slug just like it did in the algae. You can see the shiny green particles in the skin of that slug. He got those from algae and no one knows how the slug is able to make those particles move to the slug's skin and work for the slug just the same way they worked in the algae.
Scientists study this slug to see if they can learn how they do that. Imagine if you could eat some plants, and then for the rest of your life, you wouldn't have to eat food. All you would have to do was to stand in sunlight. That would be awesome. As for crabs. There are all sorts of crabs. This one is called a blue claw crab and it is easy to see why. Here where I live in New York we catch these crabs to eat. We can't put these in a reef tank because they eat other fish and they can swim to catch fish. All crabs have a flap under their body and when the females lay eggs they stick to the underside of the Mother crab. Crabs lay a lot of eggs and when the eggs are stuck there, the crab has a hard time walking because there are so many eggs. The eggs stay there until they hatch. Then they swim away just like a fish. In a few weeks, if they are lucky and nothing ate them, they sink to the bottom and start looking like a crab. My reef tank is 100 gallons and is six feet long. Thank you for your interesting questions. We love questions. This is another crab we catch here in New York and it is called a rock crab This skinny guy is an arrow crab. They are interesting because there are tiny hooks on that pointy head and they can put food on there and store it until they are hungry. Can you see the white thing on the coral in front of that red fish? That is a decorator arrow crab. He kind of looks like a regular arrow crab but he sticks those red algae's and other things on small hooks on his shell so he can hide from fish that may try to eat them. It works well as you can hardly see him This is a hermit crab. I took this picture in the ocean. He looks like he has bushy eyelashes but those are just his antenna covered in some mud. This is a red legged hermit crab Quote:
Here is another one. This one I took in Tahiti which is all the way in the South Pacific on the opposite side of the world from where you are.
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I used to get shocked when I put my hand in my tank. Then the electric eel went dead. Current Tank Info: 100 gal reef set up in 1971 Last edited by Paul B; 04/02/2014 at 01:02 PM. |
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04/02/2014, 03:29 PM | #50 | ||
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As far as feeding my tank, I usually melt frozen food in a cup of tank water and pour it in front of one of the pumps. Quote:
Some of the grossest looking things in our tanks can also be some of the coolest as well!! Keep up the good work, kids!! |
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