If you have ever been snorkeling you know it's tough to talk through the snorkel. But Gus, in all his excitement, rambles off all of the fishes names as he see them. "Squirrel fish!" in snorkel speak is closer "morrelbish!"
The Squirrel fish is one of Gus' favorites and one of the very common reef fishes - so if you ever snorkel with Gus you hear "morrelbish!" a lot.
Click on Gus snorkeling to see a video of Gus diving down!
Gus and a large hermit crab.
This is by far the largest hermit crab Gus has ever seen. It was found in only 2 feet of water and had green eyes. You can always find a little beauty in a crab!
Hermit crabs will eat pretty much anything they stumble across. Hermit crabs are omnivores (eating plants and animals) and scavengers (eating dead animals that they find). They eat worms , plankton and organic (living)debris.
Southern Stingray
Southern stingrays have a highly flattened, disc-shaped body with no distinct head. Docile creatures, they are equipped with long, whip-like tails with one or more razor-sharp, serrated barbs, which they use only for defense. The eyes and gill slits, or spiracles, are on the top of the body, which is gray to dark brown. The mouth is on the whitish underside.
They eat crabs, clams, shrimp, marine worms, and small fish make up the diet of southern stingrays. Female southern stingrays, with a maximum disc width of 6½ feet (2.0 m), are larger than their male counterparts. The maximum recorded weight of this species is 300 pounds.
Southern stingrays have few natural predators other than the occasional large shark, such as lemon sharks and hammerhead.
Click on the ray photo to see a Southern Sting Ray and Eagle Ray swimming.
Red Lionfish
The red lionfish, native to the Pacific and Indian Oceans, has recently been found in the Bahamas. This photograph was taken by SAND Pictures in March 2007 in the Exuma Cays. Lionfish are graceful, visually striking creatures covered in
distinctive red-and-white striped patterns. Their unusually long fins
contain a number of similarly striped spines. The fish store and
deliver their venom through these spines. The sting of a lionfish,
although rarely fatal to humans, can be very painful. The fish, a top
predator in their natural habitat, uses its poisonous spines for
protection.
Since the lionfish is a top predator, it may negatively influence the structure of fish communities in Florida reefs. It is unclear how lionfish made the jump from one ocean to the other, but many scientists suspect that the home aquarium trade is to blame.
Click on the Red Lionfish photo to watch it swim!
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