So many hobbies!

This was a very busy weekend. In fact, most of my weekends lately seem to be this busy.

This weekend, I wrapped up koji growing for my sake, miso AND shoyu projects. The sake is going very well and I expect it to be a great success. The miso and shoyu, however, are total experiments because of course I went off recipe and used spent grains from brewing instead of more traditional grains for koji. As a result, the grains were too wet I think for really good koji growth. Something was definitely happening, just not sure what. I think it would be cool to be able to sequence some of these home ferments and see what is actually going on in there. Towards the end, I think some yeasts started going to work in the spent grain koji, as it acquired a sort of sharp, alcoholic smell. Well, only thing to do is wait! The sweet miso will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks, the salty miso in some amount of months, and the shoyu in... a year! I tend to think that the salt will prohibit more ethanol production, but thats just a hunch.

ALSO, I am engaging in an expt with my fishtank. The poor fish have been lethargic and have had their dorsal fins down for quite a while. I have switched to a canister filter because I wanted to try to boost my plant growth, by reducing the surface turbulence and trapping the CO2 the fish produce in the tank. My oxygen is suffering, however, because I woke up this morning to heavily breathing fish with dark red gills. Turn on the air stone and they were fine in 15, but it was a little scary. Not sure if I should add more light so that the plants do a better job photosynthesizing - is CO2 still the limiting reagent, or is it light? I think there is a lot of confusion about this on the forums. People inject CO2 into their tanks but then have surface turbulence, which I would think would cause the CO2 to degas and regain equilibrium with the environment. Goldfish are really dirty, so I would think they would produce plenty of CO2. I don't really know though.

Anyway, I think my fish have some sort of parasite, they flash and yawn and twitch. PraziPro didn't clear it up so I thought maybe it is Trichodina? The stupid Petsmart and Petco here didn't have the Malachite Green + Formalin product I was looking for, so I ended up with this herbal stuff. Hopefully it works anyway because I hear the Malachite can stain the sealant in the aquarium. Weird. The herbal thing probably won't work but I guess its worth a shot since it's not an emergency. I turned the air stone back on for the treatment, to make the fish comfortable as well. The plants will just have to wait.

In other news, I have yet to start my presentation for Biophysical Society, which is in 2 weeks. And I also need to finish my design for Threadless so maybe I can win and go to Japan!!! Unlikely, but its worth a shot! Busy busy!

Sick Estefan

Dont know what the exact problem is, it is an ongoing problem, getting better and worse for months. FYI I am posting these pictures so that I can put them on goldfish forums in hopes that someone out there knows how to fix my problem. No such luck yet. It is a crying shame that most pet store owners are just guessing on how to fix your problems.

Poor Sick Adele

UPDATE: The curvature of the spine has improved dramatically with improved diet. I have switched from store bought food to homemade gel food with all sorts of vegetables and fish in there, and some multi-vitamin to boot. She is still a pretty lazy fish, but at least that scary curved spine is fixed.

Fish / Cat / Lab problems

I have been having many problems lately. Things are not going according to plan in lab. They never do. No surprise there. I had a slight success today, though, so that is good.

I am going to Europe on vacation, so of course, some of my pets get sick/ injured. They love this kind of timing. Georgie has somehow injured her achilles tendon and is now walking around with one flat foot. Pretty weird. If she's not better by Monday, going to take her back to the vet and get her a cool splint to immobilize it. She should be fine with a gimp leg splint while I"m on vacation, right?

My biggest headache has been my fish. Estefan/Fifi has developed fin rot to a small extent. He previously had a cloudy eye and septicema in his fins, but that had been ongoing for months with no alteration of behavior. His life is not in danger, so I set about cycling the hospital tank before putting him in. It was taking longer than planned with gravel from the established tank and a sponge, added fish food and poop so the bac would have something to eat. Ammonia was 0 and nitrites were like 5 and wouldnt go down. Got a MIRACLE PRODUCT from the fish store (Safe Start). Tank was cycled overnight. I love that stuff. Put Estefan in last night, dosed with Ampicillin, he is already looking a little better I think, the edges of his fins are not "fuzzy" anymore. BUT there was a slight amount of ammonia build up in the night.

My main problem is now trying to get rid of this ammonia so it won't stress Estefan out further. I am unsure whether the ammonia detoxifying products would react with amp. Amp has amino groups, so... maybe? Also, there is this nitra-zorb matrix which absorbs and detoxifies ammonia and the NOs. It says not to use it with medication, but ALL medication? Also, I am trying to decide whether to listen to the fish store guy and dose Amp every other day, or every day like it says on the box... Amp doesnt last very long at higher temps in solution, but maybe a full dose is not necessary since the fin rot is quite minor.

Yay octopus!!!!

octopus steals my video camera and swims off with it (while it's Recording) from Victor Huang on Vimeo.

If the octopuses using coconut shells as tools didnt convince you to stop eating them, this totally will! Look how smart he is!

Marine Reserve Success!

Researchers found that marine reserves around the world are indeed successful in both raising the number and sizes of fishes within the protected boundary. The same data does not seem to extend to macrofauna, however. The success of any given reserve is also dependent on proximity to large human populations and how the local culture regards law enforcement. Remote areas with little poaching are much more successful in repopulating.


This map shows the locations of protected marine environments that encompass corals. Note the size of the dots is not an indication of the size of the reserves. In some cases, they are very small.

I found this map on THIS page which is a review of the global state of coral reefs from NOAA. I havent read it, but it looks good. By good, I mean comprehensive, not feel-good. Right.

Fishes Use Gills for Ion Exchange, Oxygen Secondary!

I stumbled upon (not literally) this Science commentary that says that fish may have evolved their gills initially as agents for ion exchange. The researchers, and I'm not sure how animal friendly this is, put fish into little boxes that separated their back ends from their front ends and measured ion levels and oxygen levels in the separate compartments. Little fishes are able to exchange ions and oxygen through their thin skin, and the idea was that as the fish age, the gills would start to exchange ions and oxygen faster than the back end of the fish. The gills exchanged ions earlier in development than oxygen, so the researchers are saying that this indicates that they were evolved for this function. This is not really a very compelling argument and the researchers are talking about doing future work with gene expression to see which set of machinery is expressed in development first, but still... That doesnt quite make the argument either, because when something appears in development earlier isnt necessarily correlated with earlier evolution.

It is apparently hard to take pictures of baby fishes because there are no good pictures out there. Fish gills were too gross and drawings are boring. Here is another hit I got with baby fishes though :)

Extraterrestrial FISHES?!?!?

Apparently, people are thinking that Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, could possibly support macroorganisms like fishes! The story is that there is likely liquid water underneath the ice-shell, and because life on earth can live to about -50 C, why couldn't there be life there? The water may also be warmed because it is thought that the gravitational force of Jupiter could cause enough flux to keep the core of Europa molten. The ice patterns on the surface indicate great tidal forces, and besides the cracking, the surface being so smooth and crater-less, scientists also figure that the ice is constantly turning over and able to introduce oxygen into the liquid water underneath. And if the core of Europa is molten, you could imagine there being structures like the midatlantic oceanic ridge, with black smokers and whatnot spewing out all sorts of chemicals from the mantle. And we all know that life eats that shit up (literally! har har).

I would also like to point out, though, that oxygen is toxic to most forms of life, and maybe you could get a macroorganism that would subsist on "breathing" something else. Oxygen just serves as an electron acceptor and microorganisms on our planet can "breathe" other things like Fe(III), and SO4 or CO2, which I guess also involve oxygen, but whatever...

Apparently the folks at NASA were so excited at the idea of liquid water on Europa that they purposefully crashed their Galileo probe into Jupiter, rather than potentially contaminate Europa. Unfortunately, though, the next probe that heads in that direction might be a ways off because of the technological challenges, like needing its own power source.

One of the most truly horrible things I have ever seen

Painfully Adorable Sea Dragons

BBC has filmed Sea Dragons, which are basically like seahorses, during their courting dance and subsequent babies' births offshore of Australia.



The dance is only so strange because of the way the sea dragons look; we have all seen schools of fish mirroring each others movements, so it doesnt seem like too rare of an occurrence. Probably involves sensing water movements with their lateral line. ANYWAY, the baby sea dragons are where it's actually at, super cute, with their little eyes in the eggs and then after they're born... Reminds me of when my dad's fish were breeding and there were all these little babies that were basically a pair of giant eyes with a little tail attached, hanging out in the plants and miraculously not getting eaten. I'm just glad my fish don't breed, because anything that fits in a goldfish's mouth will not last very long.

All that said, I guess I didnt really realize that seahorses were fish, since they sort of look like a cross between a starfish and a fish, maybe, even though that makes absolutely no sense. I guess the seahorses don't need much in the way of a fuller more fish-like body as they have adapted to sort of hang out instead of swimming around and don't need all those extra muscles.

Clear Domed Fish

This is just about the craziest fish I have ever seen. It has retracted its eyes into its head, which is now clear. Just watch the video.

Real Life Lumas!

There were hundreds of species discovered off the coast of Tasmania, Australia using a deep sea submersible vehicle. This is a picture some Marginaster sea stars. I think they are cute and look kind of like Lumas from Super Mario Galaxy. These ones look significantly harder than the ones in Mario Galaxy, although they look just as magical.

A Word of Warning from Endangered Species

This article from the National Geographic Magazine is definitely worth the read. It is a sad (to me) story about the Endangered Species Act, the challenges it has faced in the past and must overcome in the future.

And definitely make sure to check out the stunning photo gallery that accompanies the article, which includes pictures of the ocelot, the extinct dusky seaside sparrow, and the yellowfin madtom, among others. I don't say 'stunning' lightly, and maybe you might not experience the same feeling, but the diversity on earth is mind-blowing to me (and sad when threatened, which is all the time now).

I would also like to mention that the article says that the building of the Kennedy Space Center overtook critical habitat of the now-extinct dusky seaside sparrow. For shame, Science.

Sweet MFing Squid!

This crazy deep sea squid with elbowed tentacles was captured by a Shell Oil Company remotely operated vehicle at a drilling site. Click the link for the video. Apparently scientists are collaborating with oil and gas companies to use their ROVs regularly because they are so expensive to operate.

Megafishes!

I learned about the Mekong Giant Catfish back when I took Limnology at Univ of Wis Madison. This Zeb Hogan person is the hardcore megafishes advocate that lives to protect these fishes. Megafishes are huge freshwater fishes that are all critically endangered because their huge size is attractive for fisherman and their slow growth-rate. There are megafishes on most of the continents and efforts are ongoing by the National Geographic Society and WWF to protect them. Here is a lovely slideshow of Megafishes. On this page, you will also find links to other Megafishes articles. I think Megafishes are pretty fucking awesome.

Shrimp on a Treadmill!!!!

Ok, so I'm a little slow these days; this had to make it onto the Today show before I saw it. Slacking on my game, sorry people. ANYWAY, David Scholnick at Hollings Marine Laboratory made this video while testing whether shrimps had decreased activity and fitness levels when infected with pathogens. The videos have become sensations on YouTube, and many people have put various music to the shrimp video. Anyway, I think the shrimp is super cute and should help people to not eat shrimp as much, hopefully, since they are not very sustainably fished. I think it is interesting how they mostly run with their back legs, and sort of trot every once in a while with their front legs.



I think this is probably the funniest version:


Along with the Rocky one:

Ancient Whale Fossil Uncovered in Egypt

This crazy complete fossil of Basilosaurus isis was found in Wadi Hitan in Egypt in 2005. Basilosaurus isis is awesome because IT HAS LITTLE BACK LEGS and lacked a blow hole. Beautiful, beautiful evolution. It apparently was the first of the giant whales. Other species of the same genus have been found in the SE US, like in Alabama and Mississippi. It lived 40 to 34 million years ago and was super long and serpentine-like, with elongated fluid-filled vertebrae. I also learned while reading about this that boas have baby hind legs too! Male boas' are called spurs and are supposedly used for "clasping and tickling" during mating.

I realize that I have seen one of these guys at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. I recognize him from the picture of this fossil in the wikipedia page, linked to above. Sweet! Here is a picture I took of him. I'm pretty sure you can see his back legs in the picture! It makes me wonder what current whale skeletons look like.

Sweetest Fish EVER

DUDE! This fish is awesome. Let me explain. The fish I am speaking of is the Antarctic icefish, which lives in supercooled minus 2 C water. This fish has No swim bladder, a demineralized skeleton, AND its blood is clear, due to the LACK OF HEMOGLOBIN. Scientists are studying how its proteins fold at this frigid temperature. A new grant was obtained for comparing its skeleton development to a normal fish in hopes of elucidating the demineralization process, which is similar to osteoporosis. THE COMPLETE LACK OF HEMOGLOBIN in these fishes only exists in this family of species of all the vertebrates in the world. These fish absorb oxygen directly from the water because of its increased solubility in cold water. UNREAL. AMAZING. These fish are my new heroes. I mean, the protein folding problem is cool enough, but then throw in the lack hemoglobin?! Crazy. Another thing: it takes 9 MONTHS for their eggs to hatch. That seems like a crazy long time for a fish. Watch, the Japanese are going to get a taste for these fish and drive them to extinction because theyre so slow growing.

As you might expect, these fish are highly evolved for their niche. Scientists have noticed that the winters are less drastic at the Antarctic base where they visit the fishes. That's right, folks, this wonder of the world could disappear if their oceans warm up enough. So SAD.

Yay! These are OUR lakes, bitches!

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Compact has successfully been passed, ensuring responsible regulation of their waters by the bordering states, and to prevent the water from being stolen by remote cities/states, like what has happened to the Colorado River. The National Wildlife Federation has more information about conservation in the Great Lakes region.

I took a limnology class in college, which was very interesting, and we learned about things like this, as well as other super interesting things. I actually thought about going into it for a while, but the actual work didn't seem very exciting. Not that sittin in a lab all day growing up and crystallizing proteins is, but whatever.

IN ADDITION, NWF has answers to important conservation issues by the presidential candidates. They are limited to 200 words per answer, so its not terribly heavy reading. Just looking at it, it appears as though Obama has given longer, but more thoughtful answers, with actual policies stated! So, yay. Obama believes in conservation!!! The last question asks what animal they would want to be; McCain answers a jaguar, but sadly, Obama doesn't answer directly :/

Fishes Post!

This post is all about fishes! (With some doom n gloom thrown in, of course)

First! Scientists have been watching some ciclids evolve in Lake Victoria! From what I understand (I didnt read the journal article, but I DID download it!), some of the fishes are changing to a reddish color, thus have red pigmented eyes and can better see red? And other fishes are turning bluer. The strange thing is that both populations are in contact with one another, and that this selection is occurring by female preference towards the colorful males. In any case, fully expect a crazy fundie person to claim that they made up the data and that proof of evolution in process has to be false! (BTW, that whole sequence of articles is highly entertaining. The back-and-forth between the prof and the crazy person, etc)

Second! Some sweet-ass fishes that live 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean! They were captured on video tape swimmin' around and bein' cute, much more actively than you would expect these deep-sea fishes to be. These are the deepest fish ever captured on tape! They "see" with little vibration sensors on their noses. They kind of look like big tadpoles. Anyway, the incredible thing about them is the PRESSURE on their little heads! I personally calculated the pressure at 7.7 km for you, and I came up with roughly 746 atm! OR 75561325 Pa! Which is nearly 11000 pounds per sq inch!!!! Amazing adaption. (You are all free to check that calculation. I readily admit I do not often do fluid statics calcs) I also want to mention that when they tried to bring one up to the surface a while ago, it died before it got there, so maybe it NEEDS this pressure, OR they weren't very gentle with it on the 5 mi elevator ride up!

Anyway, SUPER CUTE! Like little gollum fish!

Heres some doom n gloom to damper all the cuteness. Apparently the world will be "extinct" by 2050. All these poor fishes MAY live through the environmental catastrophe we have caused. Those ciclids might make it, since they're also evolving. Anyway, seriously, stop consuming, people!