The Peace of Lake Malawi

The Blue Planet Aquarium has some beautiful displays and some fascinating fish. But this tank, the Lake Malawi Cichlid tanks is one of my favourite. Simply because i believe it is the most relaxing tank to just sit any watch for a long time. The tank is full of around 100 species of Cichlids and if you ever try to count the species in the tank, you will quickly lose count as they are not slow fish. These fish are constantly active. Most of the fish in the tank hang around near the front proudly showing off their colours but look towards the bottom and the back and you see more fish. These fish are showing some truly fascinating behaviour because they are spawning or guarding tiny fry. If you look closely you can occasionally see the fry quickly moving across the stones and rocks. If any other cichlids comes close to the fry/eggs you can see a parent chasing them away. In Fact regularly you will see Cichlids chasing each other, sometime it is clearly because a fish has got to close to a another's territory, other times it seems to be completely random. This just makes them more fun to watch.

I love this tank and i hope you like the videos, the tank is massive and shows the fish off to great effect. It inspires me to try and set up my own Lake Malawi Biotope fish tank. The tank is so big i think it should be described as a tropical pond but then most of the tanks in the Blue Planet Aquarium are this big. What makes this look so beautiful is how big the tank is and compared to how small the fish are. There are hundreds of fish in tank all showing a variety of behaviours. I would recommend any visitor to the Blue Planet to spend some time just watching this tank and try and see if you can spot any fry hiding amongst the rocks at the bottom.

Black Knife Ghost Fish

Common Name:
Black Knife Ghost Fish
Scientific Name:
Apteronotus albifrons
Scientific Class:
Actinopterygii
Conservation Status:
Not evaluated by the iucn redlist
Habitat:
Northern, South America in the Amazon river basin. Found in fast flowing waters of rivers and streams with a sandy bottom
Life Expectancy:
Average of 10 years but reports of longer in well maintained aquariums.
Diet:
Carnivore pellets, bloodworms and feeder fish. They will also eat peas, earthworms and frozen community fish foods.
Maximum Size:
50cm
Tank Breeding:
Commercial breeding in various parts of the world. Some reports of private breeding but no confirmed information about how.
Interesting facts:
Fish generates a weak electric field which can help navigation and hunting.
Private UK Aquarium:
Yes Regularly
These fish require a minimum tank size of 75 US gallons (280 litres) once full grown, due to their large size. They will eat other very small fish in the aquarium. This shy fish needs a hiding place such as a cave if keeping more then one in the same tank a separate hiding place for each fish should be provided.
Blue Planet Aquarium Tank
This fish is usually best kept alone as bullying can occur otherwise at least 6 are recommended for a group, this spreads the aggression out evenly stopping one fish from being harassed to death. Worryingly the Blue Planet Aquarium is housing two together. These fish always appear very shy and I have observed little interaction between them during the day but I am concerned the smaller fish may start to be bullied.

Palau Nautilus

This blog is all about Palau Nautilus a new addition to the Blue Planet Aquarium. This is my first species focused blog and i am trying out the format for these so they may change in the future.

Common Name:
Palau Nautilus
Scientific Name:
Nautilus belauensis
Scientific Class:
Cephalopoda
Conservation Status:
Not on the threatened species list
Habitat:
100m-300m below the sea around the Pacific island of Palau
Life Expectancy:
15-20 years
Diet:
Fish and Crustaceans
Maximum Size:
20-30cm
Tank Breeding:
Not at the Blue Planet Aquarium yet but it has happened at other Aquariums
Interesting facts:
They use a primitive jet propulsion system to swim
They control buoyancy with gas filled chambers
They have been around since the time of the dinosaurs
They are often called living fossils
They are distant relatives of octopus and squid
Private UK Aquarium:
Unconfirmed,
I found the following link to an American site with a Nautilus for sale in November 2008 For Sale and have read various threads about how to keep them. I haven't read of any tanks smaller then around 250 litres, the tanks seem to need to be kept cool, with a chiller if the tank is kept in a central heated room. Light levels must be low as they live at depths and only appear to come to the surface at night. Feeding does not appear to be a problem with them taking small pieces of fish, crab and whole shrimps. I have not found any Nautilus for sale in the UK let alone the specific Palau Nautilus.

All New

There are loads of new things at the Blue Planet Aquarium, especially in the "where land meets sea" coast area. In the "where land meets sea" area three tanks have been refurbished and they look great. They now have a sea grass tank (below) with Banggai Cardinal, some unidentified snails and Pipefish (currently no information about what species please add a comment if you know from the picture).



But thats just to start, in the second refurbished tank (which used to house Sea Horses)they know have a pair of Tasseled filefish. The tank currently only has two fish and I believe they will add more in the future.





They have also added a new Shark and Ray egg case display tank.












The final of the three tanks is actually two displays. The photo below shows the two tanks joined by tubes which water freely passes through. Both tanks are half blacked out.

The tank on the right with natural illumination is currently housing Seahorses. I could spot three seahorses in the tank and at least 1 of the seahorses was very clearly fat with young.

But the left tank with red illumination had something very interesting. Palau Nautilus which normally live between 100m-300m below the sea. I have never seen anything like this in a public aquarium. I will be looking in more detail at the Palau Nautilus in my next blog.

But the its not just tanks, the Blue Planet Aquarium also has a new novelty coin press that for 50p will flatten a 1p coin and inprint on it one of 4 water realted images.



Thats all i can fit in this blog but please come back soon to find out more information about the Blue Planet Aquarium.