Key to alien life underwater

Coral Reef Guides

A few summers ago I spent a week snorkling in the Bahamas. Descending underwater, I had an out-of-the-planet experience. Minute by minute I realized that I was encountering creatures whose general business in life I couldn’t identify. How did they make their living? Animal, plant, or alien? I couldn’t tell. Life is simply far stranger than we can imagine, and no where is that more evident than in the compressed diversity of a coral reef. I needed a Who’s Who to introduce me to the characters of this underworld. The best beginner’s orientation I found was in Peterson’s Guide to Coral Reefs. It’s fine for a start.

Then a diver tipped me off to Paul Humann’s work. Working with 50 professional biologists, Humann has collected pictures and descriptions of Caribbean marine life into three color bursting field guides: Reef Fishes, Reef Creatures, and Reef Coral. These are working identification books used by divers, biologists and taxonomists themselves. (Comes in durable plastic protection cover; includes species life-check list.) Many of the species ID’d are little known. Most are weird. All are beautiful and wonderful. The guides contain a sufficient critical mass of species that you can be confident you actually saw what you think you saw.

The other way I use these: I sit late at night and page through them. My favorite is Reef Creatures, with back up by Reef Coral. I boggle at WHAT’S DOWN THERE. I read the bios. I swoon over the shocking images in full color. I stare. I re-read the bios. I feel holy, blessed.

Humann (and Peterson for that matter) covers the west Atlantic. There is no equivalent portable guide for waters in the rest of our ocean globe that I am aware of. Like Audabon’s masterpiece of birds in North America it can be used and appreciated in other locals. —KK

1. Iridescent Tube Sponge, Spinosella plicifera. Dull purple with iridescent light blue overtones.

2. Knobby Candelabra, Eunicea species. Thick, bushy, knobby, yellow-brown branches.

3. Stoplight Parrotfish, Sparisoma viride. Gray with red belly; large scales outlined in black.

4. Crenelated Fire Coral, Millepora alcicornis. Tan, smooth; no visible cups; pointed white branch tips.

5. Large-Cupped Boulder Coral, Montastrea cavernosa. Cups distinct, blisterlike, greenish with bright green centers.

6. Tan Lettuce-Leaf Coral, Agaricia agaricites. Flat leaflike plates with concentric rings of cups in connected valleys.

7. Flower Coral, Eusimilia fastigiata. Yellow or tan; cups large, oval, at ends of short branches.

8. Black Wire Coral, Stichopathes lutkeni. Brown or cream; wirelike. Black corals (antipatharians) are found only in deep water.

9. Pillow Stinking Sponge. Ircinia strobilina. Gray; large pointed warts.

Intense underwater gardening

Natural Reef Aquariums

The folks who know the most about reef ecology are the amateur reefers. These passionate hobbyists explore the essentials of marine life by creating artificial salt-water reefs at home. They can cram an amazing diversity of species – sponges, coral, mollusks, fishes — in a few square meters. The coolest residents are the invertebrates.. So much of this craft is like high-performance gardening. You’ve got grow-lights, pumps, salts, and lots of technical gear. Technology makes the chores not much more difficult than keeping fish. To handle this complexity, though, and the whims of dazzlingly strange creatures, veteran amateurs point to this book as the most helpful. The author stresses using the proper mix of reef organisms to filtrate the water without unneeded mechanics. He guides novices easily through sophisticated methods, keeping it as “natural” as possible. Because home reefer enthusiasts are so attuned to the life cycles of their captives, I learned more about marine life from here than any other source. — KK

• Your grandfather, perhaps 100 years ago or so, could only imagine what wonders the world beneath the sea might contain. Your father could follow the exploits of the first explorers of the undersea realm and could just begin to see and experience the explosion of life on a coral reef. But you and I, we can not only visit this world whenever we wish, but we can also capture a small part of it in an oceanic microcosm of our own making in our own homes.
• Even in the most northerly regions, an aquarium placed in direct sunlight can overheat. Aquarists should avoid placing the aquarium in a sunny window, as seasonal fluctuations in temperature in such a location will make maintaining the correct water temperature a challenge. Artificial lighting, for most home situations, is the better choice, being more controllable, predictable, and programmable for the most convenient viewing period.
• Alternatively, organisms from deeper waters, or specimens that have languished for too long in dim light, may have ceased production of protective pigments. When these specimens are then placed under bright lights, the effect is similar to that experienced by someone who, having spent a long winter indoors, rushes out on the first sunny day and spends an afternoon sunbathing. I believe that the alleged burning of corals by metal halide lights can be attributed to a lack of understanding of how these organisms respond to light and not to any inherent detrimental effect of the lights themselves.
• One of the more vexatious challenges, even for experienced reef keepers, is the appropriate placement of corals within the aquarium. Finding just the right level of light intensity and water motion can mean the difference between a specimen that thrives and grows, showing full polyp extension and brilliant coloration, and one that leads a lackluster existence, with polyps retracted or shrunken, dull coloration, and no growth.

Presents life’s full diversity

The Shape of Life

This 8-part (4 DVD set) series is a National Science Foundation/PBS production that is the most taxonomic of any presentation I’ve seen. The Shape of Life addresses the 8 major categories of animal life — phylum by phylum. Starts with sponges, heads toward round worms, and so on. You get the full diverse view of life — all intelligently organized around a taxonomic framework (without the vocabulary), and expertly illustrated with great (mostly undersea) BBC-type footage. Despite the wonderful nature photography, the creators work really hard to convey the innovations offered by each phylum, and it works. This series cured me of a rather vague notion of animal diversity, despite my work at All Species. I’d love to ingest the same mind-opening treatment for the plant world, as well as the other 3 kingdoms. — KK

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