A mishmash of trivia, part 1

[TheOldSalt]

Overflow boxes are used to skim water from the surface, maintain the siphon in power outages, and prevent overflows by stopping the flow when needed. These are really very simple devices, but expensive for some reason. However, they are what make the use of a sump or refugium practical and safe. In your DIY installations, always remember to include a right-and-proper overflow box, lest you wind up with a burned-up pump and/or water all over the floor.

A giant Arctic Jellyfish washed up on the shore of the Shetland Isles once with a bell 7.5 feet in diameter and tentacles 120 feet long.

The gestation period of the Beluga whale is 14 months. The first one born in captivity was born on July 22, 1972 at the New York Aquarium.

The Catfishes of the Genus Spatuloricaria have teeth which are spoon-shaped, hence the name.

The Lateral Lines of Salmon contain magnetite. This might indicate that they use this natural compass to navigate.

The Dawn Tetra, Hyphessobrycon eos, is a pretty little tetra from Guiana which isn't commonly seen in the hobby despite it's beauty. It gets it's name from Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn.

The Paddlegill Tetra, ( aka Swordtail Tetra ) Corynopoma riisei, is unusual in that it spawns like a livebearer of sorts, practicising internal fertilization. After fertilization, the female then lays eggs like any normal tetra, but can then lay several subsequent batches without any further mating.

Many Lake Tanganyia cichlids, mostly Lapido/Neo/Alto/ and plain Lamprologuses, coordinate their spawning to the second quarter of the lunar cycle. Now the freshwater keepers have a use for lunar lights!

The Straight Tail Razorfish, Xyrichthys martinicensis, is unique in that the skin over the ovaries, in the female, is perfectly transparent. This allows the males to instantly see when the females have ripe eggs ready for spawning.

When you see the word "affinis" used as a scientific name, it means the fish is similar to another in the same genus. Affinity = related, similar to, propensity toward

Caudomaculatus ( kaw-doe-mak-you-LAY-tus ) should be a lot easier to understand, though. Caudo = tail ( like caudal fin ) while maculatus means spotted, so caudomaculatus means "spotted tail." You have to understand that the syntax is different from that of english, which is why it doesn't mean "tail spotted."

Inequalis means uneaqual, and usually refers to fins, or the two halves of the caudal fin.

In Hamburg Germany, over 1000 toads have exploded over the past several weeks. Scientists were baffled, and the public was warned to avoid the lake where this was happening. Well, it turns out the cause is crows. The crows have figured out how to taunt the toads into puffing up to their maximum size, and once they are fully puffed, the crows can then burst them with their beaks to eat their innards. Since crows have the ability to teach such skills to each other, some Australian officials are already considering importing some German crows into Austrailia to help combat the Cane Toad plague.

American Eels are known to live at least 50 years.

The largest fish, the Whale Shark, has some 6000 teeth.

"lepis" refers to scales. Microlepis means tiny scales. Oligolepis means few scales. Aureolepis means gold scales.

The Redeye tetra, Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae, is named for Saint Filomena. ( Meenk-how-see-a Sank-tee-fill-oh-MEE-nee )
The "ae" at the end means that Filomena was female. If she were instead a he, it would have had the "ae" replaced by an "i" to show he was a male.

Pulcher means pretty. Pulchripinnis means pretty fins. Pinnis means flag, or fins.

LOTS more to come!

[MiSo]

the crow thing is pretty cool. i remember reading about the toads before, its neat that the crows figured that now.

[Lydia]

cool!!!!! that stuff is interesting!

[Damon]

Well the atomic mass of cobalt is 58.9332 Amu and I like chicken so there!

[TheOldSalt]

LOL

Well, that's the idea; keep those trivial bits coming!

[Lydia]

the word ichthyologist (someone who studies fish) comes from the two greek words ichthus (fish) and logos (word) dont ask me how they got someone who studies fish from the word about fish but whatever.....i guess the word about fish would be ichthyology

[euRasian32]

The Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) is a marine animal that has eight arms, two tentacles, and a soft body. It is a cephalopod, a fast-swimming, intelligent mollusk that can change its skin color and spew ink in the water to confuse predators. The cuttlefish swims by using its fins and by spewing water from its body (a type of jet propulsion). The cuttlefish is nocturnal; it hunts during the night, and it hides and rests during the day. It has a life span of about 18 months.

Cephalopod videos

The Nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) is the last living genus of externally shelled cephalopods (Ward 1983 and 1987). This slow moving Cephalopod is considered primitive when compared to its faster moving relatives. In addition to having an external shell, these cephalopods do not have lenses in their eyes.

...Nautiluses have been on the planet for 500 million years and were here before there were bony fish...

[euRasian32]

Coelacanth ("see-la-kanth") ...Pre-dating the dinosaurs by millions of years and once thought to have gone extinct with them, 65 million years ago, the Coelacanth with its "missing link" "proto legs" was "discovered" alive and well in 1938!...

[TheOldSalt]

I just thought I'd bring this back from the dead for the new members to enjoy. I can see that I should probably get busy on a new mishmash.

[leveldrummer]

most people think the kidney bean was named after the organ, but it is the other way around, James P. Kidney, was the first to name the bean in 1832, years later they adopted the name to the organ (formerly referred to as "johansens organ") because of its similar shape and color.




(i just made that up)