Shapes in the murk

Cloud cover: 100%. So reads the weather report for most days recently. 98 to 100%. And we have barely 8 hours of daylight, but for the first and last of those hours it's too dark to read outside. Even when it isn't raining.

I'm not grumbling; that's our end of the year island weather; those misty days, the days of muted greys, of hillsides that blend into the sky, of tree silhouettes and the cries of gulls made musical in the damp air.

It wasn't raining, and there was no breeze to ruffle the water, so I went down to the docks to peer under the floats. Dock fouling, they call it; looking at the life that "fouls" the human structures. A one-sided way to look at it; don't our plastics and oils and trash contaminate the habitat of all that underwater life?

Anyhow. It was too dark, even at midday, to see much underwater. I saw orange starfish down on the rocks and many feather duster worms on the underside of the floats, all vague shapes in the murk. But there were bright white plumose anemones just under the surface.

Metridium senile, on an underwater hose. The seaweed is a blur in the dark water.

Many of the old pilings have been replaced by metal ones. I'm not sure why, but so far, even the algae have left them bare. But some of the wooden ones remain; here I found good-sized kelp crabs.

Creosoted piling, with barnacles and a leggy kelp crab, waving his chelipeds at me.

Armed and dangerous. Or so he wants me to believe. Lots of barnacles on this piling.

Another plumose anemone.

And another. The netting can be seen, faintly, through the flesh of the anemone.

This was very dark, and I had to jack up the lighting. The feather duster worm, to my eyes, looked dark purple. The sponge looked dull orange.

I kept that photo because of the leggy critters that crawl on the pipes. They look to me like skeleton shrimps; I haven't seen these under the docks before.

Skeleton shrimp, in my aquarium, 2015. Male (large) and pregnant female.

As I headed back to dry land, the sun was attempting to break through the clouds.

As bright as it got. This was at  3 PM.

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Nubosidad: 100%. Así dice el pronóstico meteorológico para casi todos los dias ahora. De 98 a 100%. Y nos quedan ahora apenas 8 horas de luz a diario, pero en la primera y última de esas horas, sigue tan oscuro que no se puede leer afuera. Y eso, cuando no llueve.

No es una queja; así es nuestro clima aquí en la isla hacia el final del año; esos dias de neblina, de los tonos grises apagados, de cerros que se desvanecen entre las nubes, de siluetas de los árboles y de los gritos de las gaviotas que se vuelven música por la humedad del aire.

No llovía, y no había brisa para levantar olas; fui al muelle para ver que se podía encontrar bajo los flotadores. Pero estaba bastante oscuro, aunque era todavía media tarde. Vi estrellas de mar en las rocas debajo del agua, y muchos gusanos plumero, pero todos como formas imprecisas entre las sombras. Pero sí había anémonas blancas justo debajo de la superficie.

    1. Metridium senile en un tubo. Las algas, sin luz, se borran y pierden sus colores.

Muchos de los pilotes viejos se han cambiado por pilotes de metal. No sé porque, pero hasta ahora  ni siquiera las algas se han establecido en ellos. Pero todavía hay algunos de los pilotes de madera; aquí encontré cangrejos kelp bastante grandecitos.

    2. Pilote pintado con creosota, con bálanos y un cangrejo kelp, amenazándome con sus quelípedos.

    3. Peligroso. Por lo menos, eso es lo que quiere hacerme creer.

    4. Otra anémona plumosa Metridium senile.

    5. Y otra. Se ve la red através de su carne translúcida.

    6. Este gusano plumero estaba en un sitio muy oscuro, y tuve que aumentar la luz de la foto. En el sitio, se veía de un color morado muy apagado, y la esponja, que aquí se ve amarillo estaba más bien un café algo anaranjado.

Subí la foto a causa de esos animalitos patilargos que se ven en la tubería. Parecen ser Caprellidae (que aquí llamamos camarones esqueleto, y no son ni camarones ni esqueletos).  No he visto estos antes en los flotadores, solamente en algas intermareales.

    7. Una pareja de caprellidae en mi acuario, 2015. El grande es el macho.

    8. Mientras regresaba a tierra firma, el sol trataba de penetrar las nubes, pero pronto volvió a esconderse. Esto fue a las 3 de la tarde.

Pointy

 Reaching out ...

Spiky. Baby sea urchin sheltering in empty mussel shell.

Tentacly. Plumose anemone, "Metty", feeling fine.

The sun came out this morning, and I went for a long, long walk. Tomorrow there'll be photos of beach findings.

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Estirándose ...

Mi erizito de mar, descansando en una concha vacía de un mejillón.

Y mi anémona plumosa, a la que he dado el nombre de "Metty", feliz, esperando su desayuno.

Hoy salió el sol en la mañana, y me fui a caminar por largo rato. Mañana, habrá fotos de lo que hallé en la playa.

Under the water line

 The wharf, on the sunny side, is a quiet place, a watery parking lot. There are a few people, gulls, a dog or two, maybe even a cat. Sometimes a heron.

But on the underside; that's another story. There's more busy and crowded biodiversity there than in the entire city of Ankh-Morpork*.

Plumose anemones, sponges and much more, on the side of a float.

At first glance, this is a mess. Too much going on; too crowded, too many shapes. So I've added labels to the photo. It might be a good idea to click on it to bring it up to full size.

There's even a nudibranch!

Another anemone, same species, with friends.

And here it is, with labels. Help me out here!

And another photo, from a wharf edge in full sun:

A few barnacles grow above the water line, in the splash zone.

And here it is, labelled:

The worms like the dark better.

Summing up: there are anemones, sponges, tunicates, barnacles and mussels and limpets, assorted feather duster worms, at least one nudibranch, a sea urchin, hydroids, assorted algae. Present, but not visible, are a full contingent of amphipods, copepods, assorted worms out of tubes, assorted worms in tubes, snails, bryozoans, probably some isopods, maybe a few shrimp. The usual crabs are not the one here, which I think, seeing only the underside, is probably a shore crab; the usual crabs are kelp crabs, longer-legged for crawling on floaters, and an olive-green colour which makes them hard to see. 

But there is still more! I'll upload a few more photos tomorrow.

*Which includes trolls, dwarfs, golems, werewolves, vampires, banshees, gnolls, gnomes, Wee Free Men, zombies, talking dogs, ditto ravens, gargoyles, elves, goblins, orcs, Death, incarnated auditors, the 5 horsemen, bogeymen, and humans, just taking into account the "intelligent" (although not necessarily wise) species. And not counting the yeti, who is wise enough to stay up in the snows.

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En el muelle, todo es tranquilo; al fin es un estacionamiento, aunque sea sobre agua. Hay algunas personas, gaviotas, uno que otro perro, tal vez hasta un gatito. Y a veces una garza.

Abajo del agua, ya es otra cosa. Hay un ecosistema tan diverso, tan lleno, que es difícil verlo o describirlo.

En estas fotos, tomadas al lado de dos flotadores, hay: anémonas, esponjas, un nudibranquio, cientos (aunque solo se ven algunos) de anélidos, uricordados (tunicados), lapas, mejillones, cirrípedos, hidroides, y un cangrejo. Y muchas algas, rojas y verdes, que se intermezclan con los anélidos que viven en tubos y, abiertos, se confunden con los hilitos de alga.

Hay mas animales aquí que no se pueden ver, pero por cierto están escondidos bajo el alga: anfipodos, copepodos, más anélidos, briozoos, caracoles, probablemente unos isopodos, y camarones. Los cangrejos que veo a seguido no son como el que aparece en la foto, un cangrejo que más bien se halla entre las piedras en la playa, pero un cangrejo "kelp" que tiene las patas larguísimas para mejor agarrarse a los flotadores, y de un color verde oliva, que lo hace muy difícil de ver entre el alga.

¡Hay más! Subo más fotos mañana.

Disaster averted

I don't post very many photos of my aquarium critters these days. It's not a lack of interesting things going on, but most of them don't show up in photos. And have been discouraging, as well.

I've been collecting fresh seawater for the tank every couple of weeks. Until this spring, the best access point (with my heavy 5-gallon buckets) was at a local boat launch, where I had a platform to stand on over water deep enough. Then the city decided to "improve" it. First, it was blocked off with fences, then the heavy machinery came in and played in the mud all summer. I found another access point, a few miles down the road, which worked fine until the winter storms blocked it with logs, and a sign went up, saying that the logs would remain until spring.

Okay. I went back to the old boat launch, that was now open. Very nice: two long piers out into the water, anchored with a post at each end, a clean cement ramp leading down, as opposed to the slippery, uneven slope I stumbled over last year. Very nice. I filled my buckets easily and took them home.

And almost killed my whole tank. As soon as I changed the water, all the anemones shut down immediately. The big brown plumose anemones started sending out her distress symbols: acontia - long white threads streaming out from her body. The crabs and hermits sat still, looking sleepy; they were not interested in food.

"Metty" in a bad mood. Photo from 2015.

But everything looked good! The tank had been scrubbed, the water was clear, the pump and bubbler were going strong. I gave them a few hours to recover, and looked again. Worse. Some of the anemones on the walls had just given up and were mere smears on the glass. "Metty" was an angry brown disk. The crabs were barely moving.

I checked the water. The salinity was 'way down, the acid level 'way up. I corrected these with salt and bicarbonate, added water conditioner. That should have fixed it.

But where did the salt go, and where did the acid come from? The nice, fresh, clean, but still uncured, cement works at the boat launch, maybe? And did the "improvements" include re-routing a stream into the launch site? With fresh water, and possibly lawn and business run-off? What other poisons came along with that cool, clear water?

When, two days later, none of the anemones seemed to be recovering, and no-one had any appetite, I went for water again. This time, to a beach where I had to wade into the surf, then haul my buckets over logs and rocks and slippery sand and a lawn to reach the car. (A man passing by saw my struggles and came to help; much appreciated!)

I changed the water again. The crabs woke up. The hermits discovered their appetites. And slowly, so slowly, the anemones took in water, opened cautious mouths, waved tentative tentacles. My largest pink-tipped green anemone - so beautiful she had been! - had broken down into three or four brownish chunks and fallen to the bottom of the tank. Two of the chunks now anchored themselves to shells and looked about for food.

Today, a month later, they're still cautious. But the pink-tipped anemone is finally pink-tipped again. And the crabs and hermits are enthusiastically pairing up; I have two pregnant crabs.

And spring is coming. And the logs will be gone. And - I hope - no-one will try to "improve" the second boat launch.

"Hi, there!" Waving female crab. She may be newly in berry.