Partial List of Live Organisms in Marine Aquaria That are
Visible to the Naked Eye
Current as of June 1999
This list is out of date -
will be updated soon
Cyanobacteria - prokaryotic algae
- Oscillatoria sp - purplish red film on glass below sand line in some
places
- Brown cyanobacteria (on sand in a few spots from time to time)
Green Macroalgae
- Caulerpa paspaloides
- C. sertularoides
- C. racemosa (2 types)
- C. racemosa var. peltata
- C. serrulata
- C. prolifera
- C. brachypus
- C. taxifolia (or mexicana? )
- Caulerpa sp. (several additional unidentified species)
- Codium sp.
- Acetabularia sp.
- Neomeris annulata
- Dasycladus vermicularis
- Anadyomene stellata
- Dictyosheria cavemosa
- Ventricaria sp.
- Valonia sp.
- Avrainviella
- Cladophora
- Chaetomorpha
- Halimeda monile
- H. opuntia
- H. tuna
- H. discoidea
- Misc. green turf algae
Brown Algae
- Dictyota
- Misc. Brown turf algae.
Red Algae
- Misc encrusting coralline reds - numerous species on rocks, on glass,
on turtle grass, or other algae. These are pink or purple in color (white
when dead)
- Branching coralline reds
- Neogoniolithon strictum
- Goniolithon
- Fleshy/bushy reds (some look brown, but are actually red algae), several
species
- Ochtodes (brownish or iridescent blue/purple in color)
- Ceramium
- Misc red turf algae
Diatoms
Dinoflagellates
- symbiotic in most of the Cnidarians we have, giving them their brown
or beige colors
Protists - single celled eukaryotes
- Foraminiferans - for single-celled organisms, these are HUGE - easily
visible to the naked eye!
- one type has pinkish, reddish, or orangy-red shells attached to rocks
- Another type - look like white, branching trees on secluded rock surfaces
Flowering vascular plants
- Turtle grass
- Manatee grass
Sponges
- red ball
- yellow encrusting - 3 types
- Yellow tree
- Yellow ball
- white/translucent encrusting
- orange encrusting
- green
- chicken liver sponge
- lavendar purple with very large osculum very conspicuous
- small "primitive" white calcareous sponges
- others
Cnidarians
- Small-polyped stony corals:
- Pocillopora damicornis, a branching stony coral, brown with pink tips
- Seriatopora hystrix, pink
- Acropora sp. - variety: "Larry Jackson's Purple-Tipped Monster"
- Montipora digitata
- Large-polyped stony corals:
- Fluorescent green boulder coral
- Blastomussa wellsi
- Wellsophyllia - open brain coral with INTENSE green fluorescence
- Gorgonians
- encrusting gorgonian
- brown sea rod
- purple sea plume
- Soft corals
- green star polyp
- Tree Xenia
- Unmbrella Xenia (Red Sea Xenia)
- Silver-tipped Xenia
- Zooanthids:
- Zooanthus societus -colonial anemones, two types
- Brown zooanthid
- Isaurus (nocturnal zooanthids)
- Mushroom anemones
- Anemones:
- Aiptasia anemones
- Bartholomea annulata (curlicue (or ringed) anemone)
- Macrodactyla doreensis (purple, long-tentacle anemone, which hosts
the clownfish)
Crustaceans
- "red-scarlet" hermit crabs
- blue leg hermit crabs
- Mithrax sculptus crab
- scarlet cleaner shrimp
- peppermint shrimp
- coral banded shrimp
- small isopods
- amphipods
- mysid shrimp (very tiny--from schools in sheltered places)
Molluscs
- file clam (Lima sp.) also called flame scallop
- oyster - we have several of different species
- small clams embedded in rocks (species??)
- thorny oyster
- limpets
- lettuce sea slugs
- Astrea tectum snails
- Trochus sp. snails
- Stomatella varia snails
- Other snails - one has orange shell, some are black, some are grey
- Chitons
- Vermetid snails (filter feeders - sessile, spiraled tubular shells
attached to rocks)
Polychete worms
- fire worms (Eurythoe complanata)
- sabellid fan worms (fether duster worm - has leathery tube)
- serpulid fan worms - have caleareous tubes - several types are present
- spirorbid worms - live in tiny, white snail-like, spiral tubes on glass,
rocks, macroalgae, etc
- spionid worms - filter-feeders, live on sand or rocks, have 2 long
feeding tentacles that look like worms themselves
- medusa worms
- many addtional polychete worms are also present!
Echinoderms
- Sea cucumbers
- "tigertail" (very large, sand feeding sea cucumbers)
- golden yellow sand-feeding
- small-grey filter-feeding
- large pink and yellow filter-feeding
- bright yellow filter feeding
- Brittle Stars/Serpent Stars
- large -- at least 6 species that are large (some very large and colorful,
some are green or brown, one is bright red)
- some species are very tiny
- Sea Stars
- Linkia star (blue in color)
- white/beige/brown sand-dwelling sea stars
- small asexually reproducing sea stars (usually asymmetrical in shape)
Tunicates
- black and orange colonial tunicate (on thorny oyster)
- large brown tunicate
- small white/translucent tunicates
- large yellow and purple tunicate
Fish
- Sailfin tang - Zebrasoma veliferum
- Blue tang - Paracanthus hepatus
- 4 Green chromis - Chromis viridis
- 2 Yellowheaded jawfish
- Banggai cardinalfish (we have a pair)
- Bicolor blenny (we have a pair, the male courts female with a spectacular
display)
- Jeweled rockhopper blenny (Salarius fasciatus)
- Solomon Island black percula clownfish (Amphiprion percula) We have
a mated pair.
In addition to the larger organisms listed above, MANY additional organisms
can be found with the aid of a microscope, including tardigrades (water
bears), nematodes, protists of many sorts, unicellular algae, bacteria,
etc.
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