Aquarium Life

Thursday was pretty much a standard a day. I was up for the community tank feed so I was happy ... I got to bond with cheeky as per ususal. He is so cute ... now for those who have forgotten Cheeky is our shortspine pufferfish ... named bacause if I ignore him he tends to spit at me. Now it usually works like this ... I get up at the back of the tank and start talking to them and the whole tank comes alive ... they know it's feeding time ... the last couple of weeks he has been swimming at the right front of the tank and because he is a little round he cant swim over the coral so he always swims around the outcrop right into the current that is being pumped ... all you see if little fins moving ... almost like he is going wait wait i'll be there in a second ... when he does finally reach you he starts making sucking noises asking for food so I usually give him a couple of shrimp before feeding the tank. I love my job ;o)

Wel like I said we now have baby rays in one of the tanks next to the pool ... they where moved into their own sanday tank on Thursday and the aquarists decided to put a hermit crab into the tank with them to contol the algae ... but being a new tank he was exploring and as soon as he walked over the smallest ray ... the ray freaked out and then the crab was following him around so we had to keep and eye on them to see that the crab doesn't harrass the rays ... on a side note have you ever noticed that as soon as you try to imagine a crab saying anything it is usually in a french accent ... thanks to the Little mermaid and Finding Nemo ;o) They did settle down eventually so all was good.

I was doing my last shirf at the ray pool when this family came to stand next to me ... mom, dad and a little girl. I was talking to the dad at one stage when the little girl turned to me and asked "do you life here?" ... I just had to smile ... no I said but I take care of the animals ... she looked at the fish and the rays then said "that's good because when it is dark and there is nobody here the fish will get scared" I thought that was so cute she just made my day.

Well enough for now untill next time.
L8r
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I apologise to everyone for not blogging about the aquarium life last week but I managed to get a cold and was completely incapacitated over the weekend. So today was interesting ... my voice has been sounding horrible the whole week and I had to do the ray talk with the feed ... there wasn't that many people so it went ok but was sounding a bit croaky afterwards but it was ok.

I had a great rainforrest feed today ... we had a full feed so it included the piranas ... now the last couple of weeks they haven't been eating all that well so I was really happy when they actually went for the food. They didn't give me any hanging food for the Archer fish today so I decided to see if I could get them to jump for the seeweed ... and they did ;o) ... not happy that it wasn't meat though but they still put up a show so was kewl. The veggie piranas managed to splash everbody over the side of their tank today but to be fair I got completely soaked by the catfish ... they were really enjoying their fish today. The Malawi chiclids went a bit wild for their food today ... they are feisty little ones and they managed to bite right through my gloves.

The rays were really intertaining today as well ... I am pretty sure that they can gage which people they can take the piss out of. The do it regularly coming up and swimming just out of people's reach ... but today I had three girls who were really rediculous at first they refused outrightly to touch the rays claiming they they didn't want to smell fishy ... but eventually they decided to put their hands in afterall ... so one of our male thornbacks came up from the bottom but stopped about 5cm from their fingers hover there a moment then sink back down ... over and over again coming up to just beneath the depth that they were willing to stick their hands in all they had to do was to just stick their hands in a little deeper but no ... so in the end they didn't touch any of the rays and just left ... they know.

Another gentleman came up to me and asked me if I was going to ask the rays to come up to the surface so they could touch them ... I told him I could try but I dont know if they will listen ... so when I saw one of the female spotted rays looking like she was gonna come up I said loudly "hey lady are you going to come up and say hi", she did come up and he looked really amazed but i doubt it was because I asked ... but guess it's true what D says some people just like seeing us interact with the animals we know really well.

I'm going to sign off with this today ... we have baby rays in the back of the ray pool. They are so so cute ... and after Mario put them in Lizzy laughingly said so the mommy has become a grandma ;o)

L8r
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Friday was a fairly interesting day. We had a bit of a late night on Thursday so all of us were feeling a bit fragile. I only had one feed on Friday ... one that I had not done before ... the ray feed. Now how it ususally works is that one person does the ray talk while another person does the ray feed. I had put some fish flakes on the slipway for the Mullet ... we do this so that they don't keep following us around and eating the ray food. So in the middle of the talk and the feed I just hear a huge splash ... but it was behind the pilar on the slipway and I thought nothing about it ... the rays tend to go onto the slipway then splash when they try to turn around.

I was still busy with the feed when Sabrina finished the talk and walked over to me ... she goes dont worry I already told the aquarists about the mullet ... I had no clue so I asked her what mullet ... and she pointed out one drifting on the surface ... it had literally been decapitated ... Sabrina didn't see it either she just heard it ... so best we can figure is that one of the bigger rays came onto the slipway and was trying to turn around (usually done by flapping and whipping their tails) and one of the smaller mullet must have been after the food and got away. I never realized their tails where so powerful.

I had a later shift at the ray pool ... and I realized that some parents get really carried away when I reach the ray pool ... I had a father dangling ... yes dangling his year old daughter by her feet over a ray that had come onto the slipway ... I had to tell him to please not do that ... not only might she fall on her head but the ray was trying to turn around ... one had just decapitated on of our mullet and he's dangling her over a swinging tail.

I have now officialy become the mommy of the rays. A second boy asked his mom if I was a mommy of the rays. It is true though I have been working there for about a month now and the have become like my children I can even pick out some individual ones now.

The rest of the day was pretty straight forward, I didn't get to feed cheeky our puffer fish but I did go say hi at one stage. John from photography has been taking the nicest photo's of them and making them into magnets and key rings. So Elizabeth got me the nicest key ring of cheeky
as a present. Will try to get some photo's to put on Smile and Wave.

I was sitting at the craft table with Liz of Friday when she told me to look at one of the rays in our Atlantic tank. I looked up and I saw her actually lay an egg it was so kewl ... I had seen the eggs inthe ray pool but it was the first time I had actaully seen one lay an egg ... So in a matter of speaking in one day I had seen both a death and a birth in the family.

More Aquarium life next week ;o)

Later
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sorry went out last night so this is what happened yesterday i.e. Thursday in the aquarium.

Yesterday was a day of sharks ... I had the opportunity to watch the aquarists feed the sharks ... it was fantastic. Neil showed us how they put medication for the sharks in the food ... only problem with that is that you have to make sure the right shark actually gets the food. He tried to get our bottom feeding sharks to come to the surface to give them some squid with extra iodine ... it was really kewl Bell and Ashley our two nurse sharks came up to the surface to get their squid. Mazawabe (our Zebra shark) however had no interest to come to the surface. They did all get their medication though ... I heard the divers took them some squid medicine today ;o)

Just afterwards I had half an hour to chat to visitors at the main Pacific window (or main shark window). A little boy came up to me ... I guess he was about four and he sked me 'How many teeth does a shark have' so I told him that nobody knows exactly how many teeth a shark has but they have five rows of teeth so if they loose one they can replace them ... so they never have to go to the dentist. He thought about this for a while then he said that he has a little box that he can put his teeth into when he looses a tooth he just puts it into his box and te next morning the fairies leave money under his pillow ... so his mom tells him that the sharks dont have fairies. It just made my day ... just imagine sharks would make a fortune.

I also got to do the coral reef feed yesterday ... we had a new volunteer starting yesterday so I was showing him how to do the coral reef feed and as per usual talking to them as I do ... the pufferfish came right up to me so I gave him some shrimp and ignored him while explaining to David how to do it and feeding the rest of the tank ... then the cheeky little bugger started spitting water at me ... he really doesn't like being ignored ... so since he didn't have a name we have now decided to call him cheeky.

Oh and Elizabeth suggested that I call my jumping archer fish Archy ... so there you go. More aqurium news about what happened today at aquarium ... including a murder mystery so stay tuned.

L8r
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I just love my job ... I had a fairly interesting day today. Had my two feeds today, the rainforrest section and the Coral reef community tank ... really kewl.

Firstly the rainforrest section ... it wasn't as spectacular as last week, since the Archer fish didn't want to spit today ... but there is one specific one I have come to recognise that always lines up and jumps on my right side when we dangle the sandeels for them to illustrate their jumping abilities. He really made me feel better about that feed because he jumped higher out of the water than we thought he would and he came back three time to do the jump ... a real performer ... its gotten so that I know exctly when he is going to jump ... will have to think of a name for him.

The rest of the rainforrest section went fairly well ... the catfish proceeded to splash me as much as they could ... and then followed me around the tank, making it really difficult for me to rinse the glove a bit to make to be able to do the other feeds. The Arawana came up to ask for his shrimp ... was the first time I got to feed him and he is so cute.

The coral reef tank was just as kewl today, the pufferfish was out and about the tank and came up to me as soon as I reached the back of the tank and started talking to them ... before you go FREAK ... I talk to all the fish in the aquarium and they do all have their own personalities ... the correct term is not freak, but FISH GEEK. He was very cute and he and the picasso trigger fish actually push each other out of the way to get to the food ... guess its warented ... the trigger steals the puffers food if he's not fast enough. He came begging for more when all the food was gone ... staring at me with those big blue eyes ... unfortunately had to tell him no...

Overall a really good day ... tomorrow I'm helping with the shark feed ... yippeeeeee!!!
L8r
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Well summer is on its back and all the kids are back to school which means that things had become really, really quiet this week. The aquarium and especially the ray pool is completely quiet and different now.

Now before I start I have to explain about the ray pool. In the aquarium we have a ray touch pool with four species of ray that people can touch without fear of getting stung or attacked. As a way of educating people more about the rays. So as you can imagine there needs to be supervision by a staff member at all time so on an average day I spend about 1½ to 2 hours at the ray pool. To babysit the rays and to stop small children from falling into the pool ... and apparently this does happen.

One of the rules of the ray pool is : NO SPLASHING!!! The reason for this is that the rays think that there is another ray in distress on the surface so they all stay on the bottom. I loose count of the amout of times I say that in a day. So friday I was telling a young boy that he shouldn't splash ... I think he might have been about five ... his mother must have told him not to splash too because he gave me a look then asked his mother if I was a mommy ... his mother and I exchanged smiling glances and she said: "Yes sweetheart she is mommy of the rays". It really made my day.

I had two feeds on Friday the rainforrest section and the Coral reef section. It was my first time feeding the piranas ... what a let down ... they just looked at the food and went 'Naw not interested' ... so much for feeding frenzy ... at least the catfish and archer fish put up a show ... but not as spectacular as the last time I did the feed.

I love doing the coral reef feed ... we have the cutest little shortspine pufferfish and he has the most beautiful blue eyes but he's shy and only comes out once in a while. I have been lucky, I see him every time I do the feed. Last thursday he came out because Ian was working on the tank and I think he was pissed off at him ... but I couldn't even tempt him with some cockles yesterday. Would come up to surface then go 'Naw don't wanna' so eventually had to give up but I have lots of time to charm him yet.

More interesting stories later
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For those who dont know FYI = For your information ;o) I started as a volunteer information person for the education department of the London Aquarium almost a month ago. Now what this involves is giving talks to people about the animals in the aquarium. Doing some of the animal feeds with the talks and babysitting the rays in the ray pool, to see that they don't get harassed and hurt.

I decided to start this blog on volunteer and aquarium life because since I started I have had some really funny and interesting experiences from both the animals and the people who come to see them.

So this is my story....

L8r
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