Measuring in at 55 ft. long and 19 ft. wide, the vessel was packed with 600 vases (amphoras) filled with sardines, salted mackerel and garum, a popular Roman fish sauce. But recently archaeologists found signs that this ship also housed an oxygenated fish tank on board that would allow for storage and transport of live fish.

This mobile fish market included a lead pipe located in the stern area (rear section) of the ship and fed a tank via a hole cut into the ship’s hull.

“No seaman would have drilled a hole in the keel, creating a potential way for water to enter the hull, unless there was a very powerful reason to do so,” researchers noted in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

Archaeologists speculate this pipe would be connected to a hand operated piston pump that would deliver sea water into the fish tank located on the deck. Although the pump was not found with the wreckage researchers determined the ship could have carries a tank containing around 4 cubic meters (141 cubic feet) of water, which could have housed 440 pounds of live fish.

Needing to replenish the water once every half hour, calculations show with a flow rate of around 66 GPH, a piston pump would fill the tank in around 16 minutes.

[via Discovery News]

Measuring in at 55 ft. long and 19 ft. wide, the vessel was packed with 600 vases (amphoras) filled with sardines, salted mackerel and garum, a popular Roman fish sauce. But recently archaeologists found signs that this ship also housed an oxygenated fish tank on board that would allow for storage and transport of live fish.

This mobile fish market included a lead pipe located in the stern area (rear section) of the ship and fed a tank via a hole cut into the ship’s hull.

“No seaman would have drilled a hole in the keel, creating a potential way for water to enter the hull, unless there was a very powerful reason to do so,” researchers noted in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.

Archaeologists speculate this pipe would be connected to a hand operated piston pump that would deliver sea water into the fish tank located on the deck. Although the pump was not found with the wreckage researchers determined the ship could have carries a tank containing around 4 cubic meters (141 cubic feet) of water, which could have housed 440 pounds of live fish.

Needing to replenish the water once every half hour, calculations show with a flow rate of around 66 GPH, a piston pump would fill the tank in around 16 minutes.

[via Discovery News]

As one of the cool features to the nifty EcoPico aquarium kit, Ecoxotic just released the LED Arm Light as a standalone fixture you can add to your existing setup or to add more pop to your EcoPico. Capable of being secured on any rimless aquarium up to 6mm in thickness, the Ecoxotic LED Arm Light comes complete with one LED light strip (2 x 12,000K White 1 x 453nm Actinic Blue) and a transformer. The tiny fixture can also be upgraded and customized to fit up to two additional LED strips to dial in the right light spectrum for your tank. You will need a three-way splitter to power the additional lights without needing another power supply. The LED Arm Light retails for $44.95 and each addition LED strip runs $22.95 — all are available at Ecoxotic’s online store or through your local Ecoxotic retailer.

Blackreef is a new aquarium controller system borrowing heavily from the ease of use that iPhones and other touchscreen smartphones have brought to the market. We got wind of the Blackreef from Aquarama and from what we’ve been able to gather, the Blackreef system uses a 4.3 in. resistive touchscreen device as the main control and display of the device with just one cable to power and communicate with all the modules. The touchscreen control is very reminiscent of a smartphone app making it easy to browse, monitor, control and setup equipment on the system.

The Blackreef system has built in control for dosing pumps and can be easily scheduled and managed quantity control via the device and with the computer software, more advanced dosing features can be tapped into. The Blackreef system also had built in management of the most popular streaming pumps allowing you to simply choose any of the preset scenarios or create your own.

If lighting control is your bag, then the Blackreef has a swanky built in LED control module with all the typical bells and whistles — a full sunrise to sunset scheme, lunar cycle, plus cloud cover and thunderstorms. Each LED module also features two outlets to control T5 lights. There is also a standalone lighting module to control and manage T5 and HQI/MH lighting. The Blackreef system also features add-on modules including an SMS module to send updates, error messages and alerts to you in real time along with an ethernet bridge module.

Sensor control and monitoring is the backbone of most aquarium control systems since steady parameters are a key component of a stable reef system and the Blackreef system sensor control module has several precision sensor components — temperature (heating and cooling), pH, Redox/ORP, and salinity. There is even a way to manage salinity and control the automated top-off of the aquarium and if you really want to get detailed, could even use the system to do automated water changes. Future plans call for nitrate and oxygen sensors to be added.

While using a sexy device instead of a utilitarian box with a simple digital display is refreshing, the obvious nod to the iPhone is appealing but we would rather see a system eliminate the need for a propriety head unit or handset control device, opting for using a smartphone as the main platform. Sure it is a nifty looking device compared to what’s on the market today but with the advanced computing and processing power we have in our mobile phones, one less “device” is always better. Look for the Blackreef aquarium control system to make its full-fledged debut at InterZoo 2012.

The aquarium in the video above is an aquascape created by Oliver Knott which was inspired by the blockbuster movie Avatar. This aquascape was modeled after a setting of the movie called the Hallelujah Mountains, which float in mid-air, covered by lush jungles and connected to each other and the ground by vines. Oliver Knott is a highly regarded freshwater plant aquarist from Germany who has some serious skill, and we can just imagine that he set himself to design this particular aquascape the moment he saw the breathtaking scenes of the Hallelujah Mountains during the movie.

The tank containing Knott’s nature aquarium remix of Hallelujah Mountains is 250 liters, so about 60 gallons and it features a flat-screen television-background for sunrise, sunset and passing cloud simulation. Also consider that this tank was set up on the spot, for the “The Art of Planted Aquarium” 2011 competition in Hannover Germany. On a similar note, Knott also set up a smaller nano planted aquascape with a color changing RGB LED background, video after the break.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The tanks are fitted with Mini BioBox 2 three-stage filtration and a simple LED lighting system mounted on an integrated lamp support. The LED light includes 16 individual LEDs, most likely just in all white flavors, and running at low wattage, perfect for a freshwater planted tank. Adding a few blue LED accent lights might make a sexy reef setup as well. All three color models can be ordered with a matching stand. Pricing is around £94.99 ($151 USD) for the 15 l aquarium and £54.99 ($88 USD) for the cabinet and the larger version running £159.99 ($255 USD) for the aquarium and £94.99 ($151 USD) for the cabinet.

[via Practical Fishkeeping]

We can leave all the jokes aside but an interesting study has found some fish to score just as well as college students on some basic number tests. Using the highly social, freshwater mosquitofish the researchers conducted a lab test showing the fish could in fact count — differentiating between numerical quantities in a lab experiment.

It seems the mosquitofish are always looking for company and if one finds itself alone, its first priority is to find other mosquitofish. Using this behavior, lone fish were trained in the lab to associate a door bearing a certain number of geometric shapes with the path to rejoining a larger group. The fish were put in tanks and had to chose between one of two identical doors bearing different numbers of symbols. After time the fish were able to distinguish between the smaller and larger numbers, in essence counting.

“You just don’t expect interesting results like this when dealing with animals like fish,” said study leader Christian Agrillo of the University of Padova in Italy. “We thought this was really incredible.”

When the team changed the ratios between the numbers, the fish were effected as well with slight initial confusion — something the team also noted in the human volunteers in the experiment.

“It was kind of funny, most of them appeared to be surprised when we switched from small numbers to hundreds. They swam inside the tank for a while, looking at the new stimuli as if they were trying to understand what was going on,” Agrillo said. “However, after a short while they started to solve the task as well.”

As the researchers adjusted the numbers of shapes on the doors, the fish were less successful when the numbers were closer to each other. With a higher differential, such as four to eight shapes, in the ratio the fish fish would chose the right door more often. As the numbers of shapes got closer together the fish would struggle.

So how about the comparison to humans? The researchers took a group of 25 undergraduate students to try a test that had the same types of challenges, where the students would have to differentiate and find the larger number in two seconds. The research found humans were more accurate in the tests over the fish but showed the same degraded ability to judge number differences as ratios shifted higher.

The counting-fish study was published December 22 in the journal PLoS ONE.

[via National Geographic]

In addition to the information about Symphisodon species, DiscusBook 01 also divulges on new dwarf cichlid and angelfish strains as well as some spectacular Loricariids suckermouth catfish. If you’re an avid discus fan or just want to know more about the Amazon from the point of view of an aquarium fish explorer, DiscusBook 01 is available from Discus South for £19.95, plus £2.35.

[via PFKmag]

Trochilocharax ornatus is the new official name of a new Peruvian tetra which was first imported for the aquarium trade by Aquarium Glasser in Germany. For a while this beautiful Characin was thought to belong to the genus Heterocharax or Tyttocharax but it was described into a genus that was erected just for this species, Trochilocharax. In the aquarium trade T. ornatus is being called the crystal rainbow tetra or the orange-tailed glass tetra. A male crystal rainbow tetra is pictured above, and there’s a picture of a female after the break. For more information visit Aquarium Glasser and the German description of the Crystal Rainbow Tetra is available in pdf.

Panaque armbrusteri is the official description of what has previously been called the Xingu Royal Pleco L27c. Photo by Lujan et al.

Panaque armbrusteri, P. titan and P schaeferi are three species of large plecos (Loricarids) which were recently described by Lutjan et. al in Revision of Panaque in the journal Copeia. Panaque armbrusteri is the new latin name given to what has been called the Xingu Royal Pleco, an extremely striking gold striped black fish which also has been known by the L-number of L27c. Panaque titan is the new name of a fish which looks very similar to the “Peru Green Royal Pleco”, L418/L27b although the type specimen was collected in Ecuador, a country which borders Peru.

Also belonging to the genus as Panaque armbrusteri is the Royal Pleco, Panaque nigrolineatus, one of the most popular large plecos available to the aquarium trade and the blue-eye, Panaque cochliodon. It is very exciting to see some new taxonomic work being undertaken on the very popular Panaque genus. Having more species of these riverine fishes officially described just reinforces the case for protecting biologically diverse river systems of South America.