Posted by ssmvaquariumblog on Saturday, November 18, 2017 in News.

The SSMV aquarium was created with the goal of helping high school students understand the dynamics of marine life. Students at the SSMV, the sophomores, in particular, have been working to decide what organisms would best model marine ecosystems and how they would help create a healthy environment. Some of the recent additions include:
6 Firefish Goby (Nemateleotris magnifica)
6 Banggai Cardinalfish (Pterapogon kauderni)
2 Royal Grammas (Gramma loreto)
1 Diamond Goby (Valenciennea puellaris)
These organisms have all been selected based on the roles they play in maintaining healthy living conditions, or because of their behaviors that make them ideal for aquarium life. Both the Firefish Goby and the Banggai Cardinalfish are “schooling fish”. Schooling is a method of swimming tightly together as a means of protection and as a way swim more efficiently [1]. The Diamond Goby was selected because of his sand sifting abilities. Diamond gobies like to create a sand mound that they can burrow into when they sense danger. They do this by carrying large mouthfuls of sand around the tank. They also sift sand through their gills to find food buried in it. This is very useful for their implementation in a marine aquarium, as they keep the sand clean with their constant sifting [2].
Some of these fish did pass away in the days following their tank implementation, possibly the result of poor pH levels in the tank. The pH has been falling in the tank due to large amounts of CO2. We have added alkalinity to combat this problem. We have also placed seaweed in the tank in an effort to lower these pH levels.
[1] J. Sargent, “How Do Fish Swim In Schools? Scientists Say It’s In Their Genes”, 2013. [Online]. Available: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/fish-schools-genes_n_3947303.html [Accessed: 18-Nov-2017]

[2] M. Fishlore, “Diamond Goby – Orange Spotted Sleeper Goby”. [Online]. Available: https://www.fishlore.com/profile-diamondgoby.htm. [Accessed: 18-Nov-2017].