Mystery Fish for WOD

Happy World Oceans Day!!!

Shall we have a lovely little fishy celebration? ;o)

Over the past several days I've been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to help you figure out whom I've chosen to celebrate WOD:

• 1. I'm a marine fish (although some people might think I don't look like one)
• 2. I can been found in deep and shallow and warm and temperate waters all over the world

• 3. I've got a mouthful of teeth and my bite can have very nasty consequences
• 4. But I'm shy so if I bite you it was probably your fault! (see story here)

• 5. I'm usually nocturnal. That means I prefer coming out of my hiding place (in crevices or holes) at night to look for food.
• 6. I rely on my sense of smell to find my prey, so if you're a stinky dead critter all the better for me! I help clean up the sea bottom of rotting corpses. But I also hunt for small tasty critters to munch on! ;o)

• 7. I'm part of a big family: around 200 species ranging in size from 10 cm to over 2 m in length and many different possible colours.
• 8. We might vary in size and colour, but we pretty much all have an elongated body which flattens a bit towards the end and we have a single dorsal fin and a ventral fin.

keep reading!

Final Fishy Clues!

Last two clues in our fishy guessing game! Have you figured it out yet? These two should confirm any guesses you might have made! Might also help if I reminded you that many of those clues are things I've told you about this fish in a Fishy Fridays episode... did anyone remember that? ;o)

Final clues:

9. I look like a snake

10. I've played a villain in a Disney movie

So, tomorrow is WORLD OCEANS DAY!!!  :o)

And Saturday the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon begins! You've got until Sunday evening to finish up with your posts! ;o)

Fishy Clues 7 & 8

Two more clues!!!

7. I'm part of a big family: around 200 species ranging in size from 10 cm to over 2 m in length and many different possible colours.

8. We might vary in size and colour, but we pretty much all have an elongated body which flattens a bit towards the end and we have a single dorsal fin and a ventral fin.

Fishy clues 5 & 6

Ready for a couple more clues about the mystery fish? ;o)

5. I'm usually nocturnal. That means I prefer coming out of my hiding place (in crevices or holes) at night to look for food.

6. I rely on my sense of smell to find my prey, so if you're a stinky dead critter all the better for me! I help clean up the sea bottom of rotting corpses. But I also hunt for small tasty critters to munch on! ;o) 

Remember, World Oceans Day and the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon are just a couple of days away!!!

Fishy Clues 3 & 4

Continuing with the Fishy Guessing Game for World Oceans Day this Friday June 8th...

3. I've got a mouthful of teeth and my bite can have very nasty consequences

4. But I'm shy so if I bite you it was probably your fault!

Who am I?

Fishy clues 1 & 2

World Oceans Day is this Friday!!!

And in preparation for my Oceanic Blog-A-Thon post I'm going to feed you little clues like a goldfish gets morsels of fish food... a couple a day! I'm currently off on a sailing trip so I won't be able to tell you if you've guessed right (but please do try in the comments, will be fun to see who got it!), you'll have to wait and see when the main post goes up! That will either be Friday if I am able to finish it in time while I have an internet connection, or Saturday when I get home. I hope you're working on your WOD's post! ;o)

Here go the first two clues:

1. I'm a marine fish (although some people might think I don't look like one)

2. I can been found in deep and shallow and warm and temperate waters all over the world

Any ideas?

What's squishy and crawls and swims?

Hi there! Since the theme of this year's World Oceans Day is Youth, I decided to join in the fun because kids and I have always gotten along! Indeed, they always seem to be really excited to meet me whenever they get the chance...

Let's see how long it takes you to guess who I am? ;o)

• I'm an invertebrate - that means I don't have a skeleton!

• Like most oceanic inhabitants (except for those pesky mammals) I breathe by filtering seawater through my gills. 

• I can crawl and I can swim.

• I live on the ocean floor, in dens under piles of rocks (that I either find or clear for myself), and I block the entrance with bits of shells and other rocks so it's hard for you to find me.

• I take up a lot of space, and yet I can squeeze myself through impossibly small holes!

• I have 3 hearts! They pump blue blood throughout my body. 

• Someday I'll die for my offspring (if I'm a male then I'll die shortly after I mate, if I'm a female then for the couple of months it takes my eggs to hatch I won't leave them alone for a moment and will die soon after).

• I have a big head with a pretty decent brain (I excel at memory tests and puzzle solving. Good luck keeping me locked up in a tank, I'm a regular Houdini!).

• My eyesight's pretty good thanks to my two big eyes, and I have a great sense of touch and taste. But I'm deaf!

• I have a beak which allows me to kill my prey (crabs, scallops, snails, fish, turtles...) by biting it.

• You know what they say about the best defence being a good attack? HA! Not for me! In my world the best defence is invisibility! So I'm a pro when it comes to camouflage, thanks to thousands of pigmented cells called cromatophores in my skin I can change my colouring to match my environment.  Good luck spotting me! ;o)

• If you do happen to spot me and come too close for comfort I'll disappear in the blink of an eye (yours not mine) and leave you blinded by a dark cloud...

• My cousins have 10 legs (or arms, your call!) while I've only got 8, and when we grab hold of something we don't easily let go! But that's not all they're good for, my legs/arms help me with eating, moving, hunting, tasting and mating. Check out our fabulous suction cups:

Who am I?

So, how'd you do? Have you figured me out yet? C'mon! That last clue was EASY!!! Let me help: my number of legs is what gives me my name! The ancient Greeks called me ??t?p??? (oktapous) which means "eight-footed". *hint* *hint*

I'm a mollusc.

         I'm a cephalopod.

                  I'm an..................

OCTOPUS!

Want to see how I'm put together?




Can you spot my siphon sticking out in this picture?

I don't know how I'd survive without it! I lets me squirt water out and propel me along either slowly or quickly (depends on how fast I squeeze), and if I'm in trouble that's where my jet of defensive ink will come out of!

I particularly enjoy this video, showing off just how smart I am! ;o)

You've probably heard of my famous German cousin Paul, right? The media made quite a fuss about him last year... I really don't get what the big deal is about opening a box and eating a mussel... let me at it and I'm sure I could open it twice as fast as him! And any football fan worth his salt knew Spain was destined to win the World Cup!!! ;o) Ahhh... but the poor fellow has moved on and can no longer defend himself so I guess I'd better let him be. He did a lot for octopus rights and he will be sorely missed.

Well, it's time for me to sign off and let you get back to enjoying World Oceans Day! I'll be sea-ing you! ;o)

Do you want to know more about me and my family?

How Stuff Works: Octopuses

Read about octopus legends

Come meet the largest member of my family, the Giant Pacific Octopus!

and of course there's always Wikipedia.

This post is part of the 2011 Oceanic Blog-A-Thon  and the World Oceans Day Beach Party over at Shellbelle's Tiki Hut! Come join us in celebrating World Oceans Day!!! :o)

Project 365 - 91

Horny Ducks invade the swimming pool!

Project 365 - 22

Sperm Whale diving off Kaikoura, NZ.

Project 365 - 21

"Taking flight", red-beaked seahulls in Kaikoura, NZ

Project 365 - 17

New Zealand Fur Seal scratching an itch on the Otago Peninsula, NZ.

Project 365 - 14

Weka stealing its lunch on Ulva Island, Rakiura National Park (Stewart Island), NZ.

Project 365 - 13

Kiwi spotting on Ocean Beach on Stewart Island, NZ.

Project 365 - 9

wonderful encounter: Fiordland-Crested Penguin, Milford Sound, NZ.

and just because he was so special (rare viewing of an endangered penguin species, that was supposed to be out to sea already!)... he gets an extra photo! ;o)

Feathered Visitors

A cool thing about this cold snap and all this snow, is that there have been a lot more birds hanging out in the gardens on the other side of my window! They're so cute hopping about and eating the last berries on the bushes, they make everything come alive! :o)

Allow me to introduce them to you (clicking on French names takes you to a bird website in French with distribution diet and more photos; Latin names takes you to Wikipedia in French, but I think you can change the language), and remember to click on photos for a larger view:

• Tourterelle turque or Streptopelia decaocto (Eurasian collared dove) some kind of dove that go released in the city "years" ago and has adapted quite nicely, in part probably thanks to friendly neighbours providing food during winter. These are the most abundant I've seen out of the window:

They particularly like the big fir tree: 

•  A male Merle or Turdus merula (common blackbird),  always with a bright and shiny plumage!

closeup:

who had quite a feast on berries like these!

• And finally, surprise one morning, a M�sange charbonni�re or Parus major (great tit) lovely little thing!

Apparently they're all a lot more visible now with the snow because they come closer to the houses seeking refuge from the cold, and looking for those fatty seed balls some people put out to feed them. Lucky me! But they'd better be careful, they're not the only critters hanging around in the backyards...

miaow! ;o)

I've been trying to get a shot of the large crows up on campus... but unlike these guys, they seem to have disappeared! :s

Fishy update

I'm afraid a full weekend in London and lots of classes and essay correcting kept me from finishing up this week's special "on the road" Fishy Friday... so I'm just going to have to make it an update on the status of the baby rays at the Li�ge Aquarium. As you can see below they're getting a little bit bigger and are more active, and still adorable!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Spotted animal?!

When you look out the window and see a spotted critter in the park...

you wonder if you're still under the influence of the half bottle of Rioja wine you had with dinner the night before!

But when you switch to the zoom lens of your camera (click to enlarge):

It's still weird! A pink polka-dot horse?!?!?! lol!!! :p

Fishy Fridays ep. 11: Special News Flash!

We interrupt our regular broadcast (which has been on hold since February, lol!) to bring you a special announcement!

The freshwater stingray population in the Li�ge Aquarium has recently been increased by two!

keep reading!

Fishy Fridays ep.10

Welcome! Bienvenus! Wilkommen! Bienvenidos! Benvinguts! Benvenutti!

Time to really kick off Fishy Fridays 2010 edition by diving back into the Li�ge Aquarium! Remember, before Christmas we had just started off with the tropical section, so these are all fish from warm coastal zones, frequently reefs or mangroves. Don't forget to click on photos for a larger view (sorry if blurry, damn fish won't stop swimming even for a second!) and clicking on a fish's name will send you to its Fishbase page where you can find lots more info (namely distribution, diet, predators, reproductive habits, endangered status, size etc.), which I highly recommend since I was a bit busy this weekend and there were way too many fish involved for me to go too much in detail (also why this post is late, that and I need to remember to start writing these before the Friday, lol!).

Our special guests today include:

• someone who makes the Wicked Witch of the West seem pale by comparison
• a fish that will remind some readers of a certain Disney-friendly canine
• one of the most toxic fish in the world... who is nevertheless regularly consumed by humans... of the highly affluent variety
• and more! (it's a big tank, lol!)

keep reading!

Lucky Penguin

So, have you heard the one about the penguin and the orcas? ;o)

I got one version of this video in an e-mail forward (thx dad!), and have since found a couple others on youtube (changes in music, this one has goofy penguin subtitles). Check it out: