Cuddling with Cuttlefish

So today was the second day of my internship and it was AWESOME!
The theme of this entry will be the four cuttlefish in the exhibit, one of which I got to meet pretty closely today.

Here's one cuttlefish.

Here's another one. This guy would flash his skin different colors when we waved a hand at him.

And the third one.

Cuttlefish are mollusks. They are members of the class Cephalopoda, same as squid and octopi. Cuttlefish have an internal structure called a cuttlebone. It is made of calcium carbonate (same as shells). The cuttlebone is made of many super thin, hollow layers that the cuttlefish fills up with water to grow heavy and sink, or empty and let the creature rise.

Now here is the fourth, and last, cuttlefish. He is the one that I got to work with today. We had to transfer him from one tank to another one. First we scooped him into a clear box-like container, which you can see here.

Immediately he got mad and let out a lot of ink: the water turned completely black for a couple of seconds. Then it cleared a little and he started making bubbles/or maybe spitting water from his backside at me. (I was holding the box).

Next, we carried im to the new tank and transferred him into the bucket which we filled half with water from his new tank, and half from water from his old tank. Than, as you can see, we left him to float in the new tank so that he would get acclimated to the temperature and salinity of his new environment.

Here's a closer look at our cuttlefish, isn't' he cute? :)

Finally, after a bit, we completely let him out into his new tank and watched him sink to the bottom.

 

So that's my cuttlefish adventure...

Oh, and the cuttlefish that I was working with are common to the North American East Coast and to the Mediterranean.

 

That's it for today then, I promise more posts on my internship are coming up. :D

 

See ya soon,

Yaroslava :D

 

Intro to an Internship!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry that I did not write yesterday, but I was soooooooo busy!
First I had an internship from 7 to 1pm, then theatre from 1:30 to 4:30 pm and then a Valentines Day Dance from 6:30 to 8:30 pm! I was DEAD, when I got back home at 9:30!
But today, I'm gonna take you through my internship.

It's at the Invertebrate House, at the National Zoo in D.C.

Here I am with the coral tank:

The corals are fed brine shrimp that is specially grown for that purpose in large cylinders. The cylinders contain a solution of Deionized and salt water.

Some of the corals were harvested from tropical waters during specific expeditions when corals spawn.

 

Next, I helped feed the sea urchins. It was really fun!!! We stuck little bits of shrimps on poles and then put the shrimp bits on the sea urchins. Immediately, they came alive and extended their many tiny tentacles ( see the thin brick red strings with white tips in the photo above). I never knew that sea urchins had tentacles, so that was a big discovery for me. Some of the Interpreters explained that sea urchins have tentacles because they are echinoderms, same as sea stars.

 

Next we fed the sea anemones! This was even more fun because you could actually feel the animal grab hold of the stick and the shrimp.

Here is the cold water tank with the anemones and large sea urchins. Some of the anemones were sleeping and had their tentacles hidden.

Sea anemones are so colorful because they have photosynthetic bacteria that live inside their cells and produce the exotic colors. Same as corals! In reality, sea anemones are just big, muscular polyps.

In the "Touch Tank" section,  I got to hold a Nautilus shell. Nautilus's are cephalopods. Remember the fifth type of mollusks?

 

Here you can see a Nautilus shell that was cut in half. The inside compartments of the shell are visible. They chronicle the growth of the mollusk.

 

One last glance at the Nautilus!

 

 

This here is a Mantis Shrimp. It's big compound eyes allow the animal almost 360 degree vision. Both the female and male specimens of this species are approximately the same size.

 

Now, one of my favorites, the Tube Anemone. These creatures grow on a long, relatively thin stalk or tube. The tube is made of used nematocytes (stinging cells) and sand grains. They can also MOVE, by a strange combination of squirming and hopping.

This is a cute pretty creature, that I guessed was an anemone. But, I stood corrected, because one of the Interpreters said that he was not sure what it was and that it might  be a coral.

Oh well! I still like it!

 

And that was the first day of my internship! So fun and full of new experiences. I can't wait to go back next week.

 

Good bye,

Yaroslava :D