Deep sea creatures possible?

[BrandonS]

What do you guys think?

Bringing the Ocean’s Midnight Zone Into the Light (Published 2020)

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has learned how to raise the deepest sea life to the surface and keep it alive for display.

www.nytimes.com

 

[ichthyogeek]

Sign up wall...what was the species in question/the gist of the article? I know there are a couple of deep sea fish (pineapplefish, some of the $$$ dwarf angels) that make it into the hobby from time to time. I'd really like to work with a Parazen at some point....

 

[BrandonS]

Talking midnight zone stuff. 1000 meters down plus. They have a special setup at Monterey Bay they are working on. Interesting article.

 

[BrandonS]

Sign up wall...what was the species in question/the gist of the article? I know there are a couple of deep sea fish (pineapplefish, some of the $$$ dwarf angels) that make it into the hobby from time to time. I'd really like to work with a Parazen at some point....

That stinks. I was able to reed the article without paying. Sorry about that. Monterey bay aquariums instagram has the link in there bio.

 

[ichthyogeek]

...interesting. It's available via MBA's linktree (via instagram) but not through the link you sent.

It's certainly interesting. I wonder if they'll collect any whale bone snot worms. Although there's certainly some talk about how whale falls support deep sea creatures, and it might not be the most ethical to take whale bones from whale falls for exhibition. Looks like they're mostly focusing on invertebrates, which makes sense since they're far more common than vertebrates in the deep sea.

 

[BrandonS]

They have a weird fish thing in the article. Wonder what trying to collect an angler fish is like?

 

[ichthyogeek]

Like this obviously:

From what I've read about deep sea collection, you have to decompress them very slowly. It's actually also present in some of the fish we keep. They get collected in deeper water, and their swim bladders can't handle rapid decompression. It sometimes results in the need to do a minor surgical technique to get the fish to stop floating as well.

 

[ThePurple12]

The article worked for me. Pretty cool!

 

[Tired]

(Psst. Open it in incognito mode if it says you've read your free limit of those.)

When I was there 2 years ago, I did a backstage tour. As part of it, they showed me a giant isopod (as in, THE giant isopods), about the size of a small loaf of bread, and asked if I would like to pet it. They had it in a shallowish tub of very cold water. At the time, they were testing if giant isopods would work in a sort of limited touch tank, where people who take specific tours can touch them. Mostly testing if the isopods minded being lightly touched. It didn't seem to mind, didn't really react to me. I probably wasn't worth the effort of responding to.
Was really excited to hear they were working on deepsea exhibits at the time. They were even looking into if they could get actual pieces of a whale fall, as in bones colonized by all those cool worms, to display. Some sort of legal issue with whales being protected, I think.

 

[ichthyogeek]

(Psst. Open it in incognito mode if it says you've read your free limit of those.)

When I was there 2 years ago, I did a backstage tour. As part of it, they showed me a giant isopod (as in, THE giant isopods), about the size of a small loaf of bread, and asked if I would like to pet it. They had it in a shallowish tub of very cold water. At the time, they were testing if giant isopods would work in a sort of limited touch tank, where people who take specific tours can touch them. Mostly testing if the isopods minded being lightly touched. It didn't seem to mind, didn't really react to me. I probably wasn't worth the effort of responding to.
Was really excited to hear they were working on deepsea exhibits at the time. They were even looking into if they could get actual pieces of a whale fall, as in bones colonized by all those cool worms, to display. Some sort of legal issue with whales being protected, I think.

I think I'd be more concerned about the very cold water than anything. I wonder if the decrease in pressure results in desensitized invertebrates, like "oh, this is barely the pressure of the ocean on me, I'll just ignore it"?

 

[Tired]

I don't think they would normally be aware of the pressure on them. I mean, we have air pressure on us, and we aren't aware of it. Heck, even in the water, we don't tend to be very aware of the pressure even though it's more than usual.
I think a giant isopod is just a large and durable enough animal that most things it encounters won't hurt it, and none of those potentially dangerous things are something that would lightly touch it on its back. Like how a tortoise is.