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Salt Water Aquarium Photos

Jo O'Keefe Copyright 2010. Photos may be used for educational purposes only. Contact me with inquiries.

Many visitors to the beach and to my website ask how to keep marine animals alive when they return to their homes. The first issue is "getting" salt water. I use a product called Instant Ocean from Pet Smart. It is like white salt. I dissolve a fourth cup of it in eight cups of water.

Keeping invertebrates such as crabs, snapping shrimp and whelks in salt water only addresses one issue. They need filtration to remove waste and to infuse oxygen. They need appropriate food. In the ocean they eat microscopic plankton found in sea water. You will not see a large mouth on a crab, anemone or sea star. The food a whelk eats must pass through its siphon. Even though I bring home a few cups of ocean water from every beach walk to add to my aquarium, some animals that I put into it die. I have not learned to keep them alive. Numerous websites provide instructions for setting up and maintaining a salt water aquarium.

Fortunately, after photographing the animals, I return many of them to the ocean the following day.

Sea Hare, Aplysia
Atlantic Giant Cockle, Dinocardium robustrum
Incongruous Arks, Anadara brasiliana
Forbes Sea Star
Forbes Sea Star
Forbes Sea Star, Asterias forbesi -- our most common sea star, tube feet and suckers visible
   
Sargassum Crab
Sargassum Crab
Sargassum Crab, Portunus sayi, 07/11/07
Sargassum Crab, Portunus sayi, prying open Shark Eye, Neverita duplicata, 07/24/07
   
Hairy Sea Cucumber
Hairy Sea Cucumber
Hairy Sea Cucumber, Sclerodactyla briareus
Anemone
Anemone
Anemone, 07/20/07
   
Anemone
Bunodosoma cavernata
Anemone, 07/09/07
Warty Sea Anemone, Bunodosoma cavernata, 05/02/07
   
Anemone
Anemone
   
Anemone
Anemone
Anemones, 05/22/07
Anemones
Anemones
"Onion" Anemones, Paranthus rapiformis
Anemone
Anemone
Sea Anemone, Calliactis tricolor
Luidia clathrata
Luidia clathrata
Gray Striped Sea Star, Luidia clathrata
Atrina rigida
Porcelain Crab
Stiff Pen Shell, Atrina rigida
Cherry-Striped Porcelain Crab, Petrolisthes galathinus
Sea Pansies, Renilla reniformis -- These soft corals are colonies of polyps with a stalk called a peduncle that it uses to anchor itself in the sand. Those on Sunset Beach are about 3/4 inch wide and found in sea drift at the ocean's edge. The ones on Edisto Island, SC, were nearly two inches wide. When the sea pansy is in water, secondary polyps extend upward to snare passing plankton. Sea pansies are remarkably bioluminescent.
Two small Knobbed Whelks, Busycon carica, climbing, antenna & siphon visible on L, operculum & siphon visible on right, mucous dripping