Two day old sea horses feeding on Artemia (brine shrimp) nauplii picture below The hatched nauplii (orange) settle toward a light source below, while the unhatched eggs (brown) rise to the top to be separated and then fed out as a regular part of the…
The VLM is scheduled to re-open the downstairs gallery in about a week after several long months of flood recovery. In the meantime, the aquarium staff has been getting all our exhibits back in shape for public viewing. As of the scheduled date, we will…
We had created a new shrimp exhibit just prior to the flash flood that destroyed the lower level of the museum. This exhibit was one of the nine exhibits that suffered extensive damage; in fact this exhibit had to be completely replaced. So after nearly…
Meet our newest rehab animals: two baby Eastern grey squirrels. The first was found by aquarium staff Sarah Peake while walking her dog. She brought it back to the VLM for me to take care of. At the time he was only 4-5 weeks old…
Fall has begun the second wave of breeding among the freshwater fishes here at the museum. Both habitariums – the Cypress Swamp, and the Mountain Cove/Stream/Lake – are exposed to natural light 24 hours a day, and also echo the natural temperature fluctuations outside. The…
This morning at check in, we were pleased to discover that our male lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus) on exhibit gave birth! Now there are hundreds of newborn seahorses swimming freely in the Seahorse exhibit. It is very common for our seahorses to give birth in…
Front Street, Beaufort, NC Shrimp Trawlers, Beaufort Trawl gear off an old shrimp boat Duke’s Nicholas School for the Environment across the water from Beaufort The deck of the R/V Susan B Hudson Sorting through the product of a box dredge from the…
The Aquarium staff here at the Virginia Living Museum recently chartered a boat to obtain a shark for our Chesapeake Bay Aquarium. We were looking for a single small – around 2-3 feet long – coastal shark that is common in our area, preferably either…
This is a video of our jelly exhibit after I installed new lighting. These are Chrysaora quinquecirrha collected locally. Although swimmers may not appreciate them, as they do have an irritating sting, they are beautiful to watch. We hand feed them cut shrimp, fish, squid…
Above is a juvenile striped burrfish Chilomycterus schoepfi, a relatively common type of porcupinefish of the Family Diodontidae, meaning “two teeth” found in the Bay. They have the ability to inflate their bodies like “puffers” Family Tetradontidae or “four teeth” also found in the…