Virginia Fishes

As the Virginia Living Museum's Aquarium Curator, Chris Crippen manages the indoor aquatic habitats and aquatic program animals representing over 15o species of indigenous fish and invertebrates living in habitat aquariums ranging from 30 to 30,000 gallons. His passion for Virginia Fishes is shared here. View Original Blog

26 Mar

Duke trip

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I usually accompany a group of Christopher Newport University students from Dr. Mollick’s class http://www.cnu.edu/bces/profiles/mollick.asp to the Duke Marine Lab http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/marinelab/ this to assist in I.D’ing fishes and to help run the wet lab. But this year two of my staff members who formerly were students on the…

25 Mar

Skates and rays at the VLM

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I am in the process of redecorating the interior of the Ray/Skate exhibit and will soon be replacing the southern stingray (Dasyatis americana) http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/southernstingray/southernstingray.html that has outgrown the exhibit. Its tankmate was moved into our largest Chesapeake Bay Aquarium several weeks ago and is thriving. We…

22 Mar

Common Carp

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The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is an extremely interesting fish. They certainly are undervalued in the U.S. as people generally find them unpalatable. But they can be excellent sport, are one of the more intelligent fish species (in my experience) and can become very tame….

19 Mar

Native trout spawning

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A juvenile rainbow trout in the Mountain Stream exhibit at the VLM: Each spring and fall our rainbow, brook and brown trout spawn on exhibit. The males develop a hooked jaw, or kype, with which he fights or drives off rival males with; they also…

16 Mar

Loggerhead Sea Turtles

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As part of a collaboration with North Carolina Aquariums, the VLM raises juvenile loggerhead sea turtles that have been collected as hatchlings, until the turtles are ready for release. Their state-wide conservation program (http://www.ncaquariums.com/conservationresearch/sea-turtle-conservation) helps many sea turtles yearly and is an excellent educational tool…

12 Mar

Calico Box Crab

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Calico Box Crab (Hepatus epheliticus) Molting: We maintain a large collection of crustaceans and at least one of them molts each week. Usually it’s a blue crab (http://www.chesapeakebay.net/blue_crab.htm) as we have many of them, but sometimes it’s something less common such as the lobster; it…

10 Mar

Lemon Sharks

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Deciding when (and if) to introduce new animals to an exhibit is critical to their long-term success and the success of their tankmates. Animals that get large and may be dangerous to staff or other animals take considerably more consideration. I recently acquired two lemon…

09 Mar

Jelly collecting

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Culturing jellies for public display is labor intensive and time-consuming. Most aquariums display jellies and many public facilities have a full-time staff just for this purpose. As I write this, two staff members are out to collect jellies; not the species we usually cultivate and display…

03 Mar

Diving In

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As a lifelong fish enthusiast, I will use this space to share what fascinates me about fishes, with an emphasis on topics relating to saltwater and freshwater (and those in between) fish species in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic region. I hope to be an informal educational resource for those…