As the Virginia Living Museum's Aquarium Curator, Stacey Murray-Rester and her team of aquarists oversee 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. Her passion for Virginia Fishes is shared here. Many of the fishes in our Mountain Stream exhibit have been displaying mating colors, but also have been actually mating. The video shows a small portion of the extended mating behaviors of our Roanoke logperch. In the foreground is a (presumably) gravid female and around…
These are juvenile brook trout in a side channel of the Tye River, approximately 200 yards downstream from Crabtree Falls. Native Virginia Brook trout spawn in late Fall, and take two to four months to hatch depending upon water temperature. After hatching, larval trout acquire…
This is the second installment of our “Video of the Week!”. This is a routine morning feeding of our tropical tank, but the most obvious focus is on the sinuous and ever-hungry engineer gobies Pholidichthys leucotaenia also called convict gobies or convict blennies. The nickname…
This is the first video of the new series, “Video of the Week”. It is a brief underwater tour of the Cypress Swamp Habitarium. Immediately you may notice a very…uh…healthy amelanistic channel catfish, then a pair of shy largemouth bass, and most prominently several longnose…
Northern California has a scope and scale that is difficult to absorb. It is only possible to experience in person what seems to be the edge of the world. Agate Beach, at Patrick’s Point SP named for the smooth, beautiful rocks found on the beach…
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…