April 24, 2011 - Gulf Specimen Lab

Every year we make a trip to the Gulf Specimen Lab in Panacea, Florida. They have many tanks where they keep creatures collected from the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Florida Horse Conch, which, in 1969, was declared the official state shell of Florida. It’s one of the largest univalves in the world and can reach a length of 24”. This one is only about 12” long. You can see the animal’s large, bright orange foot, which it uses to slowly move along the ocean bottom. The foot can be fully retracted into the shell.

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The lab has a new outside tank for Fiddler Crabs. They are about 2” across and inhabit beaches, mudflats, lagoons, and swamps. This is a female (see next picture for an obvious difference). The pattern on her back looks like a sad face.

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Here’s a male Fiddler crab. You knew the male would have some kind of weapon, didn’t you? During courtship, he waves his large claw high in the air and then taps it on the ground in an attempt to attract a female. Males do fight using their large claws. If the large claw is lost, the smaller claw on the other side will grow larger. In that case, during the next molt of its shell, the crab will grow a small claw in place of the large claw that was lost.

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Several of the tanks at the lab are designated as “touch tanks” so you can have a hands-on experience with the sea stars, crabs, and other critters. This Spider Crab was in one of those tanks. They are found from Nova Scotia to the Florida Keys and all around the Gulf of Mexico. They can be up to 12” across but this one was only about 8”.

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There are two African Sulcata Tortoises residing at the lab. The picture on the left was taken a year ago when they were just babies. Diana could easily hold one of them in the palm of her hand. The picture on the right was taken this year and the tortoises seem to be about twice as big. The tortoises haven’t changed color; the photos were just taken in different light conditions. For more information about these animals, here’s a link to last year’s entry. http://www.earlorfphotos.com/Pictures-of-the-Week/2010-Pictures-of-the-Week/Jan-24-2010-Tortoises-and-Sea/11036591_3rwFe#772120856_Xf6iJ

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A new tank has been added to hold Seahorses. They are fascinating creatures because they have a head like a horse, a prehensile tail like a monkey, and a pouch like a kangaroo. Seahorses are in the bony fish group and they have fins, gills, and a swim bladder. They range in length from 0.6 to 8 inches. They are often hard to spot because they have camouflage coloring and they can change their color to match the surroundings. The one on the left is a female and the other two are males. The male on the right is pregnant. That’s not a typo; the male is the one who carries the eggs in his pouch until they hatch. The female deposits up to 1500 eggs in the male’s pouch. It takes from two to four weeks for the eggs to hatch and after that the babies are on their own.

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