Monday, July 11, 2011

Some interesting facts about fire belly toad

Fire belly toads are sea and warty toads. They do not have an eardrum. Pupil of their eye is triangular unlike other toads. Male toads do not have a resonator unlike other frogs. They do not make calls through exhalation but rather they do so through inhalation. The back of such toads is covered with rough warts. The back is grown gray in color with dark spots. Fire belly toad has a smooth belly.

Tubercles are also found near the cloaca. The color of their belly is red or yellow with dark spots. The male varies from the female in terms of nuptial pads. Male have nuptial pads on their first and second fingers. The skin toxins are unpleasant. These toads live in Korea, Southern Japan, Northeastern China and Khabarovsk. Species live in different landscapes like in broad leaved forests, open meadows, swampy bushlands and pine forests. They make use of different kinds of water. Fire belly toads are the most common sea animals found in mountain lakes.

Fire belly toads eat terrestrial invertebrates. Adult toads eat terrestrial invertebrates including insects, worms and mollusks. Such family of toads is not able to expand their tongues like other frogs. They have to leap forward and then grab their prey using their mouth to feed. Fire belly toads make use of pelvic amplexus. Females can deposit numerous clutches. The clutch consists of 38 to 257 eggs placed in portions of 3 to 45 eggs. The development of embryonic and larval can take 2 months. Hatching takes place minimum from early June to July. Longevity of fire belly toads is almost 20 years.

Oriental fire belly toad is one of the most usual sea amphibians in the central part of its range that consists of a big proportion like 30% of amphibian number.

Monday, April 25, 2011

About Sea Lobsters

Sea lobsters are invertebrates; they are the members of Crustacea of the Phylum Arthropoda. In this class you can find sea animals without backbones and having hard shells like crab, shrimp, crayfish etc. Male lobster is usually called cock and a female lobster as hen or chicken.

Physical characteristics:
Sea lobsters are ten-legged creature and are closely related to shrimp and crabs. These bottom-dwelling, creatures are found all over the world’s oceans, brackish environments and even in freshwater. Their eyesight is poor but they have highly developed senses of taste and smell. They feed on fish and mollusks, but they also consume algae and other plant life and even other lobsters. Lobster blood is a clear liquid substance. When you start boiling lobsters, the blood turns to a non-transparent whitish gel. It has no flavor and is perfectly safe to consume.

Sea lobsters are of different colors. Usually they are blue-green, including, yellow, red, or white. You can even see them in two different colors, having half of their shell one color and the other half has different color. Out of all these only the white color sea lobsters known as true albinos do not turn red when they are cooked.

Sea lobsters feed on crabs, star fish, or sea urchins. They are not cannibal, but when they are held in traps…??. Even with claws, it's not unusual to find eaten animals in the live-tank when you make it empty.

Monday, March 28, 2011

About Mollusks



Monday, March 21, 2011

Differences between phytoplankton and zooplankton

Basic difference: Phytoplanktons are aquatic plants and produce energy. They have the capability to covert solar energy into chemical energy. While zooplanktons are sea animals and they feed on phytoplankton. Diatoms and algae are two types of phytoplankton that are commonly found. Small fish or crustaceans are examples of zooplankton.

Difference in food habits: As phytoplankton is a plant, it is natural that they make their own food by the process of photosynthesis. On the other hand, zooplankton depends on the phytoplankton and other particulate that is found in the seawater for food. Phytoplankton is the primary source of food for the zooplankton.

Oxygen: Phytoplankton releases a lot of oxygen into the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis as they are plants. However, zooplankton cannot produce oxygen like phytoplankton.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Sea Dragons are the most magnificent and extraordinary of all ocean fish.

Sea dragons are like seahorses, they are a type of pipe fish. Sea dragons are found in Australian waters and belong to the same family as sea horses but differ in 3 main ways - Looks, they have "appendages" from their body which look like ether weeds or leafs
Sea Dragons are arguably the most magnificent and extraordinary of all ocean fish. The sea dragon’s body is hard, almost like armor. Sea dragons like to eat tiny shrimps known as 'sea-lice', plankton and small deep sea fish. They don't have any teeth so they eat by taking in small amounts of water containing their prey.

There are two types of sea dragons Australian waters:
• Leafy Sea dragon
• Weedy Sea dragon

Leafy sea dragon

The leafy sea dragon is also called as Glauerts Sea dragon. Which belong with family Syngnathidae. It is found along the southern and western coasts of Australia. It grows about 20–24 cm (8–10 in). They feed on plankton and small crustaceans.
As with seahorses, the male leafy sea dragon cares for the eggs. Leafy sea dragons take about 28 months to reach sexual maturity.

Weedy Sea dragon :

Weedy Sea dragons are only found in southern Australian waters. It also belong with family Syngnathidae. Weedy Sea dragons can grow to about 46cm in length. They are orange/red in color with numerous whitish spots on a lot of their body and along their tube shaped snout. The weedy sea dragon is very similar to the leafy sea dragon, but some extent weedy sea dragon is double sized than Leafy Sea dragon.
Weedy sea dragon does not have as many protrusions extending from its body, and appears more streamlined and sleek.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceans

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's ocean divisions.
It is located between the continents of North and South America, Europe, Africa and Antarctica. Which cover total area of about 106,400,000 square kilometers (41,100,000 sq mi), The average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is 3,900 meters (12,800 ft). The ocean bed is made up of hills, mountains, tablelands and valleys just as on dry land. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between the Americas to the west, and Eurasia and Africa to the east.

The Atlantic ocean is the busiest shipping ocean. The Atlantic ocean is the major artery between the Western and Eastern hemisphers. Economic activities include fishing, dredging of aragonite sands..in The Bahamas, and production of crude oil and natural gas in the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and North Sea.