lots of little baby Pacmans
or aliens looking at me, ahhhhh
Never thought of the pacmans, might have to use that in the future.
Tell us more about the Lumpfish. Are these one of the species you brought back from the Antarctic and are they currently breeding in your tank?
So the Lumpfish is common in the North Atlantic, and I would say it was a Sub-Arctic species. The males exhibit a huge range of colouration during the mating season ( Red, green, blue, pink orange). They have been fished historically for cheep Caviar and some traditional Norwegian, Icelandic and Danish foods.
The females can reach over 60cm in length and upwards of 4KG, the largest I have seen was about 4.5kg! They are really common in aquaria around Europe and North America, Those of you in Torronto they are in Ripley's aquarium. Scotland they are in deep sea world, outside Edinburgh. USA in the Denver Aquarium.
Recently they have been used by the Salmon industry as cleanerfish to remove sea lice off the salmon, instead of chemicals. So Aquacultre now produces something like 18-20 million lumpfish a year!
I work with these animals at the moment, Due to their sizes I don't think I will be keeping them any time soon in my 2 bed flat! But one day I will get myself a pair I think, I love these fish they are very personable and pretty awesome!
Anyone interested on keeping them, water temperatures below 10C, low water flow and low light levels really work for this fish. Nutrition wise they eat almost anything! and readily breed once mature. Water quality they don't mind too much, they are really tolerant of conditions, even are able to be exposed to air for longer periods of time than make me comfortable ( the males will guard egg masses laid in inter tidal zones and stay with the egg when the water recedes!)
