Northern Pipe Fish, Syngnathus Fuscus
Description: The pipe fish is one of the "tubemouthed" fishes, the other being the seahorse. All tubemouthed fishes have the tubelike snout in common which they use to vacuum up their food by rapid intakes of water. The northern pipe fish is a close relative of the seahorse, in fact, the seahorse is a kind of pipe fish. An average pipe fish is 6 inches long, but they can grow up to a foot. They have two pectoral fins along the sides of their faces, a beautiful, quivering dorsal fin on top of their backs, and an exquisite, fan shaped tail fin that seems to act as a rudder, helping them turn this way and that as they swim and search for food. Their movement is graceful and balletic and at times they look very much like the seahorse. Their bodies are covered with bony rings, and apparently they need a lot of calcium in their diet.
Pipe fish have a slender body, their color varying from dark green to olive to brown above, crossbarred and darkly mottled. The lower parts of their sides are sprinkled with white dots; their ventral (underneath) surface is golden yellow. The brood pouch flaps of males are flesh color. The dorsal and pectoral fins are pale, but the tail fins are fan shaped and brown
Food: Food of the northern pipe fish consists of zoo plankton- minute organisms: copepods, amphipods, fish eggs, and larvae, all of which exists here in the Hudson River. A study, referring to descriptions of feeding behavior, noted that after water has been expelled from the tubular mouth, prey is taken in with the return rush of water into the mouth.
Reproduction: Like their relative the seahorse, the female pipe fish deposits her eggs in the male's brood pouch. Eight to ten days later he gives birth to hundreds of baby pipe fish, which look like the adults in miniature. From the time they emerge from their father's pouch, they live an independent life and do not return to the brood pouch. Northern pipe fish are mature at one year of age.
Range: Northern pipe fish live along the Atlantic Coast up to Cape Cod, migrating to deep water in autumn and returning to shallow estuaries (like the Hudson) in the Spring. The pipe fish is fairly common from Peekskill south into more marine waters. Since we started looking in late spring, and throughout the summer and the fall, we have caught pipe fish in our minnow trap several times a week, and then released them back into the river.
Habitat: The Northern pipe fish is a marine animal living in seaweed and eelgrass in warm water coastal areas, salt marshes and estuaries, sometimes entering brackish water. They are carried along the coasts under the masses of floating seaweed. Travel to the open sea is rare. The pipe fish is both a benthic and water column animal.
Bibliography:
The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, by Steve Stanne, Roger Panetta, Brian Forist, The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Rutgers University Press, l996, New Brunswick, N.J.
National Audubon Society Nature Guide to Atlantic & Gulf Coasts, Wm. & Stephen Amos, 1997, Chanticleer Press, N.Y.
Fishes of the Atlantic Coast, by Gar Goodson, l985, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Ca.
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Leidy's Comb Jelly: Mnemiopsis leidyi
Comb Jellies are relatives of true jellyfish, but they belong to the Ctenophores (pronounced "teenophores") which lack the stinging cells of the jellyfish. Jellyfish catch their prey with their stinging cells, but comb jellies have specialized cells which release a sticky mucous substance that catches prey. Comb jellies, like other planktonic or water column (floating with the current) organisms, are bioluminescent, able to give off light. As they move through the water, their cilia, which reflect light, are iridescent, glowing green, blue, purple and red. At night, a greenish blue chemically produced light emanates from these cilia. Like moths to a street light, tiny organisms are attracted to this glow and are consumed. The name Ctenophores derives from the Greek word for "comb-bearers" because of the 8 comb rows of fused cilia arranged along the sides of the animal. The cilia in these rows beat together and propel the animal through the water, for unlike jellyfish, comb jellies do not pulsate through the water.
Description:4" high, 2" wide, oval, somewhat flattened, broader at top end. Milky transparent, iridescent, 8 rows of comb plates covered with pulsating cilia. Comb jellies are egg shaped with one end hollowed out to form a digestive cavity. We have seen them open this cavity, capture brine shrimp, and slowly digest them. In one study, certain Ctenophores were observed to eat 500 copepods (tiny crustaceans) in one hour
Range: South of Cape Cod to the Carolinas, very common here in the Hudson during the warm months.
Bibliography
The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, by Steve Stanne, Roger Panetta, Brian Forist, The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Rutgers University Press, l996, New Brunswick, N.J.
National Audubon Society Nature Guide to Atlantic & Gulf Coasts, Wm. & Stephen Amos, 1997, Chanticleer Press, N.Y.
After reading the information about the Comb Jelly answer the following questions:
1. How does the Comb Jelly capture its prey?
2. How does the Comb Jelly move through the water?
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Blue Crab, Callinectes sapidus, 9 1/4" (23cm) wide, 4" (102mm) long, grayish or bluish green, spines red, male with blue fingers on hand, female with red; underside white, with yellow and pink tints. Male has long, triangular tail folded up on the underside; female has rounded tail folded up on the underside. Carapace or top of crab is 2 to 3 times as wide as it is long, smooth with 4 triangular teeth between eye sockets, 8 sharp, very strong teeth between eye socket and large spine at side. The Blue crab has powerful pincers.
The Blue crab is a crustacean and has five pair of legs. The first pair of legs are the large and very powerful pincers which are used for grabbing and crushing prey. It belongs to a family of swimming crabs, but also uses its legs for walking. The fifth pair of walking legs are flattened and paddle-shaped- an adaptation for swimming.
Blue crabs and humans: The Blue crab is prized as seafood all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, especially in the Chesapeake Bay area. Eggs, laid in summer, remain attached to the body of the female, They hatch in about two weeks into larvae that are very unlike the adults. The young crabs molt and shed their shells as they grow and assume adult form. They are mature in about a year..
Molting: After molting, the shell is soft, and those crabs caught at this time are sold as soft-shelled crabs- the very same soft-shelled crabs that are so prized by seafood lovers. When the crab molts, it is quite vulnerable for a few days until its new shell starts to harden. It must hide, not only from humans who are trying to catch it for food, by from other animals who also want to eat it. Without its hard shell and powerful pincers, the crab cannot defend itself.
Niche: Blue crabs are both predators and detritivore(eats dead plants and animals).
Habitat: The Blue crab lives in shallow water and brackish estuaries, like the Hudson, from the low tide line to water over 120 feet deep! It is an extremely common crab in the Hudson River.
Range: Nova Scotia to Florida and Texas; Bermuda; West Indies to Uruguay. Widespread along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
Bibliography:
The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, by Steve Stanne, Roger Panetta, Brian Forist, The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Rutgers University Press, l996, New Brunswick, N.J.
National Audubon Society Nature Guide to Atlantic & Gulf Coasts, Wm. & Stephen Amos, 1997, Chanticleer Press, N.Y.
Fishes of the Atlantic Coast, by Gar Goodson, l985, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Ca.
After reading the information about the Blue Crab answer the following questions:
1. Why do you think the Blue Crab's last pair of legs are paddle shaped?
2. What is the Blue Crab's niche?
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Common Grass or Shore Shrimp; Palaemonetes pugio This is a small, nearly transparent shrimp. They remain small throughout their lives. . They are so transparent that they hardly cast a shadow! They have a few red, yellow, white and blue spots on their back. Because of these pigments, which can expand or contract changing the animal's hue, this shrimp has been used to study the hormonal control of color in crustaceans. The grass shrimp's beak reaches beyond their antennae, with the beak tip directed upward. The grass shrimp has 8-ll teeth along the top of its beak, 2 teeth behind the eye socket. The first 2 pairs of walking legs have pincers for grabbing prey and detritus (decomposing plants and animals), the second pair is larger. They use their 5 pair of abdominal legs, called "swimmerets" to swim in a beautiful, graceful movement.
Habitat: The grass shrimp live in bays and estuaries, like the Hudson River, usually among submerged seaweeds, from low-tide line to water 45' (14m) deep.
Feeding Habits: They feed on detritus (decomposing plants and animals) and tiny creatures in the mud and sand.
Niche: Predator and detritivore
Range: Gaspe Peninsula to the Yucatan Peninsula. Here in New York and New Jersey, the grass shrimp frequents the shallows from the Tappan Zee south to New York Harbor.
Bibliography:
The Hudson: An Illustrated Guide to the Living River, by Steve Stanne, Roger Panetta, Brian Forist, The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., Rutgers University Press, l996, New Brunswick, N.J.
National Audubon Society Nature Guide to Atlantic & Gulf Coasts, Wm. & Stephen Amos, 1997, Chanticleer Press, N.Y.
Fishes of the Atlantic Coast, by Gar Goodson, l985, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, Ca.
After reading the information about the Grass Shrimp answer the following questions:
1. What does the Grass Shrimp feed on?
2. Which legs do the Grass Shrimp use for feeding?
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