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Fish fireworks: Bioluminescence


hypostatic

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Amazing stuff.

Would be awesome if we could raise theese critters in our reef tanks. :)

I know Ostracods occur in aquaria, but I'm talking about the ones capable of bioluminescence in particular.

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I saw these guys or something like them in the Bahamas while Cuba diving. During a night dive we all turned off our flashlights and we followed each other by the fairy dust coming off the flippers of the person in front of us. Was really cool to see just friction on their bodies causes them to illuminate so as the person flippers would come into contact with them it would light up a path. One of the neatest things I ever saw.

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I have only seen this once night fishing. Was able to see the larger fish swimming near the boat because they were glowing. The wake of the boat was amazing and when our bait hit the water is was like a exploding glowstick. I wish we could have these in our tanks. Would be AMAZING!

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Vibrio fischeri is one of the more common bioluminescent bacteria that are responsible for this. The bobtail squid and its symbiosis with V. fischeri is one of the best studied systems in microbiology. Very, very, very cool. The squid won't even fully develop without the bacteria. It's also really cool to see a culture of the bacteria in a flask be totally dark and then as soon as you shake it and get more oxygen into the system, they light up beautifully blue. We got a new faculty member in our department who studies this, and I've been thinking of trying to figure out a way to get some into my tank without ruining everything ;)

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I believe I have seen bioluminescent plankton(this was my guess at the time) once. I was on vacation in Marco Island, FL. My family had rented a house with a dock on one of the canals near the beach. For all 3 nights I was there, the water in the canal was full of this stuff. If you threw a rock in the water, it would light up blueish green like crazy. The coolest thing to do was spray a hose into the water, your could almost write your name...lol.

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