Full List

Partial List of Live Organisms in Marine Aquaria That are Visible to the Naked Eye

Current as of June 1999

This list is out of date – will be updated soon

Cyanobacteria - prokaryotic algae

• Oscillatoria sp – purplish red film on glass below sand line in some places
• Brown cyanobacteria (on sand in a few spots from time to time)

Green Macroalgae

• Caulerpa paspaloides
• C. sertularoides
• C. racemosa (2 types)
• C. racemosa var. peltata
• C. serrulata
• C. prolifera
• C. brachypus
• C. taxifolia (or mexicana? )
• Caulerpa sp. (several additional unidentified species)
• Codium sp.
• Acetabularia sp.
• Neomeris annulata
• Dasycladus vermicularis
• Anadyomene stellata
• Dictyosheria cavemosa
• Ventricaria sp.
• Valonia sp.
• Avrainviella
• Cladophora
• Chaetomorpha
• Halimeda monile
• H. opuntia
• H. tuna
• H. discoidea
• Misc. green turf algae

Brown Algae

• Dictyota
• Misc. Brown turf algae.

Red Algae

• Misc encrusting coralline reds – numerous species on rocks, on glass, on turtle grass, or other algae. These are pink or purple in color (white when dead)
• Branching coralline reds
  • Neogoniolithon strictum
  • Goniolithon
• Fleshy/bushy reds (some look brown, but are actually red algae), several species
• Ochtodes (brownish or iridescent blue/purple in color)
• Ceramium
• Misc red turf algae

Diatoms

• brownish films on glass

Dinoflagellates

• symbiotic in most of the Cnidarians we have, giving them their brown or beige colors

Protists – single celled eukaryotes

• Foraminiferans – for single-celled organisms, these are HUGE – easily visible to the naked eye!
• one type has pinkish, reddish, or orangy-red shells attached to rocks
• Another type – look like white, branching trees on secluded rock surfaces

Flowering vascular plants

• Turtle grass
• Manatee grass

Sponges

• red ball
• yellow encrusting – 3 types
• Yellow tree
• Yellow ball
• white/translucent encrusting
• orange encrusting
• green
• chicken liver sponge
• lavendar purple with very large osculum very conspicuous
• small “primitive” white calcareous sponges
• others

Cnidarians

• Small-polyped stony corals:
  • Pocillopora damicornis, a branching stony coral, brown with pink tips
  • Seriatopora hystrix, pink
  • Acropora sp. – variety: “Larry Jackson’s Purple-Tipped Monster”
  • Montipora digitata
• Large-polyped stony corals:
  • Fluorescent green boulder coral
  • Blastomussa wellsi
  • Wellsophyllia – open brain coral with INTENSE green fluorescence
• Gorgonians
  • encrusting gorgonian
  • brown sea rod
  • purple sea plume
• Soft corals
  • green star polyp
  • Tree Xenia
  • Unmbrella Xenia (Red Sea Xenia)
  • Silver-tipped Xenia
• Zooanthids:
  • Zooanthus societus -colonial anemones, two types
  • Brown zooanthid
  • Isaurus (nocturnal zooanthids)
• Mushroom anemones
  • 4 different types
• Anemones:
  • Aiptasia anemones
  • Bartholomea annulata (curlicue (or ringed) anemone)
  • Macrodactyla doreensis (purple, long-tentacle anemone, which hosts the clownfish)

Crustaceans

• “red-scarlet” hermit crabs
• blue leg hermit crabs
• Mithrax sculptus crab
• scarlet cleaner shrimp
• peppermint shrimp
• coral banded shrimp
• small isopods
• amphipods
• mysid shrimp (very tiny–from schools in sheltered places)

Molluscs

• file clam (Lima sp.) also called flame scallop
• oyster – we have several of different species
• small clams embedded in rocks (species??)
• thorny oyster
• limpets
• lettuce sea slugs
• Astrea tectum snails
• Trochus sp. snails
• Stomatella varia snails
• Other snails – one has orange shell, some are black, some are grey
• Chitons
• Vermetid snails (filter feeders – sessile, spiraled tubular shells attached to rocks)

Polychete worms

• fire worms (Eurythoe complanata)
• sabellid fan worms (fether duster worm – has leathery tube)
• serpulid fan worms – have caleareous tubes – several types are present
• spirorbid worms – live in tiny, white snail-like, spiral tubes on glass, rocks, macroalgae, etc
• spionid worms – filter-feeders, live on sand or rocks, have 2 long feeding tentacles that look like worms themselves
• medusa worms
• many addtional polychete worms are also present!

Echinoderms

• Sea cucumbers
  • “tigertail” (very large, sand feeding sea cucumbers)
  • golden yellow sand-feeding
  • small-grey filter-feeding
  • large pink and yellow filter-feeding
  • bright yellow filter feeding
• Brittle Stars/Serpent Stars
  • large — at least 6 species that are large (some very large and colorful, some are green or brown, one is bright red)
  • some species are very tiny
• Sea Stars
  • Linkia star (blue in color)
  • white/beige/brown sand-dwelling sea stars
  • small asexually reproducing sea stars (usually asymmetrical in shape)

Tunicates

• black and orange colonial tunicate (on thorny oyster)
• large brown tunicate
• small white/translucent tunicates
• large yellow and purple tunicate

Fish

• Sailfin tang – Zebrasoma veliferum
• Blue tang – Paracanthus hepatus
• 4 Green chromis – Chromis viridis
• 2 Yellowheaded jawfish
• Banggai cardinalfish (we have a pair)
• Bicolor blenny (we have a pair, the male courts female with a spectacular display)
• Jeweled rockhopper blenny (Salarius fasciatus)
• Solomon Island black percula clownfish (Amphiprion percula) We have a mated pair.

In addition to the larger organisms listed above, MANY additional organisms can be found with the aid of a microscope, including tardigrades (water bears), nematodes, protists of many sorts, unicellular algae, bacteria, etc.