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| Do you want to be a diver? |
| 1 September 2011, 11:32 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Hi Sea Fans!
Well, if you ever thought that you might want to take up diving as your career, stay put and read on. Today we have Tersia with us, she works as a diver at an aquarium and she's going to tell you a little more about what she does in a day:
What is your job?
I am a diver at the Two Oceans Aquarium and look after a few tanks and take care of all the sharks and fishes in it.
What did you study/do to get this kind of work?
I did not study for this job! I started as a volunteer because I have a passion to look after fish and dive in the ocean.
What do you do in a normal day?
I look after my displays, feed the fish and do a presentation dive while feeding the fish, sharks and turtles.
What is the most interesting thing you've come across/experienced in your job?
The molting of my spider crabs - the way they climb out of the old carapace!
What is a not-so-nice thing about your job?
We have to prepare our own food for the fish on weekends when we work, then we stink like fish!
What do you love about your job?
I love diving and feeding the sharks in my big tank because not everybody gets to do such an awesome thing.
What would you say/recommend to kids who want to do what you do?
You would have to be a hard worker, be dedicated and love looking after your animals.
Anything else?
You must love what you do and what makes you happy! It's nice getting up in the morning and looking forward to going to work.
Thanks Tersia for inviting us into your world! So, who wants to be a diver? I know many people who want to be able to do what Tersia does!!
Have a great week, Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
}( *)8
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
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| Jaws |
| 5 August 2011, 11:24 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Hi Sea Fans!
Nope, not sharks this time, but a pretty little fish called a Jawfish. I got to see a brooding male when we went on a collecting trip so I thought I'd share this cute character with you:
Male mouth brooding (the male fish actually keep their eggs in their mouths), burrow-building, and passionate courtship displays are a few of the interesting behaviours that make jawfishes so fascinating to watch. These little blunt-headed, big-mouthed fish inhabit the sandy seafloor where they build rock-lined burrows which take nearly 8 hours to complete! These burrows are where they spend most of their day, grabbing zooplankton from the current just above their burrow entrance and clearing away rubble that may have fallen into the chamber. From early spring to autumn, males incubate clutches of eggs inside their mouths. An easy way to spot a brooding male is to look for those fish that have bloated cheeks, hanging around at the entrance of their burrow. These little guys are not keen on diver spectators so the chances are very good that they will hide away the entire time that you are around, but if you’re patient, you may catch a glimpse of one little guy coming out and churning his mouthful of eggs. (This is when the eggs are spit out of the mouth and quickly sucked back in). Churning removes waste, aerates the eggs and allows the embryos to mix, so that all of them will have the chance to develop equally. What leads to these clutches of eggs, of course, is romance. Jawfishes only take one partner (they’re monogamous) and the partners live in separate burrows very close to each other, with a third “Honeymoon Suite”. Unlike most reef fish spawns that are very short-lived, the Yellowhead Jawfishes take their time. The male approaches the female many times, swooping down to her and arching his back whilst flaring his beautiful fins and opening his mouth like an opera singer – a real show-off! They then enter their third burrow together and a few seconds later, the ritual starts all over again. These behaviours can keep divers fascinated for ages! (and aquarists distracted on a collection trip!) : )
A lot of people don't realise how much they can see when they visit an aquarium - you could spend an hour at just one tank watching how the fish go about their business and if you see those fish every day like we do, it's very easy to pick up when something is wrong like a sick fish. It's just like knowing your puppy really well.
Have a great week Sea Fans and enjoy watching fish behaviour next time you visit your aquarium.
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
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| Porcupine Pufferfish or |
| 18 July 2011, 10:08 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Hi Sea Fans!
I'm not sure how many of you got to see the YouTube video of the craft that was done the same morning that Heidi did a reading so here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TwoOceansAquarium#p/a/u/1/EqhzRU162as
The voice over is in Afrikaans so for those of you who don't understand it, here are a few points:
- All you need is a paper circle for the body, long narrow triangles of colourful paper or magazine/newspaper, a few squiggly paper strips for the tail, glue, string and two eyes.
- Follow what the lady is doing and remember to bend the triangles once you've glued them down so that they stick nicely and make the pufferfish look prickly.
- Don't forget to do both sides.
- Blaasoppie = Pufferfish........blaas = blow and op = up
Have a great week Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
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| Being Green |
| 8 July 2011, 10:10 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Hi Sea Fans!
I realised that I haven't given you an update for a while when I was looking through my photos, so here goes... I found some really cute photos, check this out:Who would have thought that even a dog would enjoy storytime! : )
Snowy the Maltese poodle enjoying "Predators"
Kirstenbosch Market
This was the final Kirstenbosch Market for the 2010/2011 season. As you can see, we had to go back to the old tent because the gazebo got ripped up and taken away by the wind at the previous market. We now also have small crochet animals called amigurumi (not for sale) - have a look on the internet, there are some really cute patterns. Mine were made by my mom...some without a pattern!!! I've got a jellyfish, a shark, a turtle, a butterflyfish, a clownfish, a lobster, an octopus, a seal, a penguin, a starfish, a manta ray, a sunfish and more coming. Heidi takes these with her to schools when she gives talks so that everyone can see what the animals look like without needing to take the real thing! Keep an eye out for these little guys, they're amazing!
Tiger Shark.
A new addittion to the craft kits - the Tiger Shark! There is a whole range of shark craft kits available now, from mobiles and pencils to dreamcatchers, door hangers and puzzles. We have Tiger Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Thresher Sharks, Great White Sharks, Zebra Sharks, Shortfin Mako Sharks and Hammerhead Sharks. If you'd like to know more about the craft kits, send me a mail at abby@telkomsa.net.
Wall painting.
I saw this cute turtle on a friend's wall and so I asked her if she would be willing to paint one for me to advertise the books. I now have a gorgeous cloth with a giant turtle on it to be used at events!
Petit fours.
I saw these cute little cupcake-type things at the bakery and just had to share them with you. Apparently, the way you pronounce it/say it is: "Petty foi". A posh way of saying that they are very sweet little cakes with an almond paste inside that most kids don't like the taste of! : )
Whale crafts.
Just in time for the whale season! We now have Right Whale moneyboxes and puzzles and small whales for all the other crafts we already supply. If you'd like to have a whale of a time, contact me at abby@telkomsa.net and I'll get the price list to you. The crafts start at R20 and the most expensive at the moment is only R60 so it's a bargain for some fun!
So that's what's been happening and what's new this month. Give me a shout if you want to know more and keep an eye out for Heidi, she may be at your school next term (Cape Town schools).
Have a great week Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
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| Sea biscuit |
| 1 July 2011, 11:23 |
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Hi Sea Fans!
How's the weather treating all the divers in the southern hemisphere? Hmmm....rather chilly... and some big waves have been making their way around my side of the world. A good partner for cold weather (and possibly rain) is a nice cup of hot chocolate with a biscuit or two, so I thought I'd do something different today and give you a yummy recipe that I found for biscuits that you can make into sea creatures. Here goes:
Sea Biscuits
125 g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
1/2 t salt
125 g choc chips (optional but definitely recommended)
60 nut pieces (mixed nuts chopped finely taste yummy but this is also optional)
Decorating bits and pieces like hundreds and thousands, chocolate vermicelli, seeds etc.
Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla
Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well after each addition.
Mix in sifted flour and salt.
Add chocolate chips and nuts - mix well.
Shape teaspoonfuls of mixture into sea creatures of your choice. Decorate now if you aren't using icing.
Place on lightly greased baking tray (Very important: allow room for the biscuits to spread!!)
Bake in 180° C oven for 10 - 12 mins.
Decorate after cooling on a wire rack if you are using icing.
Enjoy! (Try not to eat them all at once) : )
Have fun with these and enjoy snuggling up in this weather. For those of you in the northern hemisphere - we're jealous of your warm weather, but we're having fun in the rain! : )
Have a great week Sea Fans.
Cheers
Abby
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| Cute and cuddly |
| 24 June 2011, 12:59 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Cute & cuddly
Hi Sea Fans!
What's long, thin, slimy, has no stomach and 3 hearts? A hagfish of course!
Yes, it's not so cute and cuddly, but it's fascinating and I had such a laugh this last week so I just have to tell you about it. One of our aquarists is writing a paper on the stress response of hagfish, so I went to check out what was happening. I arrived at just the right time because he was about to weigh the hagfish.
For those of you who don't know, hagfish give off slime when they get stressed...some can even give off a whole bucket of slime!! I've seen it for myself! So to prevent this from happening, while they get weighed, they need to get anaesthetised (they have to go to sleep for a bit or at least be a bit drowsy so that they don't get stressed easily). The anaesthetic is put into the water and soon after, they become very relaxed. This makes handling them a lot easier.
Unfortunately, one of the hagfish was still quite wide awake so when it was picked up, it wriggled around so much that it managed to wriggle right out of the aquarist's hands and plopped straight into the bucket as if it had planned that all along! I had to laugh at the look on the aquarist's face, he couldn't believe his eyes, and the amount of slime the hagfish gave off was unbelievable!!! It gave off so much that we couldn't weigh it at first (We weigh them by putting them onto a scale in a bucket of water, of which we know the weight already). The little guy obviously wasn't happy with being moved. Luckily, the anaesthetic took effect quite quickly after that so we could remove all the slime and weigh him.
I think the next step is to weigh the slime to see how much is given off and then they're also going to test the bloods for stress enzymes, but I needed to get to my dive feed in time so I had to rush off and couldn't stick around to watch more. Amazing what you can learn from something that seems so simple!
Because of this event, I thought I'd quickly look up a few things about hagfish for you. Did you know that:
Hagfish scavenge on dead or disabled fish - they're like the vultures of the sea - but they also eat invertebrates (the little things in the sea that don't have a backbone) like worms.
They can go for up to 7 months without eating.
They are almost blind, but they've got a good sense of touch and smell.
They have a rasp-like tongue that tears into the flesh of their prey.
Once they've given off slime and the danger has passed, they tie themselves into a knot to get the slime off themselves. (The one in this photo looks a bit like Houdini! : ))
Don't have nightmares tonight Sea Fans, these little guys don't harm us. Rather think of how much fun you could have if you could tie yourself in a knot like a hagfish!
Have a great week Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
COMPETITION:
Enter our competition here.
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| Bones |
| 18 June 2011, 12:42 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Bones
Hi Sea Fans!
It's been a strange week, no bones about it! Actually, there WERE bones involved, we found a whale bone on the beach a few days ago and I've just finished building a seal skeleton for display. Bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones, bones...
This is how we first found the whale bone - not so easy to spot what it is from a distance. A day later,
it had washed up higher onto the beach and we could get a better look at it. It's amazing what you can find just walking on the beach. Next time you take your dog for a walk on the beach, why not see if you can find something unusual and send it to me at abby@telkomsa.net and I'll post it on the blog.
Seal skeleton, you ask? Well, it came about because we wanted to make a display and there were bones available (don't worry, nothing happened to our seals) so we jumped at the chance. What a big job! I knew there were lots of bones, but I didn't realize how long it would take to figure out exactly which bones matched with which - not quite like a puzzle with numbers or colours!! Anyway, this is how it grew to become a seal:
The bones laid out ready to start assembling.
Spine - almost complete.
...and I'll show you the finished product on display another time. : )
Weird, I know, but I've found that bones can actually be quite interesting, they can tell you how big an animal is, what it eats (by looking at the teeth), whether it swims or walks on land, how old it is,how the muscles attach and a whole lot more. Next time you see a seal, have a look at its flipper and know this: there are LOTS of little bones that make up that flipper, it's not just one solid paddle like the oar you use on a boat.
I hope this hasn't grossed you out Sea Fans.
Have a great weekend.
Cheers!
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
COMPETITION:
Enter our competition here.
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| Possible world first! |
| 10 June 2011, 12:03 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Possible world first!
Hi Sea Fans!
Something so exciting has happened in the aquarium world! Last month, some Ornate Ghost Pipefish were collected and put on display at the Steinhart Aquarium in America.
Ornate Ghost Pipefish. Photo: Steve Childs
The female gave birth this month and the babies may be the first captive-reared (meaning that they are brought up in captivity) Ornate Ghost Pipefish ever! How cool is that?!
Let me tell you a little bit about these guys:
The Ornate Ghost Pipefish is a relative of the seahorse and pipefish, but instead of the male carrying the babies, the female is the one that carries the eggs in a special pouch. They are usually found alone or in pairs hanging around corals, feather stars and floating weeds. Their camouflage (disguise) is so good that they are quite difficult to spot! They feed on tiny little "bugs" in the sea called mysids, and they grow to a maximum length of 12 cm. Not very big, but they make up for their size with their beauty.
Baby Ornate Ghost Pipefish. Photo: Steve Childs
So what do you think Sea Fans, amazing little animals, right?!
Go to this link and you can see some video footage of the pipefish at Steinhart Aquarium:
http://vimeo.com/24687192
Have a great week Sea Fans!
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
COMPETITION:
Enter our competition here.
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| Humans waddling for penguins |
| 3 June 2011, 08:12 |
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We are delighted to introduce Abby to our younger readers (and older readers kids). Abby is the star of the Abby's Aquarium Adventures, a fabulous series of books by Heide de Maine that entertain and teach kids about the inhabitants of our oceans. We are kicking off with a competition offering great prizes so make sure you enter.
Humans waddling for penguins
Hi Sea Fans!
Well, I hope you all saw it...SABC 3 last monday and this morning at 5:45am. Yes, very early, but they tell me that 5:30 - 6am is the kiddies' slot. For those of you who missed it, "Abby's Aquarium Adventures" and "Predators" were shown on the show and the author, Heidi, read the books to a group of very cool kids.
Actions, jumping around, looking at the fish - it was all good fun. You even got to see some of the animals in the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town!
That's not all that's happened recently, the PENGUIN WADDLE took place this last week and I got to join the waddlers for the last 15km of their 150km walk.
A few penguin-mad ladies decided that they had to do something to make people more aware of what's been happening to our little black and white friends, the African Penguins. Did you know that humans used to eat penguin eggs? We also used to collect their poo!! How gross! Go to http://www.penguinpromises.com/ and you'll see a bit of what went on at the waddle.
Anyway, recently I went over to the penguin trainers to chat to them about how we can make a difference for the penguins and to see what was going on and this is what I saw:
Aquarists have such an interesting job, one minute we can be feeding sharks, the next we're weighing baby penguins. Isn't the one in the photo just adorable?! (We weigh the babies to check that they're getting enough food and that they're healthy). While the babies were being weighed in the back, some of the adults were being trained.
When they are moved from one area to the another, all the trainer has to do is lay down a plank and the penguin will walk across to the other side. This is quite important because it means that they don't need to be handled unneccessarily by us.
Seeing as it's the Year of the Penguin, why not go the Penguin Promises website and see what you can do to make a difference. Humans have messed a lot of things up, but we can also do a LOT of good if we're just willing to try.
Have a great week Sea Fans! Till next time.
Cheers
Abby
For loads more cool kids stuff and tons more blogs on Abby's Aquarium Adventures go to www.abbysaquariumadventures.blogspot.com
COMPETITION:
Enter our competition here.
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