4ta. exhibición y competencia de Bettas de la Asociacion de Acuaristas de Aguadilla.

Esta son algunas de las fotos que tome durante la cuarta exhibición de Bettas.  La actividad se distinguió por la gran diversidad de colores y formas que se inscribieron para la competencia.   Exhibieron en la actividad personas de diversas partes de la Isla no solo de Aguadilla.

Blue Moorii cichlid, also known as Blue Dolphin cichlid and Malawi Blue Dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii

Lake Tebera Rainbowfish Melanotaenia herbertaxelrodi in the Dallas World Aquarium

This rainbowfish is native of the Lake Tebera basin in Papua New Guinea.  I have never seen rainbowfish of this species anywhere that approach the size and beauty of this group which I photographed at the Dallas World Aquarium in 2010.

Melanotaenia lacustris, Turquoise rainbowfish in the Dallas World Aquarium

When given good nutrition, a spacious aquarium and excellent care, the Turquoise rainbowfish can grow into a size and shape that is rarely seen in fish kept in the average aquarium.  I saw this stunning specimen during a visit to the Dallas World Aquarium in 2010.  This fish was just a tiny part of the many interesting things I saw there, nevertheless is small size, it is very impressive in its own right.

Agonostomus monticola a fish native of Puerto Rico, in an exhibit in the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge

Aulonocara hansbaenschi, Red Shoulder Peacock in an exhibit that shows exotic fish at the Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refugee

The baby angelfish, are growing well, they eat like there is no tomorrow

One of the traits that distinguish Pterophyllum scalare is its very round body profile.
This fish shows a slightly compressed body, its siblings are all rounder.

Notice the full belly in these two fish

The baby angelfish arrived here the first of June.  At first they were very timid.  They are still a bit more shy than most angelfish, but live food sure brings them out of their hiding places.  Most of the time they hold their fins straight up, in a vertical position that I find very pleasing.  I feed them three times a day, but I am sure they would eat all day long if I gave them live food.  If you see them eating live food you would think they are greedy and gluttonous.  But they fact is that they can be picky on what they eat and will reject certain foods particularly pellets and flakes unless you know when to offer them.

Crash Boat Beach y Peñas Blancas area, Aguadilla, underwater photos from the early eighties

A coralline comunity near the beach in Peñas Blancas called by surfers "wishing well".  There was an impressive quantity of marine organisms growing in some underwater limestone outcrops full of caves.  Mark Verdiun, his siblings and me used to visit this place all the time.  It was fun to explore the area to see what we would find, there was always something new to see.  Large stony corals were rare here.

Two spotted drums (thanks Pucho for the ID), very young ones, swimming near the base of one of the pillars in the Crash Boat beach.  Notice the trash on the seafloor.

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One of the pillars of the Crash Boat piers.  You can see the pillars have lots of fishing wire entangled around the sea life clinging to them.

The longspined black urchin Diadema antillarum used to be present in the coralline areas in huge numbers as you can see in some spots the sea floor was carpeted with them.  In 1983 there was a tremedous die off in which around 97% of all of this urchins perished.  Some say that the decline of some Caribbean reefs was tied to the loss of this important member of the reef community.

A box fish, Crash Boat

Coralline community, Peñas Blancas, see the blue chromis in the left center of the photo

My friend Jose Nieto snorkeling between the pillars of the Crash Boat piers

Mona Island Sardinera Beach coral reef, circa 1982

Acropora palmata coral was abundant all over the Sardinera reef and  it would grow almost up to the water surface near the reef crest.

Many of the Acropora palmata colonies were composed of many thin flat branches

Every crevice in the reef was inhabited by some critter, in this area there were a lot of black urchins

There were, many, many fish around the corals.  Here you can see part of a school of surgeon fish with a few parrot fish tagging along.  These were not tiny fish most were in the 1-2 feet long range.

Here I am hanging for dear life in the strong currents of the reef crest.  You can see that the water is full of small fish.

Among Acropora palmata colonies in water about seven feet deep

Colonies of the finger coral Porites porites extended as far as the eye could see

School of fishes of all sizes filled the reef, here is a group of yellow grunts

In the Sardinera Beach reef there were fish in good numbers all over the place.