Some of our animals also require a variety of other foods, such as bits or whole pieces of mussels, clams, scallops or shrimp. Lobsters are able to crush most mollusks in order to access the meat inside. Actually, scientific studies have shown that lobsters are not able to live on fish meat alone, so it is very important for us to provide a good variety of foods at all times. This means regular trips to the beach at low tide to gather live mussels and clams.
Our codfish, salmon and sturgeon are for the most part captive bred, so they are fed a commercial pellet designed to provide all the nutrients they require. This pellet comes in different formulas for different species and in a variety of sizes to accommodate fish of different ages.
We also care for species that have unique feeding behaviors. Take for example the manned nudibranch, one of the species of sea slugs found in the Bay of Fundy: it feeds almost exclusively of frilled anemones. For this reason, we need to keep these beautiful and delicate animals in a tank that has a number of live anemones.
Jellies are abundant in summer, but short-lived. When we are able to keep them, we have to turn a few chunks of fish and anything else we can find into a mush. This pulp is then diluted in a little bit of seawater to make slurry and then fed to the jellies. This mush mimics the tiny plankton found in the sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment