Lab 1, system 1A, Tank 3 (L1S1AT3) marine · 110 L
Welcome! This exhibit is part of the Sharjah Marine Science Research Centre. Here is what lives here, what to look for, and how we care for it.
Hide the answers and see which marine job you qualify for — just for fun.
Who lives here
No animals recorded.
How they get along
A largely peaceful community that shoals and shares feeding calmly.
| Species | Temperament | Social | Reef |
|---|
What decides who can live with whom
- If it fits in the mouth, it is foodThe oldest rule in the aquarium. A predator will take any tank-mate it can swallow, no matter how well fed it is. As a rough guide anything shorter than about half the predator’s length is at risk, so we either keep sizes close or keep the two apart.
- Four temperamentsEvery animal here is rated peaceful (ignores others), semi-aggressive (defends a patch), aggressive (drives others off) or predator (hunts tank-mates). Two aggressive fish in one tank is a fight; a peaceful fish with an aggressive one is a victim.
- Relatives are the worst rivalsFish of the same genus — or the same family, like two parrotfish or two butterflyfish — want the same food, the same cave and the same mate. They fight each other far harder than they fight a stranger, so close relatives are stocked with care.
- Coral-safe, or notSome fish are model reef citizens; others nip coral polyps or crunch them outright. Each species is flagged reef safe, caution (may sample corals) or unsafe, and that decides whether it can live in a coral display.
- Shrimps and snails are food tooA fish that is perfectly polite to other fish may still hunt shrimps, small crabs and snails. That is a separate rating from temperament, which is why a peaceful-looking tank can still be a bad home for a cleaner shrimp.
- The right number mattersSome animals are solitary and fight any of their own kind; some live as a pair; some are shoalers that get nervous and sickly unless several are together. Keeping the wrong number is as harmful as the wrong tank-mate.
- Salt is not optionalA freshwater animal and a marine one can never share water — each would fail to control the salt and water moving through its body. Brackish species bridge the two, which is why estuary fish such as the moony are so adaptable.
- Sharing the spaceConflict drops when animals use different parts of the tank. Surface, mid-water and bottom dwellers, plus plenty of caves and sight-breaks, let a busy community share one space peacefully — and it is why we feed floating and sinking food together.
Reading their behaviour
Keepers here do not just check the water — they watch the animals, to a written list, every day. That list is called an ethogram.
How we record what the animals do
- An ethogram is a dictionary of behaviourBefore you can study an animal you have to agree on what its actions are called. An ethogram is that agreed list: every behaviour a species performs, each with a short code and a precise definition, so two keepers watching the same fish write down the same thing.
- Behaviour is the earliest warningAn animal usually acts ill before it looks ill. A fish that stops feeding, hangs in a corner, breathes fast or scrapes against the rock is telling us something days before any test does. Watching behaviour to a fixed list is how we catch that early.
- Three ways of watchingFocal sampling follows one animal for a set time and records everything it does. Scan sampling sweeps the whole tank at fixed intervals and notes what each animal is doing at that instant. Ad-lib notes catch rare events whenever they happen. Each answers a different question.
- Normal looks different for every speciesA grouper that sits motionless on a ledge all day is behaving perfectly; a surgeonfish doing the same is in trouble. That is why the ethogram is built per species, around its natural body plan and lifestyle, rather than one list for every animal.
- Welfare flagsA few behaviours are always worth a second look: rapid gill movement, flashing (scraping the body against rock or sand), clamped fins, hiding away from the group, floating oddly or refusing food. Any of these gets an animal checked the same day.
- You are doing it tooStand still at the glass for two quiet minutes and you are running a focal sample. Pick one animal, watch only that one, and see how many different behaviours from the list below you can spot — that is exactly the method, just without the clipboard.
Watching like a keeper
You have read how the animals are observed. Now put it to work.
What is an ethogram?
Why do keepers watch behaviour so closely?
You follow one single fish for ten minutes and note everything it does. What is that called?
You sweep the whole tank every five minutes and note what each animal is doing right then. That is…
A grouper sits motionless on a ledge all day. Is that a worry?
Which of these is a welfare flag that gets an animal checked the same day?
How we plan their diet
1
The food groups
We sort every product into the same groups nature uses, then read each species’ published wild diet to see how much of each it should get.
- Fish
- Crustaceans
- Molluscs
- Other invertebrates
- Plankton
- Algae & plants
2
The mixture
Those proportions become one blend per species — a plate mixed to match what it would find on the reef.
3
Protein, fat & calories
We check what the blend actually delivers and adjust the products until it hits the species’ targets.
Protein 45%
builds muscle & growth
Fat 9%
the energy store
Calories 78%
the daily fuel
4
Weighing the ration
The daily amount comes from the combined weight of the animals in the tank and the share of body weight each one needs — then it is weighed out and split into several meals.
5
Feeding the tank
The same ration is delivered differently depending on how each animal eats, so everyone gets their share.
- Surface feedersfloating food first, scattered wide
- Mid-water shoalssinking food drifting through the column
- Bottom feedersheavier pellets that reach the sand
- Shy & slow eatershand- or stick-fed one at a time
Every animal here is fed a diet built around what it eats in the wild. We research each species’ natural diet from published science, sort foods into the same groups nature uses — fish, crustaceans, molluscs, other invertebrates, plankton and algae or plants — and blend products so each meal delivers the right balance of protein, fat and energy for that species. The daily amount is worked out from the combined weight of the animals in the tank and how much of their body weight each one needs, then divided into several meals through the day. Fast and slow eaters are handled differently: bolder fish are fed first, shy or slow feeders are target-fed by hand or feeding stick, and floating and sinking foods are offered together so surface, mid-water and bottom feeders all get their share. Keepers check each animal’s body condition every week and fine-tune the plan.
What we measure — and why
| We measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Marine tropical species need a stable warm range; swings stress fish and corals. |
| Salinity | Seawater must stay within a tight range — animals cannot osmoregulate outside it. |
| pH & alkalinity | Buffers the water and lets corals build skeleton; a drop signals trouble early. |
| Ammonia & nitrite | Toxic wastes from feeding & respiration — kept near zero by the biological filter. |
| Nitrate & phosphate | Slow-building nutrients; controlled by water changes and skimming to limit algae. |
| Dissolved oxygen | Supports fish, inverts and the filter bacteria; maintained by circulation & aeration. |
What the readings are telling us
- Two readings must always be zeroAmmonia and nitrite are the toxic wastes animals produce. In a healthy system the filter bacteria destroy them as fast as they appear, so both should test at zero. Anything above zero is an emergency.
- How the filter cleans the waterWaste turns into ammonia, one group of bacteria converts it to nitrite, a second group turns nitrite into far less harmful nitrate. That chain is the nitrogen cycle, and growing it takes weeks — which is why a new tank cannot be stocked immediately.
- Why ammonia suddenly appearsAlmost always because waste has outrun the bacteria: too many animals added at once, too much food, or a dead animal decaying unnoticed. The response is to feed less, find the cause and change water while the filter catches up.
- Nitrate and phosphate build slowlyThese are the end of the line, and they climb quietly with every meal. Too much fuels nuisance algae and stresses corals. We keep them down with regular water changes and protein skimming rather than chemicals.
- Warm water holds less oxygenOxygen dissolves less readily as water warms, while a warm animal’s demand for it goes up. That is the trap in an overheating tank, and why circulation and aeration matter most on the hottest days.
- Evaporation raises salinityWhen water evaporates the salt stays behind, so the tank slowly gets saltier. Automatic top-up replaces the lost water with fresh — never salt water — which is how salinity is held steady.
- Why pH falls overnightAnimals and plants both breathe out carbon dioxide all night, and CO2 dissolved in water makes it slightly acidic. With no daylight photosynthesis to take it back up, pH drifts down until morning. A small daily swing is normal; a steady fall is not.
- Stability beats perfectionAlmost every animal here copes better with a slightly imperfect but steady parameter than with a perfect one that swings. That is why everything is monitored continuously and changed slowly.
Keeper for a day — the water tests
You are on shift and the morning readings are in. What would you do?
Which two readings should always be zero in a healthy tank?
The ammonia reading has climbed above zero. What has most likely happened?
Ammonia is rising a few days after new animals arrived. What do you do first?
The bacteria in the filter turn ammonia into nitrite, and then nitrite into what?
The tank has warmed up by several degrees. Why is that dangerous?
Salinity has crept up over a week. What causes that?
To correct that rising salinity, what do we top the tank up with?
pH dips a little every night and recovers by day. Why?
Nitrate has slowly climbed over a month. What is the usual fix?
Which matters more to the animals?
Life support & lighting
- Recirculation pumpCirculates water continuously through the system so temperature, oxygen and treatment stay evenly maintained.↔ Again a closed loop rather than a journey: the same water passes the treatment repeatedly, and the turnover rate is set to the system rather than to the size of the sea.
- UV steriliserAn ultraviolet lamp sterilises the water in-line, killing free-floating bacteria and parasites to keep study animals healthy.↔ On a research system the lamp is there to stop a pathogen moving between study animals, and between one system and the next. It is not cleaning incoming seawater — that was already sterilised at the intake.
- Temperature regulationPrecise heating and cooling holds each system at its set temperature — essential for controlled research conditions.↔ On a research system the set point is part of the experiment, so it is held tighter than an exhibit needs and logged continuously, not simply maintained.
- Flow sensorMeasures the flow rate through the system so staff can confirm steady turnover and catch a clog or pump fault quickly.
- Protein skimmerFoam-fractionation strips dissolved organic waste from the water before it can degrade water quality.↔ On a research system it runs on the animals’ own waste rather than on sea water, keeping the background chemistry steady enough that a measurement means something.
- Level sensorMonitors water level and tops up for evaporation, keeping salinity and pump operation stable.
- Monitoring & automation systemSensors and a controller log key parameters continuously, automate top-up and dosing, and alarm staff to any deviation.
- BiofilterBeneficial bacteria on a high-surface-area media convert toxic ammonia to nitrate, biologically purifying the water.
- Mechanical filter bagsReplaceable micron filter socks catch suspended solids and uneaten food; they are swapped out regularly to keep the water clear.↔ A lab system does the same polishing with socks instead of a sand bed, because socks are lifted out and swapped: the trapped solids leave the system altogether instead of sitting inside it.
- SumpA tank below the system holds the filtration, skimmer and heaters and buffers the water volume, keeping the working area tidy and conditions stable.
Lighting: No dedicated aquarium lighting — this system runs on the laboratory’s natural daylight, so the animals keep their normal day–night (circadian) rhythm.
Where the water comes from
Every drop in this facility starts as clean seawater from the Gulf of Oman, then passes a full treatment train before it reaches the animals. Some of the kit here has a twin on the tank itself — a lamp, a skimmer, a filter, a pump — but it is doing a different job at each end, and the ↔ lines say which.
- Intake 300 m offshoreSeawater is drawn from an intake about 300 m out to sea, away from the shoreline where run-off and sediment collect.
- Intake depthThe seabed here sits about 16 m down at low tide; the intake head is set at roughly 14 m at low tide — deep enough to draw cool, clean water yet held clear of the bottom.
- Below the thermoclineThe intake sits below the thermocline — the cooler, more stable deep layer — which also lowers the risk of drawing in a surface oil spill.
- Raised above the seabedAt about 14 m it is held roughly 2 m clear of the ~16 m bottom, so it does not pick up settled tar, silt or other bottom deposits.
- Pneumatic (air-driven) pumpsAir-driven pumps lift the seawater gently, with no oil-lubricated parts that could contaminate it.↔ These lift the water once, from the sea to the shore. Here gentleness matters more than pressure, which is why they are air-driven.
- Hydrocarbon analyserAn in-line hydrocarbon analyser continuously checks the incoming water and shuts the intake if any trace of oil is detected.
- Transfer pumpsTransfer pumps move the screened seawater one way — from the intake, ashore, into the treatment train.↔ Transport, not circulation — this water is on a one-way trip from the intake into the treatment train, and it makes it only once.
- Mechanical filtrationAny open-sea intake also draws in sand, silt, plankton and larvae; graded particle filters take those out first, so nothing downstream has to work through the sea floor.↔ At the intake this is coarse, high-volume work on genuinely dirty water: sea-floor sand and whole plankton, at the full intake flow.
- UV sterilisationUltraviolet light disinfects the incoming seawater, so nothing living that came in with it — bacteria, parasites, drifting larvae — carries on into the facility.↔ On the way in this is a single pass: each litre of raw seawater crosses the lamp once, at full intake flow, so whatever the Gulf was carrying that day never reaches a tank.
- Temperature controlThe sea outside swings with the season, from cool winter water to well over 30 °C in a Gulf summer. The incoming water is brought to one standard holding temperature before it goes anywhere near an animal.↔ At the intake this is a one-off correction to a large batch: whatever temperature the sea happened to be that day, brought to one standard before storage.
- Protein skimmingFoam-fractionation strips out the dissolved organics and any residual oils and surfactants the seawater arrived with, before it goes into storage.↔ At the intake the skimmer deals with what the sea brought in: dissolved organics and any oily residue, taken out once, before storage.
- AerationAeration re-oxygenates the water and off-gasses unwanted volatile compounds.
- Ozone sterilisationA final ozone treatment gives a powerful disinfection and improves water clarity before storage.
- DistributionThe treated seawater is then distributed to the laboratory systems and the display aquarium.
Keeping the water alive
The equipment behind the glass, and the sea it all starts from.
What does the biofilter actually do?
How does a protein skimmer clean the water?
What is the UV steriliser for?
The level sensor tops the tank up automatically. What does that protect?
Why measure the flow through every loop?
How far offshore is the seawater intake?
The intake sits at about 14 m, roughly 2 m clear of the seabed. Why hold it off the bottom?
Why are the intake pumps air-driven?
An in-line hydrocarbon analyser watches the incoming water. What does it do if it detects oil?
The water is UV-sterilised at the intake, and again on the tank’s own loop. Why twice?
Both the intake and the tank filter out particles. What is different about the tank’s filter?
Odds & ends — a bit of everything
Loose ends from around the exhibit: how big, what they are called, and how dinner is worked out.
A diver’s body holds about 70 litres. Roughly how many bald glassy would fill that?
In a scientific name like Cephalopholis argus, what is the first word?
What does the IUCN “Least Concern” badge on a card mean?
How is the daily amount of food worked out?
Why are floating and sinking foods offered at the same time?
Sources & references
The species information here is drawn from published research — see the Bibliography for full detail.
- Diet & natural preyEach species’ wild diet is researched from published feeding studies and FishBase, then matched to the food groups used here — full detail in the Bibliography. · source ↗
- IUCN conservation statusRed List category taken from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. · source ↗
- Zoological classificationKingdom-to-species from the Catalog of Fishes / FishBase (fishes) and WoRMS (invertebrates). · source ↗
- Native rangeDistribution mapped from FishBase / SeaLifeBase species summaries. · source ↗
Please: no tapping the glass, no flash photography — it startles the animals. Enjoy watching!
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