Barbs and doradids

The pearl eartheater was still waiting for me when I got in this morning and after a spell in Photoshop, finishing off the background colour reset, I added the illustration to an ID file that had been sat quietly in the confines of my Mac's inner space. Along with the eartheater there are two other species on this ID and they were joining the rank of about a dozen other species that are all in the same huge landscape tank in the aquarium.

Pearl eartheater - Geophagus brassiliensisi

Late in the afternoon Anna (one of the graphic designers) and I went across to the aquarium to put the ID up in one of the lightboxes. It takes two because one person has to stand on the step ladder base to hold it steady whilst the other scales the heights. It's all about the dreaded "Health and Safety" regulations we have to abide by... however, it does give Anna a break from the computer for a short while.

We met Jonny, assistant curator of the Aquarium, and he was holding a meanly hooked barb. It had just been removed by the on-site veterinary team from one of the black doradid catfish (aka ripsaw catfish) Oxydoras niger. The freshwater stingrays it shares its huge tank with, shed these barbs and one of the doradids managed to get it lodged up through its mouth and face after picking it up off the bottom of the tank. The fish is a pretty large beasty and probably took two or three keepers to catch and carry it, so it was quite an operation of logistics as well as surgically. We saw the fish in the tank, post op, sat on the bottom being cleaned by a couple of suckermouth catfish. We thought it was sweet of them to give it a little TLC at such a time!!
Jonny assured us the fish would be fine in no time at all. The barb was about 3" long with a slight curve upwards. Along two thirds of its length ran the tiny hooks on either side. Running my fingers along these in one direction from the tip to the base they felt smooth, but in the other direction the hooks were sharp and caught the skin on my fingers easily. Quite a nasty little weapon, but fascinating.

Generally it was another day of to-ing and fro-ing between the computer, laminator and putting ID's on display. I compiled an ID with the info for a new seahorse species ready for when it needs to go up, there were five bird ID's that needed replacing due to looking shabby from wear and tear two of which were completed and put on their respective aviaries today and the last three held up from being finished because we had run out of the metal eyelets that are needed for the particular way the ID's are displayed in the aviary they are in.

So a quick jaunt out of the zoo grounds was called for to a local craft shop to get a couple of packets of said eyelets. These will be hammered into place, through the laminate the ID's will be sealed in. A job for tomorrow.