Above is a teaser we created for the ‘Discipline EP’, the new release from Miami electronic musician Panic Bomber. The ‘Discipline EP’ arrives March 16, 2010 via Toronto’s YYZ Records and this video will be available for your downloading pleasure on Vimeo until Sunday, March 7. Catch Panic Bomber live in Toronto this coming weekend and at the Ultra Music Festival Saturday, March 27.
Bohemian Bash Press: NBC Miami
‘The Sun Coral’
The feeding of a Tubastrea coccinea coral cluster
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Morphologic Studios
This week’s video features a colony of Tubastrea coccinea coral polyp clones feeding on passing zooplankton. The film is sped up 10 times to emphasize the feeding abilities and coordination between the sticky tentacles and the polyps’ mouths.
Tubastrea coccinea or ‘Sun Corals’, have an unusual background story, being the only invasive stony coral to become established in the Caribbean basin. Native to the tropical Indo-Pacific Oceans, they were first noted living on ships’ hulls in Puerto Rico and Curacao (Southern Caribbean) in the mid 1940’s. Over the ensuing decades, they eventually spread elsewhere throughout the entire Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico on the prevailing water currents. It is believed that these sun corals may have originally entered our region as larval stow-aways in the ballast water of intercontinental ships that passed through the Panama Canal.
‘Purple Forest’
Decorator Crab (Microphrys bicornuta) on Asparagopsis taxiformis algae
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Morphologic Studios
This week’s video features an aquascape comprised of the beautiful purple macro algae Asparagopsis taxiformis. However, if you pay close attention to the left 1/3 of the screen, you’ll notice something… moving with claws… Nestled amongst the algae is a perfectly camouflaged decorator crab (Microphrys bicornuta). Keep paying attention… at 26 seconds into the clip you’ll notice a tiny isopod crustacean float by in the current and descend helicopter-style right onto the crab’s back. The unsuspecting isopod has no idea that it has landed upon an algae covered beast. Furthermore, it appears that the crab is not aware of the unexpected visitor until the isopod begins to explore its decorated exoskeleton. 50 seconds into the clip the isopod meets its fate with a few swift snatches of the crab’s claws. Without missing a beat, the crab continues scavenging amongst the rocks and algae. And life on the reef goes on…
Decorator crabs are amazing creatures in that they pick up pieces of their surrounding habitat and place them on their carapace (back, exoskeleton) in order to blend into their surroundings. Decorator crabs that live amongst sponges decorate with sponges, those that live amongst zoanthids use zoanthids, and so on. This instinctual logic is truly remarkable. The crab in the video has attached small pieces of the Asparagopsis upon itself, and as a result is all but indistinguishable from its surroundings.
‘The Christmas Tree Worm’
Spirobranchus giganteus – Amber Morph
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Morphologic Studios
Christmas tree worms (Spirobranchus giganteus) are an abundant creature on Floridian reefs, making their permanent homes encased inside the limestone skeletons of live coral. Found in a seemingly endless variety of colors and measuring 2-3 cm in diameter, dozens of these worms will typically adorn massive coral heads in local waters.
Using only the perception of light and vibration, these animals will retract at lighting speed at the first sense of something ominous approaching. Fortunately the worms come equipped with a a protective double-horned operculum that seals the worm safely inside the inpenetrable coral. A sharp, calcareous spike extends forward of the tube’s opening, acting as a further deterant to a would-be predator.
The spiraled, ‘branchial crown’ serves as both breathing and feeding apparatus for the worm, and is the only part of the worm’s body that is extended into the water column. The feathery appendages, known radioles, collect plankton that drift by in the current. The radioles are lined with cilia that direct the captured food down the spiral to the worm’s mouth.
‘Unidentified Ricordea Shrimp #1′
Unidentified commensal shrimp on Ricordea florida corallimorphs
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Morphologic Studios
Shown above is the first documented video of a currently unidentified shrimp commensal with Ricordea florida corallimorphs. The nearly invisible shrimp measures only 9mm in total length. The ricordea polyp is about 30mm in diameter for comparison. We first reported and photographed this shrimp in October 2009. Subsequently, we sent a preserved specimen to taxonomist Dr. Richard Heard at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. Dr. Heard was unable to match the specimen with a described shrimp species. We will be sending additional specimens in the near future to confirm this shrimp’s newness to science.
4 color fluorescent ink silk screened 18′ X 23′ poster by Iron Forge Press, incorporating our ‘Crab Fashion‘ image. Photo shot in darkness with ultraviolet lighting.
West Palm Beach’s Surfer Blood will play The Vagabond in downtown Miami the night of Friday, December 18th with fellow Floridians Holiday Shores. This show falls in the wake of Surfer Blood’s massive national tour and precedes their highly anticipated debut album, Astro Coast, out via Brooklyn’s Kanine Records January 19, 2010.
