City Aquarium

New Tank with one of our Reef Scupltures

2009-09-21T12:04:00.004-04:00

Ron Rundo's, our Art Director and sculptor, latest creation for a new client in Manhattan. It's like Moon Reef.

Jmu

City Aquarium, The New Studio

2009-09-10T14:21:00.003-04:00

We are almost there! City Aquarium Studio, 6,000 square feet of fish and cool stuff to open in November!

Its awesome to have a state of the art fish holding facility and Blue Planet looks good on the big big big screen TV.

Staten Island Ferry Terminal Aquariums

2009-04-24T09:57:00.004-04:00

The twin tanks at Staten Island Ferry Terminal had a rough start. As many of you have read in the press the aquariums had some issues over the past year. City Aquarium has the best service staff in the North East, for reals. So when it was time to change the aquarium guard over in Staten Island, the Staten Island Zoo hired City Aquarium to take over. We began the renovation on January 1st, 2009. We loved the challenge and of course we loved the tanks! The life support room is massive and needed some care and our dedicated staff has been working daily to get the tanks back into shape. Thus far, not one fish has been sick or passed on since we took over. The tanks are crystal clear, water quality is healthy, and the fish are fat and loving life. We added the new lighting last month, and the new fish are on their way. We are now placing 40 new fish in quarantine and they will appear in the Staten Island tanks second week of May.

You will find David and Keiko there daily cleaning and diving the tanks, scrubbing, taking water samples, and feeding. The fish are being fed, vitamin enriched flakes, and pellets, vegetables, krill, silversides, and a special freshwater frozen mysis. All our fish are fed this special mysis from PE Mysis http://www.mysis.com/

The picture is our skinny boy, David Gould, our artificial reef caretaker. He can scrub, and he can fit into any tank. He uses the hooka device to dive and spends about 6-8 hours a week under water at Staten. More to come!

Jmu

Shark Week in Japan -Our Client's Japanese TV Interview

2009-04-24T08:53:00.006-04:00

As a marine biologist, an aquarist, a hobbyist, I did not have a great feeling or attitude with regards to keeping a Black Tip Reef Shark in a smallish tank. We got her at 17", I found her in Los Angeles during one of my many visits to the fish importers gathered along the outskirts of LAX. I knew my client only wanted a shark or nothing. The tank was 130" Long x 48" Wide and 40" High. No small tank for sure, 1,000 gallons in a gorgeous penthouse apartment on 5th avenue with 360 degree views of Chelsea. It was a spontaneous acquisition, and along with a Conspiculatus angel, a Kidako moray, and a Bubblebee grouper we left for NYC.

She arrived sure enough in a crate 36" x 36". The acclimation process was interesting, she was active, and accepted the tank pretty quickly as her new home. I must say that part of my willingness to give the shark a try was that the residence is very private, and the clients were never in residence and did not have loud dinner parties, annoying visitors, and the place was very quiet. She is left alone for the most part (she ate all of her tank mates including the giant hermits), our service team is there almost daily. She is fed only the best, smelt and large peeled and deveined wild gulf shrimp (Wholefoods of course). She is a joy and she fit the tank. She has been there for a year now and all good things must come to an end. With expert care she has grown now to 22". Now must transport her back to our facility and place her in one of our large cylinder tanks. I am not sure the client wants a new shark, he is thinking about larger marine fish. Chelsea will miss her. As a rule, these animals should not be kept in tanks under 4,000 gallons. Requiem Sharks should ideally be placed in aquariums that can hold them once they reach their full adult size. This technically means that the length of the tank should be 4 times the adult length of the shark and at least 1.5 - 2 times their adult length in width (25' x 10'). This does not mean that they can't be placed in smaller enclosures as young. You must have an exit strategy in place when the shark out grows their tank. We will try to film the transport of the Black Tip and place it on the blog.

Jmu

Hiking in Patagonia, Explora Lodge

2008-12-17T08:12:00.008-05:00

We made a trip to Chile to Torres del Paine National Park this month. The hikes were spectacular. We averaged about 15 mile hikes per day. The first picture is me standing in front of Glaciar Grey. The second picture is a close up shot of Grey. Of course the Glaciar is receding at an alarming rate. The ice breaks off into icebergs and creates a long chain of ice that floats down the river. The last picture is the view from our hotel, Salto Chico. It was like a dream to wake up every morning with that view.

We stayed at Explora's lodge in the park. Lodge Salto Chico site on the lake, serves the best food, and provides excellent service. There were about 30 other people in the lodge from all over the world. We met some great people and made some good friends. The wildlife; Flamingos, Hawks, Condors, Puma's, and of course Guanacos.

BSG Update Season 4.5: Felix "Gay-ta" Gaeta

2008-12-17T09:18:00.007-05:00

Six, Too Much!

Battlestar Galactica, the last episodes, begin January 16th. President Roslin is killing me, Starbuck is going to kill everyone and Gaeta is GAY. Check out the new webisodes. Gay-ta has a boyfriend, one leg, and is lost in space. Can Gay-ta find his way back to the Galactica?

Young and the Skinny: Jmu Needs To Go On Diet

2008-12-17T09:49:00.006-05:00

One of my divers called in sick, so I had to dive and clean the Dream Hotel tank. Lets face it, some jobs require young and skinny.

I did enjoy myself actually. One of our clients, the Dream Hotel here in NYC, requires regular tank diving in order to scrub and clean the synthetic reef insert. The tank is about 30' tall and has a 6' diameter (7,000 gallons). We have about 18" between the acrylic wall and the reef insert in order to move and clean. If I cant fit in the tank, no carbs for a month. The cleaning itself during most dives can be labor intensive. Most inserts are cleaned with brushes, and some we have the use of a pressure washer. The tough part is not to get stung by the rabbit fish, the large lions, and not to get attacked by the Kidako Moray.

Our installer, Dave Yarber, free dives this tank which is very impressive.

Jmu

Brummell Magazine

2008-10-27T16:38:00.011-04:00

Elle Decor

2008-01-06T17:14:00.001-05:00

Shedd Aquarium Trip

2008-09-03T18:36:00.004-04:00

I have been to the Shedd Aquarium several times in Chicago. It really is a great public aquarium. They have a large Oceanarium that closes this month for a year. They are spending $50,000,000 on renovating the pools and life support system. It needed it. The pools are stained and busted, and the windows were dirty and scratched in a bad way.

They did have a new Caribbean Reef exhibit. I guess I am hard to please, it was not very impressive.

I did love all of their usual exhibits including their Blue Iguana. It is a beautiful lizard and fun to watch. We were watching it for about 30 minutes and had too move on. It is sad that this species is critically endangered. There are only about 300 of these animals living in the wild on Grand Cayman. They are among the most long lived lizards on earth, some can reach the ripe old age of 75 years.

An amazing freshwater turtle at the Shedd. A guy that used to work for me had one of these. The Fly River Turtle. They are also a threatened animal. They were on CITES II and I think they still are. It is funny because The Park on 10th Avenue had one too in a scratched up tank behind the upstairs bar. Not sure how people get these. Black Market I guess. They are smuggled into the united states. There are no known breeders selling babies here in the U.S. that I know of.

Aqua Dom; SAS Hotel Berlin

2008-07-20T13:06:00.002-04:00

A New Reef Tank: Zurich North America

2008-04-25T10:06:00.005-04:00

City Aquarium builds another tank for Zurich NA in Union Square, New York. This reef aquarium measures 72" x 26" x 36" High. We will be showing the progress of this tank through out its first few months of installation.

J-Mu

Stephen Olivier; New York City Artist

2008-04-24T09:11:00.008-04:00

My dear friend Stephen Olivier lives in Brooklyn and has been painting all his life. I have several of his pieces now, one of which hangs over my fireplace.

Olivier's branches and swarms, informed by his father's experience with renal disease and dialysis, seems captured from a toxic forest in a state of radiant life. Tiny swarms sketched on wood panel grow into blooms of milk and acid encased in watery resin. He explored themes of emergence, transformation, and loss, carefully layering the paint into distinct new species.

J-Mu

Are Lookdowns From Hell?

2008-03-27T18:45:00.008-04:00

Lookdowns (Selene vomer), are members of the Carangidae family. The word Selene, being derived from a lunar deity in Greek mythology, gives these fish their common name "Moonfish". Like most members of this family, they are found in large schools. This particular fish is found throughout the tropical Atlantic.

This animal is not my first fish of choice for my clients. These Silver Surfers come with a multitude of issues and I do not recommend keeping this fish if you are not an advanced aquarist. I have about 20 years experience with this species, and as a general rule I stay away from purchasing these animals. I have tried them in some large tanks with better success. We did a large school of Lookdowns at the Ship Wreck Tavern here in New York, and they needed constant attention.

Most hobbyists or people do not understand how to collect or handle scaleless fish. You must not touch a net to these animals. Net collection or mishandling of these fishes often leads to death. I have many dealers and collectors for this Jack, most of them are out of the Florida Keys. These Jacks are line caught most often and given special care when transported.

Lookdowns do not ship well and a long acclimation period is suggested. When we receive these fish they have to go into quarantine. Scaleless fish are sensitive to most medications. Quinine, one of the best medications used to treat copper resistant saltwater ick, will kill these animals. Like most scaleless fish, Lookdowns tend to be ick magnets so keep a close eye out for this parasite. Another disease this fish seems to attract is Brookynella. The skin turns white and comes right off their bodies. A nasty looking disease, but treatable.

These fish are also very nervous creatures. Sudden movements, sounds or vibrations can send them racing into the sides of the tank. I do recommend cylinders for these fish or if you place them in rectangular tanks, bull nosed ends is the best option. If they are going into a small home aquarium I would suggest placing only a few small individuals in the tank.

You will not have any problems feeding these animals, they love to eat. We feed them mainly silversides. They often need to be fed live feeders to trigger their feeding responses initially.

There are several members of the Carangidae family better suited for the aquarium. Trevallys Blue Runners, and other Jacks we have had better success with. Lookdowns still are the best looking and most silvery in my opinion, but you are better off schooling a fish like the Blue Runner.

J-Mu

How do we keep our tanks so clean? - Ilan Glasser, Israel

2008-04-04T13:03:00.007-04:00

Ilan Glasser writes from Israel to ask us how we keep our tanks so clean. I have to say that before we photograph our tanks, they are styled and meticulously cleaned. A lot goes into our photography, and at about $3,000 per shot we ensure that the tanks look their best.

We do keep these installations in pristine condition throughout the tanks life.

Most of our clients spend over $1,000 per month on their aquarium cleaning program. I would say that on average we clean our installations 1-3 times weekly. When we have clients with just one service visit per week, we still manage to keep the tanks looking great. There are several cleaning philosophies that we use to keep the tanks looking great and free from detritus, debris, and algae.

First, we always use R/O water for water changes and top off. Silicates and phosphates will kill a tank, and it is very difficult to keep the substrate and rock work algae free with these elements present. Reverse Osmosis is essential, and these systems are most likely installed in most of our installations.

I will always try to oversize protein skimmers, ultra violet sterilization units, circulation pumps, and ozone. I tend to increase suggested flow rates by 50% to 100%, and I use the same increased rates with my skimmers and UV units.

We will also use phosphate removing media such as phosban. The media is either placed in reactors or in some sort of canister. Carbon, poly bio, the use of a good protein skimmer are all products which help us export or remove nutrients and waste.

I am a big fan of using Mexican Turbo Snails as natural living cleaners. I have kept these in tanks with puffers, triggers, and angels with great success. These animals need a long acclimation period, and we use a slow drip method when acclimating.

Lastly, light or photo periods play the biggest role in helping us maintain a clean tank. Most of our clients travel or keep several residences, or at the very least work quite often. This enables us to keep photo periods for our fish only installations at 6-8 hours per day and we keep our wattage at a minimum. In a nut shell, tanks respond well to a strict schedule and plan.

J-Mu

Dallas Tank

2008-04-23T08:13:00.003-04:00

Crescent shaped tanks will be completed in Dallas in June 2008. The system is composed of three tanks forming a semi-circle around a large tub in the master bathroom. The center tank will feature a living reef. We will need to send a diver in the tank in order to epoxy the corals into place. Final pictures will be taken sometime in August of this year of the completed installation.

J-Mu

Gigantic Acrylic Aquarium Sumps Going To Dallas

2008-04-22T18:07:00.005-04:00

These sumps are going to Dallas this week. These guys measure 60"x30"x30", I added twin baffles and four micron sock rings. Each sump will handle a 1,000 gallon marine tank in a residence in Texas. Great job on the sumps Mike!

J-Mu

What's Up With Starbuck? BSG: Season Premiere Tonight

2008-04-04T10:21:00.005-04:00

Starbuck is back and says she has been to earth. I have a feeling she is not a Cylon, and I hope she is just CRAZY! Did she die in the last episode? Was she reborn? Is she a Cylon? Will she lead the rest of the human race to uncertain death? Battlestar Galactica Premiere party tonight at City Aquarium Home Base.

J-Mu

Adam Razak: New York City Artist

2008-04-04T09:44:00.005-04:00

I recently met Adam here in NYC and started to spend some time with him. His work is wild, and no one paints like Razak. Adam has many influences, and I think it is apparent that he is a huge comic book fan. My next mission is for Adam is to meet one of my clients Joe Quesada, head of Marvel Comics..... I have been trying to get Joe to draw me a piece for years.

Adam says he strives to honor the physical word and pay homage to invisible, spiritual, and mythical realms. I plan to commission Razak to do some sort of aquatic and mythical piece (as soon as I win the lottery that is). The installations featured here are; Dionysus: The Art of Transformation, Jacob Wrestling With A Divine Being And The Ladder From Heaven To Ea, and "The Rape of Ganymede" unfinished.

J-Mu

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA - The BSG

2008-03-29T10:08:00.005-04:00

What the Frac! I can not believe this is the last season. Anyone else fans?

Multiple Custom Aquarium Installations; Zurich North America

2008-03-27T10:33:00.013-04:00

Zurich North America engaged City Aquarium to design and fabricate multiple installations for their East 17th Street location. The first tank to be completed was the 3rd floor or executive floor aquarium. The aquarium is museum acrylic construction, marine grade life support, and the sculptural motif is live rock. I usually never design FOWLR (fish only with live rock) systems for service clients. The reason being is inevitably one or some of the fish will get sick. Power outages, chiller failures, mechanical failures, and other problems arise that can destabilize the system. Disease is very difficult to treat in reef tanks and FOWLR systems. I have added fish very slowly to this now stable tank. The life support is basically a reef system design which helps us maintain the tanks stability. We are also using almost 200 watts of ultraviolet sterilization and some serious ozone. The tank is now home to a very active French Angel, a Maculosus Angel, a fat Mappa Puffer, and a Japanese Kidako Moray.

The fish are also treated in Nitrofurizone Green for almost 30 days before they are delivered. Furizone Green destroys most external pathogens, bacterial, and fungal infections. It is my medication of choice during the quarantine process.

J-Mu

They are KILLNG ME

2008-03-27T12:27:00.005-04:00

My canary Fives died while I was in Brazil. I came home only to find his cage empty and him frozen in the freezer. Why my assistant placed him in the freezer on top of my Acai Sorbet I will never know. I guess it was so I could say my goodbye's. The canary never did sing in the 5 years I had it, which means that he was a she or he was not a happy bird.

To make a long story short, after the Fives died, I went out and bought an antique Mexican flight cage and mounted it on my wall. I took a trip to New Jersey to Pete's Bird Garden and got TWELVE finches. I have to say, I really do enjoy them. The Owl Finch is probably my top favorite finch. The Owls and Gold Breasts have already paired up and started to nest. They like to have the sex at night. One finch does not make a lot of noise, but 12 together is like putting a gun to my head. I will say they are a good alarm clock, but when I want to sleep in on the weekends I want to stab them. They also make some serious messes. I had to buy a Meile vacuum in order to clean up after them and my cleaning lady now wants a pay increase. I like them.

J-Mu

Al Vinjamur Photography

2008-03-27T11:30:00.008-04:00

Al has been a long term client here in New York City. Once a very successful Hedgefunder, Al has now embraced his real passion.... Wildlife Photography. Ever since I have known him he has always had the fancy cameras and now he has put them into use. Vinjamur has been fascinated with sharks, so much so that he wanted to move to the burbs so he could build a million dollar shark tank. We came pretty close to that at one point. He has been diving and photographing these amazing creatures for the past 10 years now.

His work with the Katmai Bears, the Lemon Sharks, and the Polar Bears shows the versatility of his work. I am always drawn to his aquatic photographs, but I am down with the land and air animals. I was happy to see the American Bald Eagles back in such large numbers. Al is leaving for Botswana and South Africa in Aril 2008 to photograph Leopards and other wildlife.

J-Mu

White Reef Insert

2008-03-26T16:48:00.012-04:00

The white reef insert is one of my signature designs. White inserts are both minimal and modern and are often requested by my clients in New York City, Miami, and Los Angeles . Often we do cream, tan, or dark brown tones on the tips and fringes of the corals. The base reef has been done in off white washes. When my clients aesthetic is modern, and their color pallet is earthy tones of browns and whites, I often create these inserts. I have done variations of this insert in dark brown, and black satin. The insert pictured here is nearly completed and is going to a residence on Central Park West, New York City. We developed this insert as a habitat for seahorses. We booted several SPS and LPS corals into the base reef which will be used as hitching posts for the Pot Bellied Seahorse (native to Australia, a cold water species).

Many hobbyists ask if I am crazy placing these white inserts in my tanks, but they can be done successfully. The insert itself is clear coated several times, this prevents the algae from rooting and makes cleaning easy. Most of these inserts are made to be removed for annual cleaning. Also, Mexican Turbo Snails are our friends. We do use theses amazing little cleaners to clean our inserts, and this is why I do not want to close our borders with Mexico!

J-Mu

New York Daily News

2008-02-07T09:18:00.000-05:00