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The visitor center at the Hatfield Marine Science Center
in Newport is a place where the public
can learn about fascinating marine animals.
This video shows how aquarists care
for the animals at the visitors center, which is
operated by Oregon Sea Grant.
This video contains six segments,
starting with a behind the scenes tour of our area
where new and sick animals are quarantined and treated.
Other segments showcase how aquarists feed the animals,
take care of the octopus on display,
care for and propagate coral, and clean the tanks.
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The holding area, known as the West Wing,
is where we quarantine new animals
and treat sick ones at the visitors center.
Quarantining is necessary to prevent disease in the wild
from being introduced into our tanks.
It also gives our animals time to acclimate
to their new environment.
We receive assistance from Doctor Tim Miller Morgan,
an aquatic veterinarian who oversees Oregon Sea Grant's
aquatic animal health program
The West Wing is also where we keep animals Doctor Tim Miller
Morgan uses for teaching purposes
at Oregon State University's College of Veterinary Medicine
and in the aquarium science program at Oregon Coast
Community College.
Students learn to examine these animals, some of which
have been donated.
They also learn to diagnose and treat diseases.
We also raise baby fish, such as shiner perch and pipe
fish in the West Wing, so we can later put them on display
and also avoid collecting them from the wild.
When shiner perch are born, they are big enough
to eat the same foods that we feed the adults.
Baby pipe fish, on the other hand, are much smaller
and require extremely tiny live foods.
So in the West Wing, we grow brine shrimp and rotifers,
two microscopic types of zooplankton
that we feed algae, which are full of nutrients.
After a mysterious disease began decimating sea stars
along the Oregon coast in 2014, we
built a tank in the West Wing to give our sea stars
a safe refuge.
Our tanks on public display in the visitor's center
get their water from Yaquina Bay.
So if there's a problem with the water,
like temperature fluctuations or the presence of disease,
those problems can enter the tanks
and potentially harm the animals.
However, the tank in the West Wing area
has a closed recirculating filtration and chilling system,
which keeps the water self-contained, clean,
and at a constant temperature.
We test the water quality in the tank weekly
and observe the sea stars in it daily.
Whenever we hear that sea stars in the Yaquina Bay are dying,
or if we see signs of stress in our own population on display,
we transfer our sea stars out of our public exhibits
to this tank in the back.
This keeps them from being exposed to the water in the bay
and it allows them to build up their immune systems.
Once water conditions appear steady,
we put them back on display.
As you can see at the visitors, center,
the health of our animals comes first.
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Many visitors are surprised to know
that we feed our marine life restaurant quality seafood.
This is because we are dedicated to providing
the best nutrition possible to the animals at the visitors
center.
We prepare their meals in our food prep room
and customize them to meet their needs.
For example, an adult Rockfish, a giant Pacific octopus,
a pipe fish, and a yellow tang, all have different diets.
Larger animals receive squid, fish, shrimp, and crab,
that we cut into bit-sized pieces.
Animals with small mouths are fed small krill, shrimp, fish,
and worms.
Even our filter feeders get specialty
made diets, some of which come from our own live culture area
in the West Wing of the center.
There, we grow brine shrimp and rotifers,
offers, which are microscopic zooplankton that can easily
be consumed by your filter feeding coral, mussel,
or anemone.
And let's not forget about the herbivores.
Animals like yellow tangs, sea urchin, and chitons,
are grazers and do best with lots of vegetation
in their diet.
We feed these animals seaweed, as well as lettuce, broccoli,
and cucumbers.
We also prepare a dedicated food by mixing
powdered or liquid vitamins and medications with water
and letting the mixture harden overnight.
When we feed our animals, we have
to make sure the food is getting to them.
Our juvenile big skates, for example,
are in the tank with multiple rockfish and sculpins,
all of which are faster swimmers than the skates.
To help the skates get to their food first,
we use a feeding pole that has a plastic lid attached
to the end of it and food on a skewer in front of the lid.
The skate swims to the lid because they have been
trained to recognize its shape.
We have also trained our rat fish and moray eel
to eat from feeding poles.
This is often referred to as target feeding.
As you can see at the visitors center,
the health of our animals comes first.
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Octopuses are incredibly smart animals
that need to be stimulated and properly taken care of.
How do we do that at the visitors center?
It starts with the environment the octopus lives in.
An exhibit tank is not a natural home for an octopus,
but if we can make it as much like the wild as possible,
these curious animals who want to explore the tank more
frequently.
Our tank includes multiple rock formations
populated by the same kinds of anemones and sea stars
the octopus would encounter in its ocean environment.
When visiting our facility, you may notice different toys
in the octopus tank.
We introduce new toys often, mixing
a variety of textures and sizes in order
to engage our octopus through interactive stimuli.
Toys are also a great way to allow the octopus to interact
with our staff.
One toy we have found to be entertaining is a watering can.
It seems they enjoy the feeling of the water being
poured over them like a shower.
Another way we can stimulate our octopus
is by varying the diet our octopus receives,
as well as how it is delivered.
We place the food in a container,
giving the octopus a chance to hunt for the container
and then figure out how to open it.
You can watch us feed our octopus
up to three days a week, either in person
or via our live streaming cameras.
You can watch the live stream by visiting the visitor's center's
web site.
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You may think of corals as rocks,
but they're actually animals with stomachs, mouths,
and tentacles.
Just like other aquatic animals, they
need to be properly taken care of to survive.
We monitor their lighting, water, water chemistry,
and nutrition to ensure that the corals grow
into colorful colonies.
That means making sure that the symbiotic algae
living inside the tissue of the corals are healthy.
The algae, called zooxanthellae, provide the striking colors
we see in corals.
Like plants, these algae get their energy
from light in a process known as photosynthesis.
So we place LED lights above each tropical exhibit
to provide the algae with the wavelength of light
they need to thrive.
Water flow is also important.
It delivers oxygen and microscopic food to the corals
and removes waste.
On a coral reef, water flow is constantly
changing due to the weather, tides, and other factors.
In our coral exhibit, we circulate
the water using pumps that are mounted
to the inside of the tank.
They provide the shifting, swirling currents
that corals need to grow and remain healthy.
Nutritional supplements are also essential to the coral's
survival.
We feed our corals calcium, amino acids,
and other vital elements to build their skeletons.
We also feed them small live food
such as rotifers and phytoplankton on a daily basis.
Diligent monitoring, care, and maintenance
are essential when it comes to the survival
and growth of all corals.
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Our coral fragmentation exhibit shows
corals that have been propagated in captivity.
Behind the scenes, we keep small colonies
of corals, which grow until they are ready to go on display.
Coral fragmentation is important because it
allows hobbyists and professionals to grow and share
their own corals instead of collecting wild corals
from reefs around the world.
The process of fragmenting corals
involves gently cutting a small piece from a larger coral.
Once the cut has been made, we glue the fragment
to a ceramic disk, which makes a sturdy base.
Super glue is a nice deal adhesive
because it does not harm the corals and hardens under water.
Most coral colonies grow around two centimeters a year,
but under ideal conditions, some corals
can grow 10 centimeters or more per year.
With the correct care and maintenance,
these small coral fragments will continue to grow and thrive
in their aquarium environment.
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Just like our own homes, fish tanks
accumulate dirt and must be cleaned regularly.
To clean the walls of the tanks, we
must use a special scrubbing pad that does not
scratch the acrylic sides.
To reach the bottom of our larger exhibits,
we attach the pads to long poles.
The rock and the sand at the bottom of our tanks
is a place where detritus and dirt can accumulate.
To remove this, we use a gravel vacuum.
This apparatus, also used in home aquariums,
is a hose attached to a larger rigid tube.
As water flows through the tube, suction tumbles the rocks
and removes the dirt.
The wastewater then goes down the drain.
After we have cleaned an exhibit,
we clean and sanitize all the tools
before they are used in another tank
to prevent the spread of disease.
If there is a disease in one tank,
it can easily be spread from tank
to tank on the cleaning tools.
To prevent this, we use a chemical
called virkon, which is used throughout the animal care
industry.
After that, we soak our tools and another chemical
called sodium thiosulfate to neutralize the virkon
before using the tools again.
The result-- clean tools, clean tanks,
and happy, healthy animals.