Monterey Bay Aquarium Major deep sea animal exhibit coming to MBA

Interesting news as of today: (thanks to Runkle the Zoo Man)

-Mauve Stingers are now back on display, they're by the big video screens at the beginning of the exhibit (aka the same tank they were in at the beginning)

-Umbrella Comb Jellies have been moved from that tank, to the Bloody Belly Comb Jelly Tank

-Bloody Belly Comb Jellies and Umbrella Comb Jellies aren't on exhibit at the moment as that tank is going under refurbishment

-The Umbrella Comb Jellies have seemingly replaced the Bloody Bellies at the moment as there is no mention of them in the Midwater Section



My theory and what I'm hoping for is that they're working on co-housing the Bloody Bellies and Umbrellas. They were housed together behind the scenes back in 2020 and it looked like it was going well. Seeing them both on display in the same tank would be really awesome.
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These species have moved exhibits,
  • Umbrella comb jelly (moved to past bloody belly comb jelly tank)
  • Bloody belly comb jelly (moved to past neoturris jelly tank that has changing light colors)

This species has been readded
  • Mauve stinger (no phyllosoma) (in past umbrella comb jelly tank/ the tank they were originally in)
These species have been confirmed to be on exhibit/seen/ species identified. (all in muddy bottom tank)
  • Predatory chiton sp.
  • Critter that looks like a clam
  • Several unsigned anemones (thank you to vampyrsquid)
  • Isosicyonis sp. anemone (thank you to Matt)
This species has been removed
Tower jelly (neoturris)

August 7

(On discord a pic was posted of an unknown jelly in the mauve stinger tank which just turned out to be one with their tentacles positioned in a different way.)
 
splendens said:
  • Predatory chiton sp.
  • Critter that looks like a clam
  • Several unsigned anemones (thank you to vampyrsquid)
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Thank you to insomniaquarist on discord these species have been identified.
The predatory chiton is a true deep sea species of chiton which was collected on the rock when it was being brought up. The bivalve is a tiny deep sea scallop. The small clear anemones are unidentfied, the orange one is a hormathiid "fly trap" anemone. The red and light colored coral is a corallimorphid.
 
Pretty cool behind the scenes info from Tommy:
-The Amber Bloody Belly Comb Jelly, which was under the nickname "Amber Lampo" has been confirmed as new species within the Lampocteis genus. Previously the sole species of the Genus was Lampocteis Cruentiventer, the Bloody Belly Comb Jelly so I guess this makes up 2 now. I have a few pics and videos of the Amber Lampo from Behind the Scenes but im not allowed to share them outside of the MBA Discord.

-The Idea of Co-housing the Sea Angels and Balloon Worms together came from that they housed them together Behind the Scenes at one point to make space and they did well together so they decided to exhibit them together as well. Screenshot_20220825-114407_Discord.jpg
 

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Here's a cool piece of Information: The Jelly Team at MBA is working on trying to Culture the Red Paper Lantern Jelly (Pandea Rubra). The Colony at the Aquarium is collected from the Wild and will be attempted to be raised in Captivity. The Paper Lanterns were on display towards the beginning of the Exhibit, maybe in the near future we'll see Captive Raised Specimens on Display!
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Adult Pandea Rubra Behind the Scenes at MBA
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Here are some cool new facts from the Latest Edition of "Shorelines" MBA's Member Magazine:

•The Sea Spider species that is on display with the Pom Pom Anemones is confirmed to be Colossendeis Megalonyx (In the Magazine it says they're "Colossendeis Megalongy although that's most likely a mistake since that's not a species)
•Temperatures throughout the Gallery range from 40-50°F depending on the species, but the coldest displays that sit at 40°F are animals such as the Red Paper Lantern Jellies (Pandea Rubra), The various Comb Jellies, and the Deep-Sea Coral Reefs, im guessing most notably the Seamount and Muddy Bottom Tank.
•Most of the Animals on display are kept in Oxygen Saturation Levels between 5% - 30% depending on the animal.
•We've already known this but the Jelly Team at MBA is the first to successfully Display and Culture the Common Siphonophore Nanomia Bijuga. I'm not sure if it was mentioned somewhere in the thread but Fun Fact: All the Common Siphonophores you see on display are all Cultured inhouse by the Jelly Team! What an amazing accomplishment.
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New Species on Display: (Images and Update courtesy of @splendens / Usernameforthisapplication in the MBA Discord)

Purple Lipped Jellies (Earlaria Pupurea) are now on Display. Chandelier Jellies (Eumedusa sp.) are no longer on display. The Purple Lipped Jellies have taken their spot in the small circular tank.
A cool fact about these Jellies is they're most likely cultured by the Aquarium. MBA was the first Aquarium to Culture and display them 6 years ago in the Drifters Gallery and now they've made a return.
The name "Purple Lipped Jelly" was most likely given to them by the Aquarium since a common name doesn't appear to exist.

Other Species Updates include the Phyllosoma (Slipper Lobster) being off display, as well as Deep-Sea Scallops that were in the Muddy Bottom Habitat Tank.
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Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
New Species on Display: (Images and Update courtesy of @splendens / Usernameforthisapplication in the MBA Discord)

Purple Lipped Jellies (Earlaria Pupurea) are now on Display. Chandelier Jellies (Eumedusa sp.) are no longer on display. The Purple Lipped Jellies have taken their spot in the small circular tank.
A cool fact about these Jellies is they're most likely cultured by the Aquarium. MBA was the first Aquarium to Culture and display them 6 years ago in the Drifters Gallery and now they've made a return.
The name "Purple Lipped Jelly" was most likely given to them by the Aquarium since a common name doesn't appear to exist.

Other Species Updates include the Phyllosoma (Slipper Lobster) being off display, as well as Deep-Sea Scallops that were in the Muddy Bottom Habitat Tank.
View attachment 577307 View attachment 577308 View attachment 577309 View attachment 577310
Click to expand...
Just a detail but it may not be a "return" for this species. There are two small tanks in the drifters gallery with a species that looks quite like this species but they have shorter tentacles and move faster. Maybe those are juveniles?
 
splendens said:
Just a detail but it may not be a "return" for this species. There are two small tanks in the drifters gallery with a species that looks quite like this species but they have shorter tentacles and move faster. Maybe those are juveniles?
Click to expand...
I was looking through a few images and I think the ones in the Driters Gallery could be Cross Jellies (Mitrocoma cellularia)? They look pretty similar and their range from Alaska to California matches up, another species in rhe Mitrocoma genus look similar to those as well. That's my guess at least
 
New Species on Display! And it's an awesome one!

The Barrel Amphipod (Phronima Sedentaria) are on Display in the Midwater Gallery! The Mauve Stingers have been moved off Display. The Phronima now inhabit their tank by the looks of it. It is currently unknown whether there are Salps in there tank as well, I asked Matt Wandell so I'll update once he replies.(update: Matt did confirm there are Salps in the tank as well, maybe we'll see that cool behavior they're known for)

Thank you to Matt Wandell for giving the early word!
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/barrel-amphipod
 
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The first Benthic rotation?
Update: Pacific Hagfish have been taken off the Exhibit site! Nothing has replaced them so far, at least nothing on the website. There are some animals on display that don't have a profile on the website, such as the Purple Lipped Jelly, so there could be something on display but we won't know until someone updates us.
Wonder what could replace the hagfish
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/exhibits/into-the-deep
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
The first Benthic rotation?
Update: Pacific Hagfish have been taken off the Exhibit site! Nothing has replaced them so far, at least nothing on the website. There are some animals on display that don't have a profile on the website, such as the Purple Lipped Jelly, so there could be something on display but we won't know until someone updates us.
Wonder what could replace the hagfish
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/visit/exhibits/into-the-deep
Click to expand...

Update: It was just a glitch, Pacific Hagfish are still on display
https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/pacific-hagfish
 
Was at MBA yesterday and not much display wise has changed for Into the Deep. The only change I really saw was for the Bone Worm Tank, they made the Whale Bones look more "disturbed" and added a bunch of smaller bone pieces.
 
New Species on Display! Phronima are out, and welcome the Blind Lobster Larvae!

According to the site these guys are now on display where the Phronima used to be.
This species was held at the Aquarium all the way back in the late 1990's when "Mysteries of the Deep" was going on. I'm not sure if the Blind Lobster Larvae were on display for that exhibit but they were shown in some Behind-The-Scenes footage.

A cool thing they might be doing is displaying the larvae, then moving them behind the scenes to possibly grow to adulthood and then displaying the adults. I'm not sure how possible that is since their life cycle is kind of confusing (They start out as Larvae in the Midwater then the Adults are Benthic). Anyways can't wait to see media of these
Lobster larva | Animals | Monterey Bay Aquarium
 
More Bone Worms are now on display!

Alicia Bitondo recently posted about how yesterday the Aquarium pulled up Grey Whale Bones they had placed on the Seafloor for over 2 years! This was to help establish a healthy population of Bone Worms (Osedax spp.) to bring back to the Aquarium for display.
In the last few months, only a few Bone Worms could be spotted in the display, not it looks like there's HUNDREDS of Bone Worms on display thanks to the new bones!

She also mentioned that the R&D to keep and display Bone Worms was in the works for 4+ years by the team.
Alicia Bitondo on Instagram: "After 4+ years of R&D we have a healthy population of bone worms on exhibit! We retrieved these grey whale vertebrae yesterday after over 2 years at the bottom of the ocean #osedax #aquaristlife #success"
 
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