The Georgia Aquarium is celebrating a rare occurrence: a weedy sea dragon at the aquarium is pregnant.
It is only the third time ever that such a creature has been pregnant at a US aquarium, officials said.
PHOTO: AP
Sea dragons are one of the very few species in which the male carries the eggs, said Kerry Gladish, a biologist at the aquarium. Gladish said that sea horses and pipe fish males also carry eggs.
The aquarium’s sea dragon has about 70 fertilized eggs — which look like small red grapes — attached to his tail. He is expected to give birth in early to mid-July, said Gladish.
Sea dragon pregnancies are rare at aquariums because researchers don’t know what gets them in the mood to mate.
“We know there’s something biological or environmental that triggers them to want to reproduce, but in the aquarium world, we’re not sure what that is,” Gladish said.
The aquarium recently changed the lighting and thinned out the plants in the sea dragons’ tank to give them room to court each other.
The aquarium has seven of the 18-inch sea dragons, which resemble Dr Seuss characters with long aardvark-like snouts, colorful sea horse bodies and multiple paddle-like fins.
During mating, the female lays dozens of eggs and then transfers them to the male’s tail.
In the wild, the survival rate for sea dragon babies is low, but in captivity it’s about 60 percent, Gladish said. The fish is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of threatened species, mostly because of pollution and population growth in its native Australia.
Only about 50 aquariums worldwide have sea dragons.
(AP)
喬治亞水族館有件值得慶祝的稀罕事:館內的一隻草海龍懷孕了!
館方表示,這是美國水族館史上第三隻在水族館內懷孕的草海龍。
館內生物學家柯里.葛來迪西說,草海龍是極少數由雄性孵卵的物種之一,而海馬和海龍也是由雄性孵卵。
館內這隻草海龍的尾部附著了約七十個受精卵,這些受精卵看起來就像紅色小葡萄一樣;葛來迪西說,牠的預產期在七月初至七月中旬間。
水族館內的海龍很少懷孕,因為研究學者並不了解什麼樣的條件會刺激牠們交配。
葛來迪西說:「我們知道某種生理或環境的因素會刺激牠們繁殖,但我們不太清楚水族館內具備了哪種條件。」
這家水族館最近更換了燈光照明,並減少海龍水缸中的植物數量,以便讓牠們有足夠的空間彼此求愛。
這家水族館內有七隻十八英吋長的海龍,牠們的樣子很像蘇斯博士筆下有著土豚般的長鼻子、海馬般的彩色身體,和多個船槳似的鰭的角色。
在交配期間,雌海龍會在雄海龍的尾部產下?Z。
葛來迪西說,海龍寶寶在野生環境中的存活率很低,但在人工養殖的情況下,存活率可達六成左右。這種魚類名列國際自然保育聯盟的瀕危物種清單,主要是因為原生的澳洲海域受到污染及人口成長所致。
全世界只有約五十家水族館內有展示海龍。
(美聯社�翻譯:袁星塵)
A: Wow, three Taiwanese restaurants just won the 2024 “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards. B: Awesome! Which three restaurants? A: Taipei’s Logy at No. 22 and MUME at No. 34, and Taichung’s JL Studio at No. 33. B: Actually, there are many more great establishments in Taipei. How about other Asian cities? A: Singapore claimed nine spots this year, making it Asia’s new “food capital.” A: 2024「亞洲50最佳餐廳」名單揭曉了,台灣有3家餐廳上榜。 B: 好厲害,哪3家? A: 台北的Logy和MUME分獲第22和34名,台中的JL Studio獲第33名! B: 其實台北還有很多好餐廳,那其他的亞洲城市呢? A: 新加坡今年入選9家,可說是亞洲美食之都。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Let’s explore another delicacy primarily known to Tainan locals: floating milkfish in thick soup. Despite its peculiar name, this dish is another Tainan specialty that showcases the popularity of milkfish, which is made into fish paste and served in thick soup. Unlike the version with tutuo fish, which also adds other ingredients to its thick soup, the floating milkfish version primarily features the “floating fish” itself in its thick soup, ensuring that the fish paste remains the star of the dish. 讓我們來探索另一道台南人熟悉的美食:浮水魚羹。這道菜名奇特的美食,再再展現了台南虱目魚料理的多樣。浮水魚羹是用虱目魚漿做成的羹品,雖然和𩵚魠魚羹一樣是羹湯,但不像𩵚魠魚羹會在湯中加入其他食材,而是讓虱目魚漿成為這道料理的主角。 peculiar (adj.) 獨特的;古怪的 The belly of a milkfish is considered the most
The practice of freezing embryos as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) was thrown into chaos in Alabama this year, when the state supreme court ruled that such embryos should be considered children, exposing clinics to wrongful death claims in the event they are destroyed in the thawing process. In 2021, more than 80 percent of US IVF procedures involved the transfer of frozen embryos, according to a recent report by the US Department of Health and Human Services. HOW IS EMBRYO FREEZING USED IN IVF? IVF uses high doses of hormones to stimulate ovaries to produce as many eggs as possible. Once
A situation puzzle is a game in which one person describes a scenario and asks the players to explain it. The situation is deliberately lacking in details, but the players may acquire more information by asking questions — however, these can only be answered with “yes” or “no.” A player wins by describing the approximate events that led up to the situation. To do so, they must use a blend of logical and lateral thinking. A famous example of this is sometimes known as “Turtle Soup.” Here’s the riddle: “A man in a restaurant orders turtle soup, tastes it