A rainbow for you!

Gorgeous rainbows yesterday. Big lumpy rainclouds rolling by, with the Sun peeking through every so often. This rainbow went all the way across, but I'd need a fisheye lense to capture the whole scene. I stopped on the side of the road to watch for a while.

See that surf? I feel sorry for our visitors who want to dive, it's too rough for me! I have other photos of this scene when it's at it's normal calm, but they're buried in my computer someplace.

I see that I have lots of visitors here, even with no promo on my part. I'm impatiently awaiting the mid-January seminar that'll get me moving with marketing. I'm thinking three small paintings a week, or more, and a Tuesday sale of reproductions, very inexpensive. The thought of trying to do the business end of selling paintings scares me to shivvers!

Thanks for stopping by!

Fish so cute, they follow your cursor. Click and see...

Lionfish info

Everyone here knows about Lionfish, there are posters around the island. There is nothing that can be done. Can't be spearfished, they live 300 feet deep, as well as all the way up to waist deep.

A female can begin laying eggs at one year of age. They live fifteen years. A female is a full sized adult at three years old. They spawn thirty thousand eggs, every six weeks. And the babies mostly all live, they're a tough fish not prone to parasites or diseases.

In twenty years, they have spread from eleven (they're testing genetics)females off Miami all the way up the East Coast, Bermuda, down through the Bahamas, and on to the Virgins, and just recently they've been found in Belize. That's against the currents.

They are occasional cannibals, but that's it, they have no predators. Sharks won't eat them.  One source says Coronet fish eat them, but Coronet fish usually stay in sea grass fields.

One scientist quipped that chefs ought to come up with tasty recipes, because any fish that tastes good is fished to oblivion. They do get to eighteen inches and three pounds. But they are difficult to handle because of how extremely poisonous their spine are, even several days after they're dead. No more monstrous invader could have been designed.

And recreational divers say, "Look!  So pretty!".   Yes, where they're from.  Not in the Caribbean, please.

My hatred of Lionfish

Thanks for the question, Rene.

Lionfish were imported into Florida for years by the tens of thousands for the saltwater aquarium trade.

They have become established in the Atlantic and Caribbean since 1996, I think the year is. In only twelve years, they have spread from an original six fish(DNA tested) near Miami, Florida, up to Maine(summers) to Bermuda, all of the Bahamas, Little Cayman, east to the Virgin Islands, and the first one in Belize was reported a couple of weeks ago.

Lionfish are native to the Pacific. They have no predators in the Atlantic and Caribbean. They are multiplying and spreading at a mind boggling rate. They eat nearly constantly, and can consume another fish 2/3 their length. They also eat lobsters, crabs, and just about anything that moves. They grow to eighteen inches long, 45 centimeters, and live from shallow to much deeper than scuba diving limits. Their spines are extremely, dangerously venomous.

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"They are decimating tropical reef fish populations. They are alien, and there is no way to be rid of them. They hunt by herding their prey with their huge pectoral fins. No fish in the Caribbean/Atlantic hunts this way. Our fish are defenseless.

"In studies on controlled plots, the OSU scientists determined that lionfish reduced young juvenile fish populations by 79 percent in only a five-week period. Many species were affected, including cardinalfish, parrotfish, damselfish and others. One large lionfish was observed consuming 20 small fish in a 30-minute period."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717164319.htm
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I guess I'm a coral reef historian.

I cry.

I hate Lionfish.

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The Lion fish are here.  So depressing.  I cry.

Belle

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Let me introduce you to one of my favorites, Belle. Belle is a 'sheet' or 'plate' coral, and lives very deep, 108 feet, 30 m,,,see the blue tinge of the deep blue sea in the photo?, the surrounding bottom is grayish white when you're there looking at it. This is in Cane Bay here on St. Croix, in the Caribbean Sea. Called sheet or plate because this coral is very thin, this is, umm, like a pizza crust spread out over the rock below. The hole, or dent, is where Belle's polyps lost out a fight with a 'wire' coral, a type of black coral, that looks like--- a wire. See it? Belle is more than three feet, a meter, across. Quite large, and well more than a hundred years old.

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This is a photo, correct colors, taken from about a foot, thirty centimeters, away. The specific type of coral, Latin named, is decided by the placement of the corralites, polyps, the wonderful little white stars. I love them so much!!! Another type of plate coral has the polyps on top of the ridges. And another has the ridges sharp, and meeting into little shapes, with the coral polyps inside.

Christmas Winds

The seasons are changing here in the Caribbean. The Tropical

Waves, low pressure systems, have stopped rolling off Africa, and a high pressure system is stationary north of the Virgin Islands.

When this happens in late November, or during December each year, the wind kicks up, and the surf rolls in. I went for a short snorkel last week, but it was rough and the water was stirred up and no fish were about.

So, I'll go post a few more guppy images, and begin to design a guppy paint stand, as I plan to paint hundreds of little portraits of these pretty little fish. (on the wway, Beck!) Here are some, and some more over on the guppy blog. I'll be ever so happy to get the photography sorted out!!

poor computer, in hospital!

Arghh!  Sick computer!  Will post as soon as it's healthy and back home!  I miss my www!!!

Guppies!!! Hey, Blennies and Gobies are so much more important. I've made a separate blog for the guppies.

Gadzooks. What am I thinking, other than I am as delighted as a child about my gups now that I've started taking photos of them, and I can SEE them, rather than by just quick glimpses. There are international clubs and expos about guppies, also. Maybe they'll be my cash cow for little easy paintings. Very colorful paintings! ha.

http://evileyeguppy.blogspot.com/

Haha, maybe a bad title, I might attract satanists or wierdos. They're just little fish! I'm trying to think of another name for that blog before I get too far into it. Gee, I might be a sensation in the World of Guppy Enthusiasts!
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And I really need to refine my photography. These fish stay in constant movement. OK. No more guppies here. I'll add a link, hum, something new to learn, links...

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Thanks for stopping by, it'll be back to coral reefs soon, I'm getting over the twisted knee that's prevented me from diving for two weeks now...
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My Guppies!

I'll eventually get better photos.  They're in a kiddie pool.  A kaliedascope of color!  I want to do little portraits of them.  Click the image for a much larger view.

A Dream

I have a very clear image in my head from a vivid dream last night.  It will NOT go onto paper or canvass. arrghhh, but anyone who's ever tried to draw or paint  an imagined image knows what I am talking about.

I was dreaming about being on boats, and being around boats.  In a bay, surrounded by spruce trees. (changes?) All the men were struggling with rusty anchors.  I was watching.  Then, I turned my head and saw--- a wonderful, huge, ancient anchor half out of the mud.  My anchor.  It would hold nearly any boat or even a ship, secure.  I went to it, and pulled on a fluke, and it moved easily for me.  I touched the shank, and it was solid, and easy.  Like new.

I believe, right now, that my artwork, and this blog, is my anchor, keeping me safe.  The energy comes from an ancient source.  That may sound crazy, but it's true.

I cannot draw that anchor I saw-- see --clearly from that dream, but I know it is there for me. 

Thankyou, Lord, I have been so very fearful of late.

And thank you, dear visitor, for checking my poor blog.  My life is an explosion in a spaghetti factory, but I will settle soon, and begin painting ---a LOT.