United States, Virginia, Phoebus
This 379 liter system mimics a typical shallow Chesapeake Bay oyster reef, but without major predators. The oyster reef was built to provide a vast number of hiding spots and escape routes to provide homes and breeding locations for high numbers of three species of benthic fish common to all of the Chesapeake Bay oyster reefs.
Those three species are Chasmodes bosquianus (my showcase species, the striped blenny), Gobiesox strumosus (skilletfish), and Gobiosoma bosc (naked goby). In addition, the biotope also supports two species of dither fish, Cyprinodon variegatus (sheepshead minnow) and Fundulus heteroclitus (mummichog), along with several species of invertebrates and two species of macroalgae.
My love for blennies local to the Bay stemmed from two events, when I caught and kept my first Chesapeake Bay blenny, Hypsoblennius hentz (feather blenny) while I was in college, along with a visit to the Calvert Marine Museum years ago where I saw my first oyster reef aquarium full blennies.
- GPS
- 37.0139236, -76.3186264
- Geographical region
- Northern America
- Drainage Basin
- Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean
- River catchment
- Mill Creek
- Water body type
- Creek
- Water body name
- Mill Creek, Chesapeake Bay
- Water body part
- Estuary
- Water body course
- Lower course
- Water body: tributary of
- Tributary name
- Mill Creek