When I joined the Greater Cleveland Aquarium team, I realized I hadn’t even skimmed the surface when it came to understanding aquatic life. Now I am diving into learning about a different animal each week.

This time my lesson focuses on the shovelnose sturgeon, an animal that embodies that phrase “age before beauty.” According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, sturgeons pre-date many fish species—“appearing in the fossil record approximately 200 million years ago.” Here’s what I have learned about the prehistoric creature:

If you’d like to see a shovelnose up close, visit us anytime at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium—where curiosity is only natural.

When I joined the Aquarium marketing team, I realized exactly how much I didn’t know about sea creatures. That’s why I plan to dive into learning aquatic life by spending time in the exhibits and talking to our aquarists. Lesson 1? Lionfish. Here are five things I’ve discovered about this beautifully banded fish with a voracious appetite.

In the last week, researchers have released a recording of lionfish that sounds a little like a drumbeat. Want to hear it? Click here.

And of course, if you want to see the lionfish in the video from 360-degree views, visit us anytime at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium in the First Energy Powerhouse on the West Bank of the Flats.

African Sideneck Turtle

The African Sideneck Turtle is a freshwater turtle, originally discovered in Eastern and Southern Africa, with a lifespan of 25+ years. These turtles are most active during the day and in the wild they spend most of their time in the mud of shallow lakes and rivers. African Sidenecks mainly consume invertebrates such as: insects (crickets), mealworms, and worms. They got their name due to the fact that they cannot fully withdraw their head into their shell. Instead, the head is turned to the side and folded under the upper edge of the shell.

Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle

Similar to the African Sideneck, the Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle cannot fully withdraw its head into its shell. These turtles are native to the Amazon River basin and can be found in the amazon and Orinoco river systems in Venezuela, eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, northeastern Peru, the Guianas, Brazil, and northern Bolivia. They are omnivorous and feed on both vegetation and small animals. And they love to spend time basking along the riverbanks and in the calm waters of big rivers and streams. The oldest known Yellow-Spotted Amazon River Turtle living in human care reached 23 years of age, but they can live up to 70 years!

Ohio Spotted Turtle

The Ohio Spotted Turtle is a small (less than six inches) black turtle with distinctive yellow spots on the top of the shell, or carapace. The Spotted Turtle populations have declined greatly throughout Ohio due to people altering wetlands and thereby destroying its natural habitat. These turtles have a preference for the shallow, sluggish waters of ditches, small streams, marshes, bogs, and pond edges – especially where vegetation is abundant. They feed on plant and animal matter taken underwater. If this turtle is disturbed it may quickly dive for safety, or it may leisurely walk into the water and swim to the bottom where it may remain motionless, burrow into the muck, or crawl beneath some sheltering object such as a submerged log.

The Spotted Turtle Project

Member organizations of the Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership for Biodiversity (LEAP) are dedicated to the protection and restoration of biological diversity in our region. LEAP members have formed the Save and Protect Ohio Turtle Diversity (SPOTD) committee. The goals of this committee are to:

• Increase survivorship of turtle hatchlings
• Repatriate populations of this Ohio Threatened species in protected habitats within Northeast Ohio
• Increase recruitment of these animals into the adult populations
• Educate the public and involve local academics through research

There are many threats today that have a great impact on Spotted Turtle populations, such as:

• Wetland Loss/Degradation
• Habitat Fragmentation
• Illegal Harvest/Pet Trade
• Roadway Mortality
• Climate Change
• Human-caused increases in Meso-Predator Populations (i.e. Raccoon)
• Delayed Sexual Maturity
• Low Reproductive Potential
• Pollution

During the months of March-May, if you see this yellow spotted, black turtle anywhere in Northeast Ohio as you are hiking through trails and natural areas, let the SPOTD committee know by emailing SPOTD@leapbio.org.

For more information on this project visit Leap’s website.

Archerfish

The female lays about six to eight eggs in a very secluded group of trees. Usually, it can find a very safe hollow within the roots, visible only by careful observation. These eggs are undeveloped, and are only about half a nailsbreadth in width. There are usually many more female eggs than male eggs, about a two to one ratio.

As soon as the eggs are hatched, the male leaves and the females are left to take care of the newborns. This process sounds difficult, but because of the rapid rate at which they mature, only about a month to reach full size, the mother is actually not unduly challenged. They must be very carefully as to not aggravate a female by not checking to make sure the tissue between their anal fins is still intact. This is almost never a problem, but if it does happen the female will answer by fiercely by blowing water in the face of the male.

Giant Pacific Octopus

Giant Pacific Octopus has one successful brood in her lifetime. After mating, a female will lay up to 74,000 eggs or more in a deep den or cave and live there for seven months watching over them. During this time, dedicated mothers won’t venture out for food, and shortly after the young hatch, the mother will die.

Banggai Cardinal fish

The female spawns a mass of up to 75 large eggs (a very small number for a marine fish). These are quickly swallowed by the male, and brooded in a special pouch inside the mouth. A unique feature of these cardinal fish is their manner of mouth brooding reproduction. Typically cardinalfish incubate their eggs orally until they hatch, at which point the fry swim away and enter the water column. Females aggressively defend its territory by immediately chasing any intruders that approach the brooding male.

Stingrays

Young stingray pups hatch from eggs inside the female and are released from her body alive. Its reproduction period is June through October. Cownose rays typically produce one pup per pregnancy, though there have been reports of six concurrent embryos in a female.