♥ aquarium ♥

plankton (singular plankter) comes from greek, and it means errant. that's because the organisms that form plankton don't really move by themselves: they just drift on water (or air!?) currents! i think aeroplankton are fascinating too, because we don't really think of them, but this shrine is for marine plankton, kind of. i got really excited over the weird tiny guys that float and swim, so not everything will be strictly speaking just plankton, i think. i'm not a biologist, i'm just a wikipedia reader

the reason i'm so into plankton lately is because i was looking into sea angels and one thing led to another and these radiolarian illustrations on wikipedia gripped my brain with full force. especially this one. these guys just have the wildest most metal shapes ever and i think it's a shame they're all microscopic. if i had access to a 3d printer, i'd love to have some models that fit in my hand. i want to touch radiolarian skeletons so bad!!

Spyroidea

protozoa are very cool but i also really dig crustaceans. oh yeah it's shrimp time! i want a little shrimp aquarium when i can, these guys are so nice. in plankton, there's copepods and Amphipoda and krill! there's just so many little guys in the ocean and they have so many legs and so much love to receive from me <3

Clione limacina... common names naked sea butterfly, sea angel, common clione, these are sea slugs living in cold waters, and the largest sea angels: reaching up to 8,5cm in length.

adults feed almost exclusively on other sea butterflies, of the genus Limacina. bound by flesh, bound by name. the clione's mouth (or rather buccal apparatus, which i think is a lovely expression) consists of three pairs of cones that it uses to extract its prey from its shell, and swallow it whole.

in fact, all sea angels (clade Gymnosomata) are carnivores that feed on sea butterflies (clade Thecosomata), and they evolved alongside one another. and with those names and looks i think that's particularly cute.

yeah this is where i talk about bristle worms! i really paid attention to them while re-reading the plankton wikipedia page for this very shrine, and they look so nice! not all of them are plankton but whatever.