Doctor fish, a name given to two species of hardy fish, Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus, found in the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran, can be kept in captivity in the aquarium. Doctor fish are used in fish spa resorts which opened around 2006 in various part of the world, including Japan, Crotia, China, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore etc. The fish feed on the skin of patients with psoriasis, consuming only the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow. It is reported that some patients experienced complete cure of psoriasis after repeated treatments. Despite this, the aquarium specimens... Read more»
Researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have solved the half-century-old mystery of a fish with tubular eyes and a transparent head. Ever since the “barreleye” fish Macropinna microstoma was first described in 1939, marine biologists have known that its tubular eyes are very good at collecting light. However, the eyes were believed to be fixed in place and seemed to provide only a “tunnel-vision” view of whatever was directly above the fish’s head. A new paper by Bruce Robison and Kim Reisenbichler shows that these unusual eyes can rotate within a transparent shield that covers the fish’s head. This allows the barreleye to peer up at potential... Read more»
Director Howard Hall spent over 100 days lugging a 1,300-pound IMAX 3-D camera around the South Seas to film this underwater doc, which offers up dazzling ocean creatures in calmly shifting scenes that could double as the world’s most expensive screensaver. Even Jim Carrey’s narration is free of his usual antics; ?he mostly sounds like a science teacher reading a copy of National Geographic Kids to a ? class of grade-schoolers. But it’s impossible not to be wowed by some of the images in Under the Sea 3D, ?the coolest of which — shimmering cuttlefish and ghostly, spaceship-like jellyfish — are a nice ?reminder that, even in the age of CG wizardry, the best special effects... Read more»