Day 59

Wednesday was another busy day that should have been spent at the beach, but instead I got a bank account and cleaned the aquarium's greenhouse again.  I'm pretty sure that I am the only person working in there, despite the fact that the aquarium has at least four volunteers.  Oh well!

Yesterday was more class, and today I had Venomous Australian Animals all day, which doesn't bother me because it's actually quite interesting.  We learned about snakes today and I must say that the snakes are another benefit of living in America, since we've only got a very few venomous snakes and they really aren't likely to kill you anyway.  Our scorpions are more deadly, though.  Take that, Australia!

Some snake venoms cause coagulation of the blood, which effectively creates blood clots that kill the prey by blocking bloodflow to the heart or lungs.  During the lab today we tested the effects of venoms on human blood plasma, graciously donated by our professor.  Even at minuscule concentrations the venom caused severe clotting within minutes.  A mere 100 nanograms of mulga (king brown snake) venom per millilitre of plasma can cause a fatal blood clot in humans.  After 15 minutes we were pulling gelatinous clots the size of BB shots out of the plasma.  They were pale orangey-beige and frankly they reminded me of boogers.

King Brown Snake , also known as a Mulga.  He just looks evil, doesn't he?
(Photo courtesy of Cool Companions.)

The average person has between 5-7 litres of blood, and only 55% of that is plasma, so you've got about 3 litres of plasma in you.  A mulga can produce up to 6mg of venom, but let's shoot low and say you get bit and the snake injects 3mg of venom into you.  So let's do the math:

Minimum concentration you're likely to get from a single bite: 1000 nanograms / millilitre
Concentration necessary to cause a blood clot within 15 minutes: 100 nanograms / millilitre

That's an order of ten difference.  Yikes.  And the best part?  If you miraculously manage to not die from a blood clot, you will begin to bleed from every orifice (including the bite holes) until you die.  All your clotting factors were just used up, so you are physically unable to stop bleeding.  Oh, and you're probably paralyzed this entire time.  Unsurprisingly, the king brown snake kills more people per year in Australia than any other species.

In other and more colourful news, I've got more photos from the aquarium!

The male and female clown fish mate for life.  These ones just laid eggs!  The eggs are the fuzzy things growing on the
rock, which the larger male is cleaning in this photo.

Mama clownfish!

Lionfish tail.  I like the scale pattern.  :)

I love to photograph seahorses because they never, ever move.

Snappy!  He's tiny, but I bet he could break skin with those wee-bitty teeth.

This anemone shrinks and grows very rapidly.  Sometimes you can't even find
it in the tank, and sometimes it's HUGE.  This is about medium-size.

Seahorse!

This is a mantis shrimp of some kind. 

This guy's scientific name is pretty fun to say: Lysiosquillina glabiuscula.

And now for my favorite: Mr. Peacock Mantis Shrimp.  He is very personable, and comes out to attack/greet everyone who walks by.  I love him.

Me:  "Oh hi there, Mr. Peacock Mantis Shrimp!"

Mr. Peacock Mantis Shrimp:  "Who, me?"

Me:  "Of course!  You're my my favorite because you're so pretty!"

Mr. Peacock Mantis Shrimp:  "Oh stop, you're making me blush."

Me:  "Sorry bud, I have to leave now!"
Mr. Peacock Mantis Shrimp:  *sad*

 True story, folks.