Captive Oceans Volume 2 - The Ascidians (Sea Squirts). This eBook was written during a very exciting time for the author. It was 2000/2002 and the author was working with Bill Schroer of the old Southern California reef shop Piece of the Reef. Bill was frequently travelling to the importing reef wholesalers in Los Angeles and he was finding many cool squirts. Then in 2002, he went to Ponape to work as a collector and exporter. While collecting reef animals, he found quite a few unusual sea squirts and sent them back to the author. So this sea squirt book was constructed during an unusual and rare set if occurances. It contains information on some new and exciting sea squirts, as well as describing our experiences with these exotic animals. The book however begins with seven chapters describing the known science of the Ascidians. The first chapter introduces the reader to the geological history and basic physiology. This is followed by a chapter on the exotic cells and chemicals found within squirts. Chapter 3 covers body structure and internal organs. Then a chapter on nutrition, filtration capacity and growth of sea squirts will be interesting to captive aquarists. The physical distribution of sea squirts around the planet and in specific habitats is then covered. Followed by a chapter on unique bio-active compounds, predators and the symbionts living in squirts. The final known science chapter defines life history, propagation and competition in nature. After reviewing and summarizing the known science of squirts, there are three original chapters primarily related to handling squirts in captivity. The first covers acquisition, handling and captive growth. This is followed by a chapter defining techniques and practices best utilized for captive squirts. Then we conclude with a chapter describing our experience integrating a few specific sea squirt species into captive systems. It should also be noted that this book contains a vast appendix that lists all the known ascidian genera and it was compiled from quite a few different sources. This will definitely assist with identifying sea squirt species. We believe that this eBook will be a very useful tool for captive aquarists, naturalists and ascidian scientists studying squirts in captive systems. Price is just $9.99 which is a significant savings from the original $32.00 retail print price. That print book has actually been out of print for a few years. This book has 370 BW pages, color covers, 88 color plates, about 135,000 words, 36 species data sheets, 23 tables and 34 figures. We also upgraded the color image quality for this eBook.