Of all the places that we hold conferences around the United States, none of the east coast, west coast or midwest destinations have any kind of indigenous tropical corals – except for Florida most of U.S. is grassland, desert, marshes, temperate and mountainous. However, there is one place in the greater Americas which is dominated by real tropical coral reefs, and that is Puerto Rico. How fitting then that this Caribbean outpost of history and culture would be experiencing a surge in the popularity of reef aquariums, commemorated by its second ever Caribbean coral conference.
The second Caribbean reef aquarium conference was principally organized by Roberto Aleman, owner of Exotic Reef Aquariums with two stores on the island of Puerto Rico. Many familiar names from the mainland reef aquarium scene participated in the puerto rican aquarium activity this year including Reef Savvy, Rogger’s Food, Jason Fox and NextReef with all of the proceeds going to a local cancer charity Cabesitas Rapadas.
Big thanks to Rogger Castells for giving Reef Builders the lowdown on the second Caribbean reef aquarium conference and hopefully with more exposure the event can grow to receive more mainland attendees, and to educate us all more about the awesome local Caribbean coral scene.