You may not know Vincent Chalias directly but if you’ve been an active coral reef keeper in the last decade, chances are you’ve handled some of his corals and may have some in your tank right now. For fifteen years Vincent has been collecting, culturing and producing awesome stony corals in Bali that we have all benefited from due to the abundance of exotic corals that have been made available worldwide.
Over just the last two years Vincent has shipped thousands of deepwater style Acropora from Bali to the U.S. including the fantastic blue dragon acro, red dragon acro, Acropora speciosa and popular shallow water species including Acropora hoeksemai and Acropora florida. The point is that the selection of aquarium corals would be much less interesting without Vincent’s efforts which is why he will be one of the hottest new speakers to present at MACNA 2013.
As far as “industry people” go, Vincent Chalias really knows what’s going on when it comes to reef life of indonesia and the mariculture of corals. The coral farm visit by Sabine Penisson was of Vincent’s workplace. Mr. Chalias was involved in the discovery of the new Histiophryne pogonius and he tipped us off to the description of the new Euphyllia baliensis.
Like we said you may not know Vincent Chalias specifically but any individual who can rack up more than a couple stories on Reef Builders is a serious mover and shaker in the reef aquarium hobby. Vincent is the epitome of what a MACNA speaker should be, someone who has an intimate connection with the aquarium trade from the reefs to our aquariums and we will make it a priority to attend his presentation at the next MACNA in South Florida.
Vincent Chalias is a marine biologist graduated from the marine aquaculture section of the University of Montpellier (France), he’s been working for 15 years for Amblard S.A, one of the leading European importer. Since 1997, Vincent is based in Bali (Indonesia), where he helped develop coral mariculture working with several Indonesian producers. He’s at the origin of the production of hundreds of species, and is always developing new techniques to produce some more.
Vincent has traveled extensively through Indonesia, and the rest of Asia, always looking for new species to produce. Diving in most Asian and Pacific countries. He’s a passionate underwater photography, contributed to several magazines in Europe and the USA with his photos and articles. He’s contributed in the discovery of a new species of Frogfish (Histiophryne pogonius) and currently working on the description of some new species of Euphyllia.
