Coral Identification can be a tricky undertaking but one tool has risen to the top to help make sense of polyps and corallites, Russel Kelley’s Coral Finder guide. Now in its fifth edition and second annual revision, this 2022 edition of the Coral Finder guides is updated with all the new species and especially the revised classification that have been elucidated by molecular taxonomy techniques.
The nuance of how corals are classified and related to each other might seem like semantics but there is a lot we can learn by actually knowing what genus or species our corals belong to. You’ll have a hard time trying to identify your corals if you go by online references where a majority of corals are mislabelled or misclassified or simply not up to date but this is where the Coral Finder comes in.
The 2021 edition of the Coral Finder was one of the best new ‘aquarium’ products of last year and with the new revision Mr. Kelley continues his goal of having the most accurate and easy to use guide for identifying corals, bar none. With more than 1700 images spread across 80 pages the Coral Finder 2022 is untouchable in its depiction of rare and uncommon corals that can be encountered from the Red Sea in the far western Indian Ocean to Easter Island in the far east Pacific Ocean.
At under $60 the Coral Finder is one of the best investments that curious reefers can make to furthering their education about corals and especially to shore up what you read online. Made up coral trade names are ephemeral and nearly all of them fade with time but scientific names are forever and indispensable for understanding where our corals come from, which habitats they prefer, and the environments in which they grow their best – all priceless information for replicating the most effective reef aquariums possible. [BYOGuides]
