Brian Blank
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Prognathodes basabei, or orange margin butterfly, now officially described

Although known to exist for over 20 years and even referenced quite a few times here at Reef Builders, a new species of deep-water butterflyfish from the mesophotic reefs of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument was finally described today by…

Joe Yaiullo named MASNA AOTY

Joe Yaiullo, a hobby trailblazer, was honored with this year’s MASNA Aquarist of the Year award. Joe follows a great list of other notable aquarists to have won the award in the past and will officially receive his award at…

AquaLife introduces CALA-fin line of freeze dried marine copepods

Aquarium Life Support Systems has officially announced its Calanus food product line based on providing quality food at a lower price to appeal to the value-conscious hobbyist.  The new AquaLife CALA-fin line features freeze-dried Calanus marine zooplankton in two sizes and…

Friday Smorgasbord: Hawaii’s new preserve, APEX meetup, sewer fishing and more

Its Labor Day weekend and less than a week to go before MACNA! Before you cut out of work and head out for one last long weekend this summer, we have one final Friday Smorgasbord. This week we look at…

Meet Ataúro Island, home of the most diverse reef fish population in the world

Our ocean reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, but not all reefs are created equal. In fact Ataúro Island, part of the small Indo-Pacific country Timor-Leste, might just have the most diverse fish population of…

Friday Smorgasbord: Orcas, Phelps, drones and salty art

Welcome to our weekly edition of the Friday Smorgasbord. All those strange and wonderful aquatic-related tidbits that captured our attention this week. To send you off on your weekend, we’ve got an interesting array including a video that proves Orcas…

This “zombie” reef is coming back to life

There is some hope for dying coral reefs. A Pacific coral reef declared dead in 2003 is making what appears be a comeback. Coral Castles reef, located on the floor of a lagoon on the Phoenix Islands an archipelago halfway…

Incredible video of Staghorn coral spawning

Each year, researchers from all over the world come together in August in coral nurseries off the coast of Florida to witness one of the most stunning events in nature, coral spawning. This multi-institutional task force meets every year to help the…

Friday Smorgasbord: Giant goldfish, shipmaps and leaping manta rays

What a strange week! There have been some pretty cool and unusual stories this week that deserved a bit more than just a run down in the Friday smorgasbord, like giant fish pee and cute purple squids, but we’ve still…

Coral Bleaching: This sad video shows the violent process

We know what the after effect of coral bleaching looks like, but now we are able to know what actually happens during this process thanks to this time-lapse video of coral dumping its zooxanthellae as a reaction to the stress…