Mother Nature must have a special place in her heart for marine aquarium hobbyists. It seems as though for every heartbreakingly challenging reef fish she created, she did us a solid by making a reasonable facsimile that is much hardier…
Saltwater Confessions: Bizarre Marine Aquarium Blunders
After many years in the marine aquarium hobby—I’m not talking Paul B years here, but let’s just say a reasonable length of time—I like to think I’ve acquired a certain degree of wisdom with respect to keeping saltwater organisms. What…
Back Pain and the Big Marine Aquarium
Somewhere around age 40, I passed a point of no return with respect to bodily aches and pains. In my younger, carefree days, when the various jobs I worked demanded a lot of heavy lifting, I could pretty much tell…
How Much Time Will You Invest in a Saltwater Aquarium?
When a non-hobbyist visitor is observing one of my marine aquariums for the first time, among the questions he or she almost invariably asks—along with inquiring about the expense and the level of difficulty relative to a freshwater tank—is something…
X. auromarginatus: A Well-Mannered, Reef-Friendly Triggerfish
As I alluded in an earlier post about the Niger triggerfish (Odonus niger), triggers in general aren’t usually among the first species that come to mind when one is seeking an aquarium specimen with a peaceful disposition. Certainly as far…
5 Good Reasons to Keep a Marine Aquarium Journal
Quick! What were your aquarium’s water parameters in the fourth week of January? When was the last time you performed a water change and exactly how much did you change? Can you recall precisely when you last swapped out your…
Why Many Marine Fish Benefit From Mature Tanks
Astute salties out there will likely have observed that in some of our fish species profiles, we emphasize the need to keep the fish in a “mature” aquarium—meaning one that has been set up and established for at least six…
How Do We Measure Success with Hard-to-Keep Marine Species?
“What do you mean the bluestreak cleaner wrasse is hard to keep? I once had one in my half-gallon pico tank for a year and a half, feeding it nothing but frozen brine shrimp and flake food, and it was…
The Beautiful, Beginner-Friendly Bubble Coral
Recently, I found myself musing over the livestock lineup I had in my first reef tank many years ago. Along with a variety of easy-to-keep soft corals and a handful of hardy fish, I fondly recalled that I also had…
The Psychedelic Sixline Wrasse
Whenever I’m asked to recommend a hardier, similarly sized, and equally attractive alternative to the green mandarinfish, the first species that usually pops into my mind is the sixline wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia). If you can acquire a healthy specimen, you’ll…