Raise your hand if you like shallow reef tanks because we sure do!! While scrolling through #reefbuilders on Instagram it seems these lagoon-style reefs are becoming increasingly popular for their minimalistic design and aesthetic. What’s really neat about this style…
Cycloseris
Coscinaraea (Cycloseris) wellsi: The Unknown Coral from the Deep
Having to dive deeper and deeper to try to find something more interesting, on the way down on rare occasions I have come across a coral, that I never had seen before, in the 35-45 meter (~135 feet) zone. Coscinaraea…
Can’t Say I’ve Ever Seen A Cyclo Like This One!
I like to think I’ve seen my fair share of disc and fungiid corals, I was alone in my appreciation of Lithophyllon in the early 2000s and I’ve got Sandalolitha frags out in the wild that are going on 14 years old.…
Top 10 Bicolored corals and invertebrates
Invertebrates and corals in particular, are fascinating to us higher primates (humans) particularly because they seem so alien from us. Everything about them from the way they live, the way they develop, and even the way they die (or partially die)…
Fluorescent Friday: Cycloseris edition
Disc corals are some of the most recognizable corals on the reef, and some of the most popular coral animals for the home aquarium. Disc corals in all their various forms are easy to keep, come in a bewildering array…
Cycloseris disc corals can exhibit full-on Chimeras
If there’s one thing we love about corals the most, it’s that they don’t play by the same rules as other animals. Corals are able to exhibit a whole array of seemingly impossible biological phenomenon, including the ability to be…
Rainbow Corals: The Master Aquarium List
Twenty years ago, “mini reef hobbyists” were lucky to get corals in a particularly juicy shade of brown, and if they were lucky there might be a hint of green in an elegance coral or trachyphyllia. But this is 2015…
Top 10 new coral and giant clam species of 2014
The discoveries of new fish species were really impressive this year and the coral and giant clam taxonomists also had their hands full in 2014. Across the board we are still seeing a nice steady flow of new soft and…
Cycloseris boschmai is the smallest free living disc coral to date
There’s a new species of Cycloseris on the block and this one is distinguished by how small it remains. Growing up to only two inches (50mm) in diameter, Cyloseris boschmai was recently, finally described after more than three decades of…
Disc and plate coral olympics captured on time lapse
We tend to think of corals as almost exclusively benthic, non motile creatures, so its fascinating when we are reminded that corals are animals too. While 99% of the corals we like to play with and culture are colonial and…