Variety is the spice of life and that’s no different than in the reefing world where collectors are always seeking different acros that they don’t have, wether it be different in combination of colors, form, or even a specific color…
Coral
Fluorescent Friday: Blastomussa edition
We visited Jakarta Indonesia last week, touring the bustling coral and aquarium exporting locations to see corals from all over Indonesia. While at Reefmaster Indonesia, we sighted an awesome, huge solitary polyp of Blastomussa vivida; we pulled out the underwater…
A parade of Bali deepwater acropora
Deepwater acropora are a category of SPS and staghorn corals unto themselves, in some parts of Europe they are called ‘naked’ acros for the smooth tissue between their widely spaced corallites. Nowhere in the world does the species diversity of these…
UFO Rainbow Micromussa from ReefMaster Indonesia
The UFO Rainbow Micromussa is one of those retina burning strains of LPS corals which upends the notion that Australia has the exclusive on flashy Acans and Micros. By and large the land of Oz is the epicenter of abundance and…
‘Red’ Acropora suharsonoi discovered in central Indonesia
So-called deepwater Acropora are so different in appearance and ecology that they could easily belong to a different genus of coral. There’s a myriad of species that ascribe to the deepwater or ‘naked acro’ description, but the most extreme member of this…
Invasive soft coral threatens India’s reefs
The invasive snowflake coral (Carijoa riisei) is taking hold in the waters off the Indian coast and could be a significant threat to the marine ecology of the region. Teams from a Friends of Marine Life (FML), a local NGO,have recorded…
The Bomb-Bomb chalice from Titan Corals
The reef aquarium hobby might be drooling over shrooms right now, but spectacular chalice corals are still being discovered that can turn even the most jaded of heads. The Bomb-Bomb chalice coral is a spectacular Echinophyllia from Titan Corals which will keep…
Ricordea florida: an Underappreciated Caribbean Beauty
As an American reefkeeper, it’s all too easy for me to forget that some truly gorgeous invertebrate livestock originates relatively close to home in the tropical western Atlantic and Caribbean. I was reminded of this recently when CC entrusted several…
Top 7 new coral species of 2015
2015 was a record-setting year for new species of corals, not in terms of the number of new descriptions, but in sheer biological extremes and new discoveries. There were far more new species of reef fish described in 2015, but…
O Christmas Tree Coral, how lovely are thy branches
The Christmas Tree Coral is a very unusual species of Studeriotes soft coral which, due to its superficial resemblance to a christmas tree, used to show up quite more often at the Local Fish Store around the holidays. Since the…