Coral

Acropora spathulata is the “thick milli Acro” endemic to Australia

Acropora millepora is one of the most iconic and recognizable SPS corals on the reef and in the aquarium trade. However, within shipments of Australian Acro Millis we’ve secretly been receiving a lurker species endemic to Australian reefs, Acropora spathulata.…

Sympodium encrusting soft coral starting to appear in blue and green colors

Sympodium is an interesting encrusting soft coral which is just beginning to show up in some coral shipments. We personally spied the Sympodium colony above tucked away in a corner of a display tank at Amazing Aquariums and Reefs and…

SoCal Coral Candies part two: Vivid has some neon chalice and SPS corals

In the second part of last weekend’s Southern California tour we made it up to Vivid Aquariums, a Reef Builders sponsor operating in Thousand Oaks Canoga Park, North of L.A. The reputation that Vivid Aquariums has earned has preceded them…

SoCal Coral Candies from AquaSD and Amazing Aquariums & Reefs

Amazing Aquariums and Reefs We’ve been bouncing the greater Southern California reefing region for an extended weekend now and we’ve already had the good fortune to stop by two of the area’s finest reef stores, AquaSD and Amazing Aquariums &…

Help us rename the “Rama Lama Ding Dong” zoanthids

We stopped by AquaSD in San Diego yesterday and we were really taken by these beautiul large zoanthids with the most awful hobby name. The large zoanthids pictured above have the most beautiful combination of green mouths, green center oral…

Australomussa rowleyensis colonies from Timor Indonesia put this coral on the map

Australomussa rowleyensis is not quite a chalice coral, not quite an LPS and although it once was just an unusual curiosity that was sometime spotted in shipments from Indo and Australia, this amazing crop of Australomussa from Timor Indonesia is…

The Enduring Allure of “Chalices”: What’s the Deal?

I don’t know if it’s just one of those things that happens when you get older- you start questioning everything in the hobby: Conventions, norms, and trends are but a few of the things you ponder. I’m not grumpy, believe…

When common corals are Amazing corals

I was at a local coral “chop shop”  a while back (yeah, they exist here in SoCal), perusing the raceways chock full of ½” frags of “LE” corals , when I saw it: A brilliant, neon- green, orange-tinged  flash- a…

Petition targets 83 coral species for U.S. endangered species list protection

The Center for Biological Diversity recently prepared and filed a scientific petition to have 83 coral species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The petition, filed on October 20, 2009, looks to use the powers of…

Indo-Pacific Scolymia is now officially recognized as Acanthophyllia deshayesiana

You know that coral we’ve been calling Scolymia for all these years? Well it turns out it’s not a Scolymia at all but a member of it’s own genus, Acanthophyllia. There has been confusion surrounding the true taxonomic identity of…