With Fiji recently reopening exports, I dove into what corals used to be exported from that area. As I looked, one specific coral caught my eye right away, the classic Yellow Porites. I have always personally enjoyed viewing the Mustard…
SPS Corals
Crazy Cave Dwelling Leptoseris Survives in Almost Total Darkness
On a recent dive on a deep reef in Indonesia, we noticed a very unique coral under a ledge. It was a very colorful specimen of Leptoseris foliosa with very unusual coloration unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. We had…
Leptoseris incrustans, shows real potential for holy grail
Leptoseris have been a popular aquarium coral for quite some time now. The orange colonies of ‘Leptos’ were among the first of this color in the reef aquarium hobby, followed by the brilliance of the ‘Jack o Lantern’ Leptoseris, ‘Tangerine…
Surprising Growth Rates Found In Deep Water Leptoseris Coral
New research published in the journal Coral Reefs revealed unexpectedly high growth rates for deep water photosynthetic coral. The study measured growth rates of deep water Leptoseris corals in Hawaii and found growth rates between 1in – 0.3in or (25mm – 7.5mm)…
Stylocoeniella Is A Great Reef Aquarium Coral!
Stylocoeniella is an underrated family of amazing aquarium corals, which, often end up in the aquarium world as a hitchhiker along other corals or live rock. This genus is part of an even more discreet, unheard of family: Astrocoeniidae that…
How to Care for SPS Corals
SPS corals are mesmerizing animals that we easily become addicted to. The pursuit to constantly challenge our reefkeeping abilities keeps us wanting a more difficult SPS coral. We love the unique growth of SPS corals, their colors, and the fact that they are fairly…
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)…
Acropora for Beginners
With the introduction of more aquaculture and mariculture facilities, there has been a boom in specimens available at the local fish stores these days. But I will say for certain that if you can get a frag from a successful…
Leptoseris papyracea, the other branching Lepto coral
Leptoseris is a genus of coral that has absolutely blown up in the marine aquarium hobby in the last few years. Notable efforts to collect rare and unusual strains of Leptos, especially by Fox and Worldwide, have led to more…
Mizune has a perfect little reef tank
With so much of the American reefing hobby getting caught up in collectoritis of fuzzy sticks with silly little names, we turn to Japan for an example of what a beautiful reef tank is supposed to look like. Beauty is subjective but any…