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…

The top 6 new species of marine life this month

There have been a lot of new species descriptions in the last handful of weeks, and there are lots that can be said about each of them. We’ve covered them all individually but we wanted to bring your attention to…