The purple tang’s official scientifically designated name is Zebrasoma xanthurum – ‘yellow tail’ is the hallmark of this species. While tens of thousands of purple tangs have no problem following this convention, every once in a while a lone ranger decides to…
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Soft Coral Safari in the Solomon Islands
It’s not a stretch to say that stony corals represent at least 75% of the corals we keep in our tanks, both in diversity and numbers. If you don’t count zoanthids, shrooms and anemones, then there’s just a tiny sliver…
Understanding the Ideal Australian Coral Habitat
Having learnt my Acros while living in Indonesia, I’ve grown up as an inshore reef stony coral freak because offshore reefs conditions are almost impossible to find in Indonesia. Even though we can find some of the species there, they…
Coral Diving in the Solomon Islands, Series Preview
Every coral in our aquariums did not ‘come from’ a fish store, they did not originate at an exporter, their journey began much, much further away. Every Acro, Chalice, Monti or Soft Coral came from a tropical, equatorial country most…
‘Black’ Regal Angelfish is one of the Wildest Specimens Ever
The iconic appearance of the regal angelfish is so recognizable across its wide range that it is one of the visual ambassadors for coral reefs. Since its appearance is so conservative and it has no closely related species with which…
A Rare Look at some Crocea Clams from Japan
From the perspective of the aquarium world, we tend to think of Japan as a country where lots of exotic marinelife goes, but it’s easy to forget that Japan has nearly 30,000 kilometers of coastline, and much of that is in…
Montipora: A Practical Guide to the Variety of Forms Part 1
If there is a group of coral, where we find ourselves struggling to properly identify to the species level, that’s Montipora! Montipora are probably the most popular coral right after Acropora, it’s a fast growing, very colorful group of SPS…
Four New Virgin Tanks and Getting them Covered Up [Videos]
We made a huge push in the last few weeks leading up to ReefStock not just to get everything ready in time for a few visits, but mostly to just to finally get some of these reef tanks going. After…
Five Super Exotic Thick Branching Acropora Species
We’ve said it before and we’ll never stop saying it, there’s a whole world of wild corals which we still know next to nothing about. Reef aquarists tend to keep and concentrate on the corals that we already have, especially…
Maxspect’s New Jump line of DC Return Pumps
The MaxSpect Jump DC pumps is the first in the company’s new line of entry-level aquarium products. There’s countless OEM small controllable pumps being cranked out of China but you know MaxSpect would never play that way. These Jump Pumps…