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True pink Nephthea is Japan’s best kept secret

There’s a gorgeous pink Nephthea soft coral that seems really common in Japanese reef tanks, but yet seems virtually unknown in American or European reef aquariums. We’ve been drooling over the pink Nephthea that can be seen in many photos of…

In the Seychelles, scientists are getting help from nature’s cleanup crew

An innovative new technique for cleaning farmed corals is giving researchers more time on the reefs and less time scrubbing. Inspired by nature, researchers in the Seychelles have found that by sending corals to the ‘cleaners’ before transplanting them to…

Spiny Sea Dragon successfully captive bred in New Zealand

The Spiny Sea Dragon is an exquisite marine fish which often takes a back seat to the much better known and more ostentatious leafy and weedy sea dragons. The only time we’ve ever come across this species in our ongoing research…

Top 5 big reef fish discoveries from the Philippines this year

It’s been a busy year for the reef aquarium hobby and especially for reef fish discoveries in the Philippines. The Philippines is the largest single exporter of ornamental fish for the aquarium trade. With a population of nearly 100 milion people,…

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…

Hotspot of aberrant scopas tangs discovered south west of Java

Aberrant scopas tangs, also known as koi tangs and tricolor tangs are very unique form of the Zebrasoma scopas surgeonfish. A normal scopas tang is a fairly easy fish to overlook with a spade shaped body outline that has a basic…

Batavia coral farm is officially open for business in Western Australia

The Batavia Coral Farm is a new operation in Western Australia which is the only coral farm offering corals from the Indian Ocean. This week Batavia Coral Farm officially opened for business, serving up a wide variety of farmed stony…

Monaco will install 3D printed reefs to battle declining reefs

Global warming is rearing its ugly head around on the world’s reefs and Monaco is taking an interesting path to help rejuvenate strained reefs by using 3D printed reefs to help sustain its reefs. The plan is to install six 3D…

A gorgeous colony of Blastomussa loyae from the Red Sea

Blastomussa is a celebrated genus of stony corals in the home aquarium, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the biodiversity of this coral group. For starters, we confused the Indo-Pacific Blastomussa for B. wellsi for many years, until…

Tiger angelfish discovered in Madagascar!

The fish life of Madagascar is very poorly known when it comes to the aquarium hobby. Certain illustrious species like the Madagascar flasher wrasse beckon to us from behind the third world curtain, but a new discovery in this part…