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At Pitcairn Island, macro algae are one of the main reef builders

At Pitcairn Island in the Southern Pacific Ocean, a plethora of beautiful and unique macro algaes are well represented in myriad forms. Beautiful fleshy algaes, branching coralline and leafy brown algaes are extremely well represented according to a new survey…

Trimma tauroculum from Palau is a really unique and gorgeous species

The bullseye pygmy goby is a cute little stunner from Palau. Like all other Trimma species, the bullseye trimma is a tiny nano fish measuring in at only slightly below an inch. The bullseye Trimma is red with a whitish…

Manonichthys scintilla is a beautiful new dottyback from Apo Reef, Philippines

Although the calendar year may be nearly over we’ve still got some new species of fish being described and written about from the other side of the world. We’ve been graced by many new dottyback species, most of them Pseudochromis…

Pseudochromis fuligifinis just described from the Philippines

Pseudochromis fuligifinis is a cute new species of dottyback described from Mindoro Province and Apo Reef of the Philippines by Anthony Gill and Jeffrey Williams. The new Pseudochromis fuligifinis looks very similar to the elongate dottyback, Pseudochromis elongatus, but the half-moon shaped dark…

New Trimma species from Raja Ampat: T. erdmanni, T. cheni and four others described

A new paper by David Winterbottom describes six new species of nano reef gobies including Trimma erdmanni, Trimma cheni and four other species. The new Trimma species were all described from collection near Raja Ampat Indonesia, the same region which…

Reef Builders launches in Japanese

Here at Reef Builders, we are always moving forward and today we are happy to announce a Japanese version of Reef Builders. The Japanese version is the same great content you’ll find on Reef Builders with a specific focus on…

Over 200 new invertebrates and 11 new fish discovered in Philippines

The California Academy of Sciences recently concluded a biodiversity expedition in the Philippines discovering over 300 new species including 200 marine invertebrates and 11 new fish. The six-week expedition focused most of the marine exploration on the Verde Island Passage, a deep-water…

Massive coral reef, twice the size of Manila, destroyed in Philippines by poachers

A tragic crime that is being described as “the rape of the ocean” took place in the Philippines where poachers decimated an entire reef area almost twice the size of Manila harvesting over 21,000 pieces of black coral and killing 161 endangered sea turtles and…

Anacapa Island dive video shows that there’s a whole lot more to Azoox reefing than just corals

When we think of Azoox reefing, we imagine dimly lit tanks with balanced color and a living carpet of reef life which is only represented in small part by corals. Since corals are the real photo-symbiosis specialists on the reef,…

Predator Starfish Threaten Coral Reefs In The Philippines

The spiny and toxic crown-of-thorns starfish are voracious predators that can wipe out large areas of coral; an individual can consume up to 6 square metres of living reef per year. Outbreaks of the species often occur when ocean temperatures…