The successful captive breeding of the yellow tang in aquariums took more than ten years of effort. So to celebrate we’re going to help the Oceanic Institute take a longer form victory lap with yet another update of the captive…
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The Coolest Hawaiian reef fish get visually checklisted in this Kure dive video
Hawaii is renowned for its endemism which extends from the land down to the deep reefs. It’s been a while since we’ve posted a really good dive video featuring some rare fish so you can be certain that this one…
Yellow tangs finally captive bred by the Oceanic Institute
The yellow tang is arguably one of the most popular reef and aquarium fish in the world, and now it has finally been bred in captivity. Just last week we updated you on the most recent successes of the Oceanic…
Captive bred yellow tangs inching closer to reality
Captive bred yellow tangs seems to always be just one or two years away, even though the Oceanic Institute has been hard at work to crack the code for about ten years now. Spawning surgeonfish in captivity is relatively simple but…
A visit to the Smithsonian Institution’s vast coral collection
Aquarists spend the majority of their coral-keeping career looking at, staring at, and growing live corals, hopefully. This is the inverse case for coral taxonomists such as Dr. Stephen Cairns who studies the remains of corals as skeletons, and all…
Plectranthias winniensis & P. helenae captive raised by RCT Hawaii
Plectranthias winniensis and P. helenae are two species of this adorable group of basslets that grace the pages of Reef Builders today for very good reason. Reef Culture Technologies Hawaii has been trailblazing the captive rearing of various marine fish…
Hawaii’s reefs gets photographed for Google Street View
First the Great Barrier Reef, then Florida and now Hawaii is getting the Google Street View love. According to a recent Associated Press report, Hawaii’s reefs are getting mapped as part of a larger project by the XL Catlin Seaview…
An early start to the 2015 Caribbean coral spawn
Corals are known for their synchronistic spawning, typically a week after the last full moon in August. This year with a late blue moon in July the spawning happened earlier than normal. Teams from the Steinhart Aquarium, Seaworld, Akron Zoo, Georgia…
The Peppermint Angelfish that won the world over
Despite the Peppermint Angelfish’s (Paracentropyge boylei) recent meteoric debut in the mainstream aquarium trade, it’s status as an iconic book fish has hardly been relinquished. Familiarity has not made us jaded with the clinquant beauty of this incredible species. In fact, it’s a…
Newly described black coral is one of the oldest living animals in the world
Leiopathes annosa is a new species of deep sea black coral that was recently discovered living on the seafloor around the waters of Hawaii and the Papahanaumokuakea marine national monument. In addition to being a new and previously unknown species, the…