We’ve been quite busy the last few weeks, setting up coral nurseries all around the island of Bali, Indonesia. One of our reef restoration sites which is an Ocean Gardener project in Amed, North Bali is starting to attract more…
Search Results For: mimicry
Eucheuma Algae Is a Perfect Mimic of Staghorn Coral
Mimicry is a very important part of survival of the fittest, both on land and in the sea. Usually we tend to notice mimic anemones transforming its appearance to look like a wide range of corals and algae, but today…
Commerson Frogfish- Hide and seek champion of the reef
Not your ordinary fish The Commerson Frogfish (Antennarius commerson) or Giant Frogfish is a large species that can reach up to one foot in length. This frogfish species has a wide range, it can be found in the tropical Pacific…
Survival on the reef part 3: Distractions and decoys
Continuing with our mini series on reef fish survival techniques, we stray away from mimicry and take a look at how some fishes use the art of distraction to fool their predators. Not everyone has the ability to conceal their body…
Survival on the reef part 2: Cover and concealment
In our previous installation of reef creatures and their survival techniques, we talked about mimicry and how certain mimics have evolved to copy their models for protection. In this second part, we take a look at animals who display protective…
The Saddled Toby: Puffer Personality in a Small Package
Sometimes good things come in small packages. Such is the case with Canthigaster valentini, better known as the saddled toby, black-saddled toby, or Valentin’s toby (you may also see “sharpnose puffer” substituted for “toby” in various sources). Reaching only about…
Survival on the reef part 1: Masquerading under false colours
Look at this amazing pair of Meiacanthus grammistes. Eh hmm…wait a minute. That’s not quite right. Look closer. Cardinal fish? Bingo. This is a pair of Cheilodipterus nigrotaeniatus and they are excellent mimics of their venomous fang blenny models. Mimicry is an…
7 Questions with Steinhart Aquarium’s Matt Wandell
We thought it would be fun to do a series of “7 Questions” with people in the industry and hobby. Our first candidate is a Matt Wandell, a marine biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences…
Recap of this week’s new products to create an aquarium reefscape
By some neat coincidence, this week witnessed the announcement of four new products which have a different approach to building a mini reef aquarium aquascape. Each of this week’s artificial reefscaping materials represent novel solutions to using an alternative to live…
ORA Breaks the Blenny Barrier – Captive-Bred Red Sea Mimic Blennies!
Today, ORA announced the successful breeding of the Red Sea Mimic Blenny, Ecsenius gravieri, and with it, the impenetrable blenny-barrier has been broken. For years if not decades, it has seemed that the successful captive breeding of the combtooth Blennies from…
