Fluorescent Friday: Blastomussa edition

We visited Jakarta Indonesia last week, touring the bustling coral and aquarium exporting locations to see corals from all over Indonesia. While at Reefmaster Indonesia, we sighted an awesome, huge solitary polyp of Blastomussa vivida; we pulled out the underwater…

Experimental incandescent light bulb could exceed efficiency of LEDs

The aquarium hobby has gone from metal halides to fluorescent lamps to light emitting diodes and now we might have incandescent light bulbs lighting up our future reef tanks. We’re getting ahead of ourselves but if new research out of…

There’s something special about Copperband butterflyfish from Raja Ampat

The copperband butterflyfish, Chelmon rostratus, is one of those iconic reef fish that is incredibly popular with divers and aquarists alike. This species of reef fish shows very little variation across its wide natural distribution, with the only deviations from the…

New World Publications books now available in digital format

New World Publications makes some of the best identification books for identifying marine life. Their 3 volume set on Carribean Reef Fish, Reef Corals and Reef Creatures has long been the gold standard of learning about all the living things…

UK’s Horniman successfully completes in-vitro fertilization of captive corals

The UK’s Horniman Museum and Gardens has accomplished the first successful in-vitro fetilization of captive coral when a collection of corals transplanted from Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 2015, recently spawned. The spawning event in December that released approximately 130,000 eggs from nice corals of two…

Majestic AquariumsTV has a plethora of helpful YouTube videos

If you haven’t yet stumbled across the Majestic AquariumTV YouTube Channel, you are in for a treat. Paul Talbot, the owner of Majestic Aquarium in Sydney Australis is constantly updating the channel with new and interesting videos from the Aquarium store to…

Tempmate affordable USB temperature loggers for tracking shipping temps

Shipping livestock has its challenges as the goal of maintaining a consistent temperature no matter the season. tempmate is making it easier for anyone shipping temperature-sensitive products to track and monitor temperature along the entire supply chain with a disposable…

5 Cleaner Wrasse Myths

The introduction of Labroides spp. cleaner wrasses to marine aquarium systems is generally ill-advised. Though some hobbyists report success in keeping these obligate cleaners long term, the vast majority of specimens entering the market are doomed to perish prematurely from…

The Bomb-Bomb chalice from Titan Corals

The reef aquarium hobby might be drooling over shrooms right now, but spectacular chalice corals are still being discovered that can turn even the most jaded of heads. The Bomb-Bomb chalice coral is a spectacular Echinophyllia from Titan Corals which will keep…

Ricordea florida: an Underappreciated Caribbean Beauty

As an American reefkeeper, it’s all too easy for me to forget that some truly gorgeous invertebrate livestock originates relatively close to home in the tropical western Atlantic and Caribbean. I was reminded of this recently when CC entrusted several…