Deciding Between an Orange Scoly and an Orange Acan

This weekend while visiting the Rocky Mountain Coral Farmer’s Market we were faced with an interesting dilemma that we thought would make for a fun short read. At the booth of Jesus Corals we spotted two different corals sporting our…

Ultra Coral Australia propagates Homophyllia from the bottom up

Captive propagation of Homophyllia australis isn’t as easy as many other corals. Being a single polyp LPS coral, cutting through it with a coral saw usually ends in its demise. They have been captive spawned recently but the methods remain…

The EU Bans Five Important Australian Corals from Import

Another year, another ban, and this time its LPS corals from Australia. As of the 11th of January 2022 the import of wild-collected Duncanopsammia axifuga, Catalaphyllia jardini, Euphyllia ancora, E. paraancora and E. glabrescens is banned across the whole of…

The Outstanding LPS Corals of AquaShella Dallas

Large polyp stony corals are some of the most highly variable of all species of Scleractinia so it’s always fun to peruse a curated collection in people’s tanks, local fish stores, and especially at large aquarium events. Such a conference…

First Captive Spawning of Homophyllia australis, the Australian ‘Scolie’

For the past ten years my work has been focused on successfully inducing coral spawning events in aquariums, but Homophyllia australis is a species that remained elusive to me despite four years of effort and commitment. The challenge of working…

Update to Australian Coral Export Restrictions from Queensland

Last week we reported about some what was feared would be an interruption of live coral exports, from Queensland Australia specifically. The information at the time was that the harvest and export of live corals from Queensland’s reefs would be…

Caribbean Corals in a Hobbyist Reef Aquarium

As huge as the reef aquarium hobby has become around the world and especially in the U.S., we find it simply astounding how collectively ignorant reefers are of corals that live right off of our shores. Caribbean stony corals consist…

Reef Tanks of Instagram are Beauty Magazines all over again

“Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.” These iconic words appeared in the “Wear Sunscreen” address given to graduates in 1997 by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune and were later popularised by Australian film…

Lower Light Corals Can Live in Shallow Water Too

There’s a wide range of corals that are considered low light species in the aquarium hobby; these include Corallimorphs, scolies, chalice corals, Leptoseris, Pectinia, and a wide swath of species generalized as LPS corals. There’s a common misconception that low…

Cantharellus is an Actually RARE Stony Coral

We’ve been window shopping the supply of corals for sale online for the past few weeks just to take stock of what most vendors are selling and we’ve come away with a couple thoughts. First of all, we understand the…