Bounce mushroom anemones are killin’ it right now!

Bounce mushrooms, bullseye mushrooms, and every derivative of Rhodactis and Discosoma corallimorphs are incredibly popular right now. This group of reef animals, which were once considered beginner corals, are now being sought out by coral collectors and fetching record-setting prices.…

Navigating MACNA – Tips & Tricks

September brings MACNA 2015 to Washington D.C. along with a couple of thousand of your reefing friends, speakers from all corners of the globe and exhibitors with cool new products.  It’s three fun filled days and nights of non-stop reef keeping…

The Fragging Phenomenon Part Deux

In 1992, I wrote my first article on the fragmenting of corals, fragging for short. At that time fragging corals was primarily done on soft corals and was done more out of the necessity to preserve the corals we had,…

Stony coral taxonomy is getting all shook up & straightened out

The notion of discussing stony coral (Scleractinian) taxonomy is probably one that will elicit the blankest of stares. However, if you are hyper passionate about corals, their evolution and especially their relatedness gives us reefers insight to the care requirements,…

A sneak peek of the hot livestock coming to Reefapalooza NY

If you were looking for a sneak peak at unique, cherry, eye catching or totally limited edition corals, we’ve got the ultimate coral candy fix for you today. Leading up to the hottest reef aquarium event of the summer, we’ve…

The coral tree of life is being rewritten one LPS at a time

Warning: the following is a nerdgasm of coral taxonomy, guest-written by Joe Rowlett, one of the many talented fish geeks working the fish tanks at Old Town Aquarium in Chicago.  Historically, corals have often been grouped at the genus and family level based…

Vital Wave Violet and Cyan are worthy color-boosting LED spotlights

The Vital Wave LED spotlights from EcoLamps include three different colors, two of which really hit the sweet spot for highlighting the colors of aquarium corals. Manufacturers of LED spotlights have been experimenting with LEDs across the spectrum, often times…

Reef Hobby needs YOU: call for comments regarding ESA coral listing

On December 7, 2012, NOAA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register (77 FR 73219) in response to a petition submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity to list 83 reef-building coral species as threatened or endangered under the…

JBJ Unibody LED review – simply one of the best aquarium lights for corals

As long as the JBJ Unibody LED aquarium fixture has been around we’ve been using one on our personal 28 gallon nano reef tank. This aquarium has been using exclusively LEDs for more than three years, many of the corals have grown…