We tracked down the Purple Monster Acro to its original source

The Purple Monster Acropora is arguably one of the most infamous stony coral strains in the marine aquarium hobby, of all time. This particular strain of deep purple acro is the coral that kickstarted the whole idea of even having some corals that…

Do you even Chromis viridis? How well do you know your damsels?

Chromis viridis is an evergreen staple of the reef aquarium paradigm. Its ubiquity in the field is reflected almost equally in the trade, and the species plays host to a veritable plethora of hobbyists both novice and pro. The specific…

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,…

Pocillopora Corals: Hardy, Adaptable Reef Architects

You may not be aware, but Pocillopora, despite being among the less popular stony corals in the reef aquarium hobby, are second only to Acropora in reef-building productivity in the wild. Their skeletons make up a huge portion of the…

Japanese coral video is in “supernatural” high definition

We share a lot of rare fish and exotic coral eye candy here on Reef Builders, and Japan has its fair share. There is coral “porn”, and then there are superbly close and exquisite corals that look so surreal and perfect,…

Living the Dream

To paraphrase the old adage, you should find a job that you really enjoy doing and then every day going to work is a pleasure. Unfortunately for most of us this is not possible and many of us are content…

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,…

Route 66 Marine closes, leaves behind an incredible legacy of corals

This weekend we learned the sad news that Route 66 Marine, a pioneer in coral-specific wholesaling, has closed its doors for business. The news came as a big surprise to those who knew Eric Camaano well, and to the many…

Australogyra zelli, the magnificent branching moon coral

Last week we had the great fortune of returning from the Solomon Islands on a very special expedition to the Central Province, on behalf of Unique Corals, exploring for rare an unusual corals from this region of the Coral Triangle. Back in…

ReefBrite teases its first true LED fixture

The ReefBrite LED striplights have been some of the most popular LED strips in the aquarium hobby since their introduction nearly seven years ago. With little changes to their design besides a more powerful XHO version that packed in more…