Fluorescent Friday: Acanthophyllia edition

Acanthophyllia is a particular group of corals which holds almost a mythic place in the realm of coral reef aquarists. This large showy coral has been a mainstay of mini reef aquariums for decades, with the solitary polyp being one…

Bounce Shrooms all start out as really nice Rhodactis

Bounce Shrooms and Mushroom Mania in general is taking the reef aquarium hobby by storm. Not since zoanthids has a soft coral captured the collective collectoritis that is gripping the high end coral frag market in the U.S. today. To be…

Chimera Heliofungia, a fusion of two long tentacle plate corals

It’s quite rare that we see a long tentacle plate coral which is noteworthy enough to turn heads, but we have a special treat for you today. This incredible Heliofungia actiniformis comes to us from Bali Aquarium who spotted this specimen…

Reefbuilders Indonesia Travelogue – How corals get from Farm to Tank

We’ve spent the past two month traveling around Indonesia to answer one question, do you know where your corals come from? To find the answer, we met with coral farmers, dove with coral collectors and toured export facilities in Bali…

Indian Ocean zebra angelfish found in Central Indonesia!

When I first fell in love with the whole diverse family of angelfishes, Genicanthus caudovittatus was known as the ‘Red Sea Zebra’ angelfish, because back then, this species was only known to occur in the Red Sea and surrounding waters. Then in…

Fluorescent Friday – Reef fish edition

Coral reefs are one of the most richly fluorescent ecosystems on the planet. When it comes to fluorescence, most of us reef aquarists tend to think of corals first, but many of the tropical reef fish in your tanks right…

Master Refractometer hot rod salinity measurement from Atago Japan

The Master Refractometer series by Atago is a high performance line of salinity measuring tools from Japan. We recently got some hands-on time with the Atago Master-S/MillM refractometer at the Bali Aquarium water monitoring laboratory, and it was quite refreshing to see a…

Fluorescent Friday: Cycloseris edition

Disc corals are some of the most recognizable corals on the reef, and some of the most popular coral animals for the home aquarium. Disc corals in all their various forms are easy to keep, come in a bewildering array…

Centropyge flavipectoralis, the hidden beauty of the yellow fin angelfish

Centropyge flavipectoralis, aka the yellow fin pygmy angelfish, is a little known species from the Indian Ocean. C. flavipectoralis is well documented throughout its range from the Maldives, India and Sri Lanka but more recently, some individuals have been imported…

Acropora horrida wows us with a green tip version

Acropora horrida is hands-down, one of the most beautiful and colorful species of Acropora available to aquarists, and it is also fairly common throughout Indo-Pacific reefs. ‘Horrida’ was one of the first Acros we drooled over from pictures of this…