Flashback Friday: Steve Weast’s Temperate Azoox tank 

Looking back through the archives, 2011 was quite the year for NPS enthusiasts as Managing Editor Jake Adams and contributor Joost De Vries covered over a dozen Azoox (azooxanthellate,) corals, as well as some stunning home aquariums that were dedicated…

Tubastraea megacorallita: Fat Head ‘Dendro’ gets an Official Description

Tubastraea megacorallita is a fitting name for a coral that has been recognized in the aquarium for its very large polyps and accompanying corallites and has earned a very fitting common name. The ‘Fat Head’ Dendro has long been rumored in the…

NPS Leptoseris Found in Underwater Caves of the Indian Ocean

Leptoseris was once a completely overlooked group of corals in the aquarium world but recent years have seen an explosion of appreciation for these low light corals. Over the years reef builders have come to understand that these plating and encrusting…

Truncatoflabellum veroni Bouquet at Gallery Aquatica

The reef aquarium hobby is overwhelmingly dominated by photosynthetic coral species but azooxanthellate corals are incredibly abundant and diverse, just not so much in the shallow waters where ornamental corals are collected. One of the exceptions is the very interesting…

Coenocyathus sebroecki, a New Species of Azoox Coral from Brazil

Coenocyathus sebroecki is a new species of non-photosynthetic scleractinian coral from Brazil that was surprisingly discovered in reasonably shallow depth. Unlike so many descriptions of new azoox coral before it, we have clear photographs of both the clean coral skeleton…

Scientists Discover ‘Coraltropolis’ In The Cold Waters of British Columbia

Explorer Seamount, British Columbia 900m (3000ft) below the surface, on the side of an underwater volcano, may not be the first place you’d expect to find a dense community of corals. Yet on a recent expedition, scientists were awestruck by…

Tubastrea Sun Corals Fill The Cave Tunnel Beneath Gato Island Philippines

Tubastrea Sun Tunnel, Gato Island Tubastrea is a type of non-photosynthetic coral popular in aquariums for their puffy polyps and love for being feed. The bright orange, yellow, or pink polyps come out at night to feed but can also…

Deep Sea Deltocyathoides Coral is Basically Living Gravel

Today we have access to so many more corals than we could have ever dreamed of, but these still represent only a small cross section of the corals alive in the world today. Not only are we getting only corals…

Top 10 Unknown Azoox Corals

The American reef aquarium hobby is always looking for the latest and greatest new strain of corals to grow and exalt. Strains of very familiar corals like the Homewrecker Acro and Kun Pao Monti may turn some heads and have…

Taking Target Feeding To The Next Level By ‘Walking’ Azoox Corals

For some time now I’ve had a deep curiosity and interest in all the corals that we don’t regularly see in our home aquariums, namely the non-photosynthetic and azooxanthellate corals. Unlike the photosynthetic corals that can get most of their…