Transport yourself to a natural coral reef ‘aquarium’ in Indonesia

As reefers we stare at our corals in our home aquariums with an idea of what natural coral reefs are like. There are lots of notions about what our corals actually look like on the reef, where they live, and…

First Odontanthias randalli collected in South Java

Randall’s deepwater anthias first came to our attention a scant five years ago when the Original description of Odontanthias randalli was published. With that intro of the new anthias species, all we got was one lousy picture of a very colorful fish.…

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…

Acropora spathulata discovered in Indonesia

Acropora spathulata is the quintessential Australian SPS Coral in our minds, but we’ve now discovered that this coral can also be found as far away as central Indonesia. Contrary to our previous belief that A. spathulata is an Australian endemic,…

‘Red’ Acropora suharsonoi discovered in central Indonesia

So-called deepwater Acropora are so different in appearance and ecology that they could easily belong to a different genus of coral. There’s a myriad of species that ascribe to the deepwater or ‘naked acro’ description, but the most extreme member of this…

Christmas tree worms and feather dusters of the suborder Sabellida

Sabellida is a suborder of annelid worms in the class Polychaeta. These tube dwelling worms are filter feeders and are commonly identified by a ring of feathery tentacles extending outwards. Members of the suborder include the feather duster worms (Sabellastarte…

The tiny Hairy Octopus is an irresistible puffball of cuteness

The tiny Hairy Octopus is one of the cutest creatures we have come across, and at around 5cm (2inch) long, you won’t want to blink or you might miss it. This well disguised cephalopod gets it names from the long ‘hairy’…

2015 Sumbawa Expedition teaser trailer

In a rare show of foresight, ReefAPalooza together with World Wide Corals have supported us in documenting a unique experience to share with their attendees for their 2016 conferences. For our third concerted aquarium-centric expedition to natural wild reefs, we…

Hotspot of aberrant scopas tangs discovered south west of Java

Aberrant scopas tangs, also known as koi tangs and tricolor tangs are very unique form of the Zebrasoma scopas surgeonfish. A normal scopas tang is a fairly easy fish to overlook with a spade shaped body outline that has a basic…

Indonesian BPKM official threatens to stop issuing live coral permits

Indonesia is far and away the largest supplier of beautiful and diverse coral for the global marine aquarium trade than anywhere else in the world. live corals as so inextricably associated with Indonesia that when we were a wee young…