It wouldn’t be a proper week of reef aquarium blogging here on Reef Builders if we didn’t bring your attention to a new exotic species of Leptoseris, L. kalayaanensis. Described in 2009 from the Philippines and subsequently also observed growing in…
Photosynthetic Leptoseris coral found living deeper than 400 feet!!!
Leptoseris is a unique genus of stony corals that is just beginning to enjoy a following by reef aquarists. A team of researchers recently discovered some colonies of Leptoseris on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia growing at depths of…
Five most interesting new coral species described in 2012
From cave-dwelling corals to a new species of the popular Euphyllia coral, 2012 was a very good year for completely unknown stony corals. Some have never been and will never be seen in reef aquaria, while others are prime candidates…
Dactylotrochus cervicornis is a new species of solitary and deepwater coral
This year a very peculiar solitary stony coral called Dactylotrochus was described from small colonies collected from the deep sea. What makes Dactylotrochus cervicornis special is that unlike the large meaty solitary deep sea corals which we are familiar with…
Leptoseris troglodyta is an azooxanthellate coral adapted to live in caves!
Leptoseris troglodyta is a new species of stony coral which was discovered living in caves of Cebu, Palau and Indonesia. The new Leptoseris troglodyta gets its name from the term ‘troglodyte’ which refers to cave dwelling creatures and it is the…
Orange Leptoseris coral is a perfect storm of color, texture and pattern
Leptoseris coral is probably one of the coolest yet least talked about corals on the stony side of the reef aquarium hobby. There are a few reasons for this, first off this coral is predominantly found in deeper water, so…
Researchers try to understand how fields of Leptoseris can grow at 300 feet deep
We absolutely love all corals in the family Agariciidae which includes Leptoseris, Gardinoseris, Pavona, Agaricia and Psammocora. These corals are hardy, colorful, undemanding in terms of light and flow and they have really neat color and pattern which is unique…
Richard Pyle and researchers dive deep to study coral growth over 250 feet down
It’s not just reefers who are into mesophotic reefs. Researchers in Hawaii are currently underway with an experiment to measure how deepwater corals such as Leptoseris get the bulk of their energy; either from catching food or from photosynthesis. Rich…
Gardinoseris Lives! (on the Coral Hub website)
Gardinoseris planulata is a coral species which we have admired for over a decade from the scant images that were then available to view in the Coral of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Like many of our favorite corals species from…
Mesophotic Reef- low light reefs can teach us new things about contemporary reefing
Tim Wijgerde of Coralscience.org is building a mesophotic reef system, basically a low light reef. Tim dropped in to share with us why he decided to do a low light reef tank and what low light reef animals can teach…
