On June 25th, 2021, one of the preeminent octocoral taxonomists, Dr. Leen P. van Ofwegen of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, passed away. Though his name may not be immediately familiar to the average aquarist or diver, his impact on our…
Updates and Lessons Learned From Our 90 Gallon Reef Tank
As the days get shorter heading into winter we’re even more excited to come home to a bright tropical reef tank. Earlier this year we picked up a seven-year-old 90gallon reef tank and all the hard work we’ve put in…
Deep Sea Soft Coral Garden Discovered Off The Coast Of Greenland
Scientists have discovered a previously unknown soft coral garden in the Davis Strait, off the coast of West Greenland. They described the ecosystem in a new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. The garden sits 1,600 feet (490m) deep. The researchers found it…
The Myth of LPS Corals Living in ‘Dirty Water’
Every day that we observe corals in the ocean and take care of them in our aquarium it becomes clearer how important feeding is to them. Recently while watching a live video from our good friend Shane Danger Coleman, we…
Learn How To Frag Leather Corals With Gallery Aquatica TV
Fragging Leather Corals Our friend Ania from Gallery Aquatica is back at it with another episode of the Frag Files. The Frag Files is a video series on the Gallery Aquatica YouTube channel where Ania shares her expert coral propagation…
Octocorals Photographed In The Wild – North Sulawesi
Octocorals are some of my favorite corals to photograph in the wild. Big fluffy octocoral colonies are especially plentiful around the islands of North Sulawesi, and it seems I have a bumper crop of wild octocoral photos living in my…
Hydra 64HD Review and Soft Coral Reef Update [Video]
It’s been about six months since we first featured our very own soft coral reef tank and with the new Hydra 64HD on the market, it’s time for an update on both the corals and the lighting upgrade. The various…
Coral Snorkeling, Murex Bangka Back Reef
Coral Snorkeling Murex Bangka Back Reef When visiting Bangka island, you don’t have to go far to experience world-class coral snorkeling. The coral reef behind Murex Bangka Resort has an impressive diversity of marine life which is easy to spot…
Unusual ‘Raggedy Toadstool’ Leather from Southern Great Barrier Reef
Toadstool leather corals are a distinctive group of aquarium corals which have a lot of diversity at the generic level, but the species are more challenging to distinguish. Even in the wild a Sarcophyton toadstool may be hard to tell…
We Really Do Miss the Soft Corals from Fiji
Soft Corals are such an important part of wild coral reefs but as with most corals that aren’t radioactive, they are massively underrepresented in the reef aquarium hobby. We’re not talking about zoanthids, or shrooms, start polyps or any of…
