Tony Vargas

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Monday Archives: Finspot Wrasse

Monday Archives: Finspot Wrasse

Those that know me, know that I am an absolute Geek when it comes to wrasses.  I can spend hours taking photos of just one wrasse before moving on to another.  While visiting Sanjay Joshi, he mentioned to me that he picked up a new wrasse that I would be very...

Coral Morphologic @ Aspen Ideas: Climate

Coral Morphologic @ Aspen Ideas: Climate

Coral Morphologic will be proudly representing Miami’s underwater denizens at the inaugural Aspen Ideas: Climate conference, May 9-12 with a nightly showing of our film Coral City Fluorotour on the New World Center’s wallcast and speaking on the panel “The Ocean is a Climate Superhero.”…

Tubbataha: A Gem in the Sulu Sea

Tubbataha: A Gem in the Sulu Sea

By Tony Vargas A few years ago, a couple of Australians brought Tubbataha to my attention during a dive excursion in Puerto Galera, the Philippines. Their unremitting rave about the incredible vastness of Tubbataha’s landscape, its rich coral valleys, its colorful...

Bone Cutter or Coral Clipper

One of the largest trends in the hobby is fragging corals. It seems as if every weekend somewhere around the country there’s a frag swap. Corals are being propagated with various types of tools. In the 90s I put a large table Acropora through a table saw and created...

Terence Fugazzi 210 Reef

Terence Fugazzi 210 Reef

What a great trip to Mountain West Reef Fest, Scott Fellman, Michelle Lemech, Bradley Syphus, and I had the pleasure of meeting up with Terence Fugazzi and his lovely family at his house in Salt Lake City. We went to his house to take a look at one incredible...

Congratulations Two Little Fishies

Congratulations Two Little Fishies

Marine Depot (MD) considered the largest supplier of marine and reef aquarium supplies in the world announced at Reef-A-Palooza the names of their Best of 2011 award. This award honors the products that are best received by the marine aquarium industry. Marine Depot...

Aquarium Fish: Spawning Cirrhilabrus jordani

Aquarium Fish: Spawning Cirrhilabrus jordani

Flame_wrasse2.jpg

When I first relocated to beautiful sunny South Florida I was amazed with the attitudes most Floridian reef hobbyists had toward wrasses in a reef aquarium. For that matter many places I visited across the country felt a little discomfort when I suggested wrasses in their aquariums.…

Seth Miller 180 Reef

Seth Miller 180 Reef

A few months ago I visited Brian Ferguson in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I spoke at his club, Reef Aquarium Society of Charlotte (RASOC) and at the meeting I had the opportunity to meet Seth Miller, a very enthusiastic hobbyist and the proud owner of a very nice...

Stuart Bertram’s 750-Gallon Reef Tank

Stuart Bertram’s 750-Gallon Reef Tank

In the middle of writing my book The Coral Reef Aquarium, I came across many extraordinary reef aquariums. In the book, I created a chapter titled “Reef Tanks From Around The World”. This chapter highlights many different types of reef systems, some of the most...