My mystery wrasse is one of my favorite fish, but has been extremely difficult to photograph. This photo was taken with a Pentax K20d with a 100mm macro lens at f2.8 and 1/90s and was edited in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). For all those who have digital cameras and have...
RM: You have an interesting career want to tell us about it? LM: I am working on my Ph.D. in paleontology and I am also an adjunct at a college. I’ve worked at field sites in China, Kenya and Tanzania. Most of what I do in the field is surface collecting, which...
By Lissa Mann November 23, 2008 Manhattan Reefs held its annual Fall Frag Swap at Pace University in downtown Manhattan. As usual, it was a star-studded event full of education, socialization, and consumerism. Sixteen vendors took over the space with displays of...
By Lissa Mann Photography is perhaps not the most important part of reefkeeping, but it is definitely part of the fun. Most reef sites have an active photography forum for sharing photographs of all of the aquatic life we try to keep. A camera is also an important...
By Lissa Mann In June of this year, I helped a friend move his many saltwater fish tanks. It took over twenty hours to move both his stuff and his fish from Manhattan to his new house in New Jersey. That was the moving experience I was reflecting upon when I made the...
When this blog was in its infancy, I posted a few photos in a series I'm thinking of as my "anti-LED" series, where instead of popping the colors of corals, I take them all away to better appreciate the beauty of their form. Here is my newest addition. Camera specs:...
Locals and tourists relax by the shores of the Mediterranean in Barcelona.A few weeks ago, my fellow blogger posted about the new reef discovered in the Mediterranean Sea. I think that this is truly amazing, and I'm disappointed that so many of the articles have not...
Jon Robbins recently posted his response to this article about the trends in reef building corals. My co-blogger got stuck on the idea of hybrid acros, but I thought I'd talk about some of the other aspects of this study that was recently published in Proceedings of...
We are approaching that time in New York City where it is warm enough to take to our own local waters in search of life for our tanks. Dom scraped this starfish off of a dock a couple of years ago. The local starfish are extremely temperature sensitive and must be...
My fellow blogger recently posted this link about the efforts of an Australian team to free coral sperm, egg and embryos as a conservation strategy. I think this kind of conservation strategy is akin to captive breeding programs that seek to breed endangered animals...