https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-noK9UVWTk The nature documentaries of Nick Hope (AKA Bubble Vision) are some of the finest ever made on coral reef ecosystems and should be considered mandatory viewing for anyone with a serious interest in the subject. His...
Ancoracysta twisti is very small, consisting of just a single cell 14 μm in length, but it’s discovery is proving to be quite large. This newly described species was found living upon an unidentified brain coral at the Birch Aquarium after researchers sampled its...
In the ocean, longer wavelengths of light (i.e. red) are quickly filtered out, so that with increasing depth the red pigmentation of marine life takes on increasingly inky tones. This provides excellent camouflage in the darkness and is why so many deeper-water...
A couple interesting butterflyfish hybrids have turned up in the Philippines, giving us the opportunity to guess the parentage behind these strange genetic amalgamations. You might want to take a moment to...
One of the biggest frustrations with keeping smaller reef aquariums, particularly those under five gallons, is in finding fish species that are suitable for such tight accommodations. Despite the vast biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems, surprisingly little of this...
Blennies are a diverse lot, with some 400+ species scattered across several dozen genera, but, out of all this taxonomic richness, only a small number of these fishes commonly find their way into aquarium exports. The two most diverse genera, Ecsenius &...
The final group left to examine are the Tomato Clownfishes, so named for the reddish coloration shared by several of the species in this lineage. These have a tall, robust body profile and a single white bar behind the head, while juveniles briefly have a second bar that disappears at an early age.…
Most Amphiprion are aesthetically quite similar, but the so-called Skunk Clownfishes represent an exception to this rule. Nearly all of the fishes in this group have a white stripe running dorsally along the body.…
Saddleback clownfishes comprise the only Amphiprion group that occurs away from coral reefs, favoring silty lagoons and seagrass beds. In these habitats, the selection of host anemones is limited primarily to Stichodactyla haddoni, Heteractis aurora, and, less commonly, Macrodactyla doreensis.…
Like the clarkii and chrysopterus groups, the allardi group can be recognized by its robust size, the presence of multiple vertical bars, and a generalist attitude towards anemones, willing to make use of whatever host happens to be available.…