The sun corals of the Family Dendrophylliidae are the single most diverse and popular group of non-photosynthetic stony coral available to aquarists, but, unfortunately, they remain some of the most frequently misidentified stony corals in the aquarium industry. I’ve...
Update: The original version of this article misidentified this specimen as the first record of the Orangefin Anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysopterus) to be found in the Philippines. And indeed, the population of that species occurring in the Mariana Islands does looks...
The morphological differences that serve to separate anemones, corals and corallimorphs (i.e. “mushrooms”) are not always obvious, and perhaps nowhere do the lines separating these groups blur so much as with a peculiar, tentacled beastie found in many reef aquariums:...
[UPDATE: This post originally misidentified this fish as Halichoeres nigrescens. Dr. Benjamin Victor has informed me that this is actually a green variant of a closely related species, Halichoeres bicolor.] Oftentimes, a species’ abundance in the wild doesn’t...
Northern Africa is not a part of the world known for its coral reefs, but three newly described species are helping add to the region’s biodiversity. The new corals are part of an identification guide published late last year covering the corals and anemones of the...
The pairing of pistol shrimps with watchman gobies is a common sight on Indo-Pacific coral reefs, as well as in the home aquarium, but few aquarists are aware of the strange relationship that exists along the Western African coastline between an altogether...
I’ve always found it frustrating that the snails available to marine aquarists are so aesthetically underwhelming; coral reefs abound in colorful gastropods! I can certainly respect the hard work put in by Turbo and Astraea, and I tip my hat to the fine snails of...
Major morphological mutations are a rare occurrence in marine fishes, particularly when they affect the ability of a fish to swim. Exceptional specimens have been found which entirely lack their caudal fin, which seems like it would be quite the impediment....
https://youtu.be/uENv-t3GAko This has been an exciting week for wrasse aficionados, as the long-awaited revision of the flasherwrasse genus Paracheilinus has finally appeared, along with three newly described species. Two of these (P. paineorum & P....
There are dozens of genera of sea star found around coral reef habitats, yet little of this biodiversity makes its way into the aquarium hobby. But, while only a handful of species find themselves regularly exported, every now and then something a bit out of...