Rob Toonen is a biologist at the Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology where his current research focuses on the processes that influence dispersal and recruitment in coastal marine invertebrates, with a particular interest in the evolutionary consequences of larval...
This is second part of my article on fish nutrition and live foods for the reef aquarium, so if you missed the first installment, I suggest that you go back and read that introductory section first.…
I am often asked questions about fish nutrition and live foods for the reef aquarium, so I wanted to try to write a general overview article on the subject. Therefore, instead of giving you a list of recommended foods to feed your fish, I have decided to take a more general approach and talk about all the different options for feeding a living miniature reef aquarium.…
I was trying to decide what to cover for this article, and realized that there is not much information out there about sea pens. These beautiful animals are occasionally seen in pet shops, but if there is any information about them provided at all, my experience has been that information is usually wrong.…
I have seen a number of posts recently asking for information about keeping an octopus, and thought that would make a good subject for an article this month. I certainly understand the fascination with these incredible animals, because I feel the same way myself!…
I have recently seen a number of shops offering blue- or green-lipped mussels ( P. viridis ) for sale, and thought I would take some time to discuss them this month. I was particularly motivated to write this article after overhearing a local petshop employee telling a potential customer that they were a hardy addition to any reef aquarium.…
“Death in a Colorful Package” is a title that has been used several times (e.g., Friese 1973, Wilkens 1998) to describe a marine invertebrate with aposematic coloration. Aposematic coloration is defined as a specific set of conspicuous colors and/or patterns of marking on an animal to make it easily recognizable in order to warn potential predators that the animal is poisonous, foul-tasting or otherwise potentially dangerous.…
I decided to continue on with the subject of sea cucumbers for this article, because there are many subjects that I mentioned but never really discussed at any length in the last article about medusa worms (Toonen 2002).…
I was recently asked to provide some more information about medusa worms in one of the forums, and while searching the web to provide some links, I realized that there is very little information out there about the biology and aquarium care of these fascinating animals.…
Recently I have seen a number of questions on the reef bulletin boards about Christmas Tree Worms, members of the genus Spirobranchus, and decided to write something about their biology for this month. …