Last month we presented the results from our experiments comparing deep sandbed and plenum-based aquaria under controlled conditions in the laboratory as Part 1 of this series. Although those results are very useful in understanding the real effects of the different aquarium designs, few people are really interested in keeping a tank without any live animals.…
Plenum-based systems gained widespread acceptance after Dr. Jean Jaubert worked with the Monaco Aquarium in transporting a complete live portion of a coral reef from the Red Sea for display at the Aquarium.…
Last time, I explained what sea slugs are, and why the common name “nudibranch” should not be applied blindly to the over 3000 species of opisthobranch molluscs (for more detail, consult a good invertebrate textbook such as Brusca and Brucsa 1990; Ruppert and Barnes 1994).…
I have just returned from MACNA XVI in Boston, and as usual, it was a great opportunity to catch up with many old friends, and meet some new ones. It was also a great to be able to finally attach faces to many of the Email names I have corresponded with over the years.…
I recently saw someone on one of the message boards ask if clownfish will accept a tube anemone as a host. The answer was correctly no, but the person went on to explain that “instead of providing shelter and protection for the clownfish, the tube anemones would immediately kill and eat them!”…
Over the past few years, I have had many questions dealing with keeping sponges in reef aquaria, and thus far, my general impression is that few aquarists have success with these odd animals. I have gotten a couple of questions about sponges recently, and decided it was time to write an updated article about them.…
…Rob,
I just got an orange and a red branch warty gorgonian (I think that they are from the Caribbean) for my tank. I have them in areas that get[s] low light and medium-strong current. It took them a few days to acclimate, but now their polyps appear to be fully open.