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Hammer Corals Caught Accumulating Eggs in Tentacles in Preparation of Spawning Event

by | Jun 5, 2014 | Corals, Equipment, Industry, Science

Although we’re pretty caught up in the Interzoo hype, we haven’t forgotten about all of the amazing corals that attract us to this hobby in the first place. To prove my point, we’ll now shift our focus to a really interesting find from our friends at , an East Coast marine aquarium livestock wholesaler based out of North Carolina. They recent received a batch of hammer corals from North Australia, and as you can clearly see in the images and video, they are full of what appears to be eggs. These eggs have accumulated in the tentacle tissues of the coral, with some of them forming large bundles and others freely floating within the tissue like ping pong balls trapped in an aquarium. We don’t see any of these eggs being released into the water, but clearly something out of the ordinary is going on here. Kris Cline, owner and Operations Manager at Carolina Aquatics, says that in his 18 years in the hobby and industry, he’s never seen anything like this. And to be honest, neither have we. I mean, we’ve seen corals spawning in aquariums before, but never have we see this sort of egg accumulation in the tissues and be this visible. Kris went on to explain that the exporter told them that the Euphyllids are spawning on the reefs right now, and did it around this time last year too

Tunze Shows Off New Care Magnet Algae Scraper

by | Jun 3, 2014 | Corals, Events, Funny, Science, Tanks

More new products from Tunze today, as they’ve unveiled their magnetic algae scraper at Interzoo. Called the Care Magnet, this new scraper sports a thin, ergonomic handle to which plastic blades are attached at either end. This patented algae scraper has an inconspicuous profile within the aquarium, making it less obtrusive to the look of the tank while also letting it slip behind rocks, plants, and corals with ease. The Care Magnet’s patented features center around the scrapers themselves. It uses plastic blades of varying lengths, which place different pressures on the glass or acrylic during its use. This allows the narrow blade to remove tough algae, such as coralline, while the wide blade allows the magnet to tackle larger areas or places where the algae is easier to remove. This unique design allows the Care Magnet to work in tight corners and even on curved aquariums, while at the same time not scracthing up the inside of the tank. The inner magnet is said to be 3mm from the walls of the aquarium, which prevents sand from getting stuck between it and the glass. That said, the strenth of the magnets is said to make separation of the scraper “nearly impossible”. In addition to that, the blades on one end can be removed, effectively turning the Care Magnet into a handheld algae scraper