by AquaNerd | Feb 12, 2014 | Corals, Fish, Science, Tanks
Nano aquariums are so much fun. It’s as simple as that. The tiny little glass boxes can be put just about anywhere, and while they can’t house every fish or coral, they can be personalized in so many ways. One such nano that we’ve recently gotten to play with is the EcoPico from Ecoxotic. This tank measures 10”x10”x12”, which translates to just a shade over 5 gallons, and has a small LED light and filter that make it pretty much saltwater friendly out of the box. We have a hard time calling it reef ready, which for the record is not one of Ecoxotic’s claims, but it certainly has a lot of features to get it off to a good start. by Francis Yupangco | Feb 11, 2014 | Conservation, Corals, Science
On January 29, the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) completed a $5.5 million conservation project to remove three wrecked ships, weighing a total of one million pounds, from protected wildlife areas in the Pacific Ocean. … by AquaNerd | Feb 10, 2014 | Aquaculture, Corals, Fish, Industry
It would seem that the recent musings of Scott Fellman, longtime figurehead in the marine aquarium hobby and co-owner of Unique Corals, on captive bred fish have really struck a nerve. In a recent posting on his company’s Reef2Reef forum page, Scott shared a little of his frustrations about the virtual disappearance of captive-bred mandarin dragonets from Oceans Reefs and Aquariums (ORA). In a nutshell, he was told by an ORA rep that the dragonet breeding program had essentially been shelved due to the lack of support from aquarium hobbyists. This was due to the fact that wild-caught mandarins were far too cheap for the captive-bred variety to compete with. With regards to this news, Scott went on to say “that sucks”, and offered up a thorough virtual “spanking” of the aquarium hobby as a whole…and we completely agree with Scott one billion percent! To clarify, this is not in any way a reflection on ORA or any other organizations or individuals that breed marine ornamental species or support captive breeding efforts. Instead, this is a look at why aquarium keepers still continue to purchase low-quality wild-caught livestock. Scott’s article highlights the big reason why captive-bred fish still see so many hurdles…and it’s purely financial. After all of the initial excitement wore off, hobbyists by and large avoided buying them because they were $40 or more per fish. by AquaNerd | Feb 6, 2014 | Corals, Science
It seems that in recent years, most of the news coming out of Hawaii has been fairly bad. More often than not, we find ourselves discussing how the aquarium trade gets unfairly targeted by misguided activists, but this time around the news is different. According to Hawaii News Now, a research team from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Aquatic Resources has, for the first time ever, discovered colonies of Acropora gemmifera in West Hawaii. In addition, it is said that this is the first record of any Acropora species occurring around the island of Hawaii, not to be confused with other areas like the Northwest Hawaiian islands where Acroporids have been discovered. According to the article, there have been no reports of any Acropora species occurring around the Island of Hawaii from more than 4,500 coral reef monitoring and research dives from the past 15 years. The corals were initially identified based on aesthetic features, though the ID was later confirmed with genetic testing by the Richmond Lab at the Kewalo Marine Laboratory, Pacific Biomedical Research Center in Honolulu. by Advanced Aquarist | Feb 5, 2014 | Advanced Aquarist, Corals, Invertebrates
A new, stunningly red coral species, Psammogorgia hookeri, has been collected by scuba divers from rocky ledges at depths to 25 meters in Peru's Paracas National Reserve. by Austin Lefevre | Jan 27, 2014 | Corals, Equipment, Eye Candy, Fish, Tanks
John Coppolino, better known as “Copps” or the angelfish guru to reef geeks, is in the midst of setting up and absolute dream system to house his prized collection of fish and corals. A behemoth of a home aquarium system, this build is absolutely mind boggling to...
