by Matthew Stansbery | Oct 16, 2013 | Corals, Equipment, Events, Industry
Many of us are familiar with the large dry-good displays of Dirk’s The Real Reefers Store as he can set up at events and conferences easily taking up an entire wall. Dirk was recently robbed and had his entire stock and truck stolen.… by AquaNerd | Oct 16, 2013 | Aquaculture, Fish, Industry
Clownfish come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, but this one is way out there. Recently on their Facebook page, Sustainable Aquatics shared an image of this very unique looking clownfish. The tiny Ocellaris has the typical orange, white, and black coloration, but it also possesses elaborate fins that would look more fitting on a betta fish. According to Sustainable Aquatics, a member of their staff found an odd looking clownfish with unusually long fins that was being harassed by its tankmates. Seeing just how unique the fish was, the staff member relocated the fish so that it could heal from all of its battle wounds. After all, clownfish can be very aggressive toward each other. After some time, the longfin clownfish was eventually paired with a wild-caught female Ocellaris. The hope obviously being that the longfin trait could be passed down to another generation and potentially blended with other clownfish aberrations to created a whole new genre of designer clown. From the wild Ocellaris x longfin clownfish pairing, an estimated total of 25,000 offspring have been hatched by AquaNerd | Oct 7, 2013 | Equipment, Industry
This may or may not be news to everyone, but it is certainly news to us. The US distributor for Aquarium Technik BURIAN has either lost their exclusive distributorship of the ATB brand, or has gone out of business altogether. We were doing our usual perusal of the aquarium forums when we happened upon a post on Reef Central by someone claiming that they were told that ATB USA had gone out of business when contacting them for service repairs. Not wanting to take that at face value, as many rumors are generated on forums that end up not being true, we went to the ATB website. To our surprise, ATB USA was not listed anywhere. Instead, the list names Tenji as the distributors for the US. We are a bit surprised by this news, but given ATB’s seemingly diminished presence in the hobby as of late, it really shouldn’t come as one. ATB has lost significant ground in the last two years to all of the other brands that have adopted the cone shape. This isn’t to say that the quality of the ATB skimmers has declined, but hobbyists want to spend less for that quality and there are tons of other options available. We don’t exactly know when ATB USA went out of business, since nothing has been publicly announced. by Francis Yupangco | Oct 2, 2013 | Fish, Industry
My first aquarium was a 10 gallon Hagen kit with an AquaClear filter. Who would have guessed that nearly 30 years later I would end up developing products for Hagen. I feel very fortunate to have turned my childhood hobby into a rewarding... by AquaNerd | Sep 30, 2013 | Aquaculture, Fish, Industry
It was love at first sight, according to a new article from Oceans Reefs & Aquariums that announced their first ever intentional hybrid, the ORA Blood Orange Clownfish. The story about how this clownfish hybrid came to be is a bit unusual, but it makes for a great read. In short, ORA acquired a breeding clownfish pair from Larry Lau of Eco Reef Aquariums back in 2012, but it wasn’t a typical pair of clowns. Instead, it was a mixed species couple that consisited of a female Goldstripe Maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) and an Ocellarish clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris). According to Larry, he sold the female GSM clownfish to a customer 10 years ago. When the customer had to relocate, the clownfish was given back to Larry, who placed her in a large display reef with a large carpet anemone. A year later, Larry was given an adult Ocellaris clownfish and thought the 200-gallon display would be more than enough space for the two fish to cohabitate. To his surprise, the Ocellaris clown swam right up to the GSM, who more surprisingly accepted it into her anemone. The GSM not only accepted the Ocellaris as a living partner, but even danced for him. Within 3 months from introduction, the two fish were regularly spawning, with egg clusters being clearly viable by AquaNerd | Sep 26, 2013 | Equipment, Industry, MACNA
Back in May, the American arm of the Italian aquarium product company, Sicce, announced a new reef feeding program. The lineup consists of just two products, called Sicce HyperKoral and Sicce Calanus, but they promised to be a complete dosing system to meet all of your corals’ needs. When dosed hand in hand with each other, they target LPS, SPS, soft corals, and other filter feeders. While at MACNA, we got to see these two coral foods in the flesh, while also getting a full rundown of what they bring to the proverbial dinner table. Below is a summation of what each product accomplishes. HyperKoral is a product that delivers purified L-amino acids, vitamins, and carbohydrates to your corals in a liquid substrate. These components are said to be in concentrations that mimic what is found on wild coral reefs, and because of their chemical makeup, they are not removed via protein skimming
