by Saltwater Smarts | Feb 4, 2017 | Feeding, Fish, Opinion, Reef
Mandarin dragonet (Synchiropus splendidus) Hobby pioneer Paul “Paul B” Baldassano is not your grandfather’s reefkeeper (though he is old enough to be your grandfather!). Nor is his book, The Avant-Garde Marine Aquarist: A 60-Year History of Fishkeeping, anything like your grandfather’s hobby literature. In fact, Paul B’s perspective on just about any aspect of the marine aquarium hobby is quite distinct from anyone else’s. For proof that Paul has a decidedly different thought process, look no further than the following passage about mandarins and other dragonets from Chapter 7 of his book (which, by the way, would make a wonderful stocking stuffer for that slightly off-kilter hobbyist in your life):Mandarins and Other Dragonets Mandarinfish and all the other dragonets have the same problem—a tiny mouth and almost no stomach. Mandarins were designed to eat amphipods and copepods, or “pods” as we call them, but a mandarin will eat anything small that moves. I know many people try to “train” such a fish to eat pellets, potato chips, or frozen food, but dragonets hate you when you do that because all you are doing is slowly killing them. Because of their weird digestive tract, which is something like that of a seahorse, they don’t have the ability to store food—kind of like when people get that surgery where they put a band around the stomach so they can’t eat as much by Marcin Smok | Jan 27, 2017 | Aquaculture, Opinion, Tanks
If you thought that there was nothing left to be introduced to the synthetic salt mixes we all use in our reef aquariums, have we got some news for you! The Polish company Aquaforest has just proven this notion wrong with the introduction of its flagship salt mix,... by AquaNerd | Dec 13, 2016 | Corals, Eye Candy, Opinion
Do you have a Holy Grail coral? AKA, a nub of something exotic that you have to have? Well, I can tell you that I have plenty of those on my wish list. Sometimes I actually get a chance to acquire that Holy Grail coral at a price that I am willing to pay. The Darth Maul Porites (po-rite-ees) is one such coral for me. While browsing forums, I came across a lovely ruby colored SPS that was called the Darth Maul Porites. Hobbyists were trying different lighting intensities and spectrums in an effort to get their frags to maintain the jewel tone that it is known for. We see many green and blue corals in the hobby, but a red, pink, yellow or orange by Marcin Smok | Nov 18, 2016 | Equipment, Opinion, Tanks, Technology
One of the most crucial purchases anyone starting a saltwater aquarium faces is a reverse osmosis/deionization (RO/DI) filtration system. Distilled water ranks at the top of the list of “ingredients” for a successful reef tank, and is a necessary factor in... by Admin | Nov 9, 2016 | Conservation, Opinion, Shark Week
Over the years, the aquarium hobby hasn’t always covered itself in glory in terms of its sustainability, and it still gets a fair bit of criticism from some quarters, some of it justified and some... by Saltwater Smarts | Nov 6, 2016 | Fish, Opinion, Tanks
Yellowhead Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons) are on my short list for the impending tank downsizeNext year, our daughter will be heading off to college and our son will already be well on the way through his senior year at OSU. With two kids almost down and none to go, my wife, Melissa, and I will soon (more or less) be empty-nesters. It also means we’ll soon be selling our two-story, four-bedroom home and moving into something better suited to a twosome and a few occasional visitors. Of course, talk of downsizing our house has led to several discussions of downsizing my 125-gallon aquarium to something more manageable and what form of setup that might take. Below are just a few of the ideas I’m mulling over. If you happen to find yourself in a similar situation—or you’d just like to take on a different sort of hobby challenge—you might want to give one of these setups a try as well.1.
