by AquaNerd | Feb 6, 2014 | Fish, Opinion, Science, Tanks
Yesterday, we broke news on the amazing aberrant moorish idol that popped up in the holding tanks of Segrest Farms. Unfortunately, the images in that post were not the best quality, but Segrest delivered the goods today with a fresh batch of high res photos showing the amazing moorish idol in all its splendor. They just uploaded them to their Facebook page moments ago, and the images confirm, at least in our humble opinions, that the fish is a moorish idol and not the proposed hybrid that many folks were chattering about on social media sites. That said, this is the most unique moorish idol we’ve ever laid eyes on. This aberrant form has significant yellow markings all over its body, with only slight hints of the black bars that are normally seen. It’s such an amazing fish and we’re grateful to Segrest Farms for keeping us in the loop in a big way. Continue below for a rather impressive gallery.
<!CDATA]> by Reef To Rainforest | Feb 4, 2014 | Conservation, Fish, Industry, Invertebrates, Opinion, Science
Fish catch for the table: reef-side native people depend on their local waters for food and income. Landmark new paper says that a sustainable marine aquarium trade may be a key to the future of healthy coral reef areas By Ret Talbot The fate of coral reefs worldwide is now a well-publicized, front-page, six o’clock news crisis. In fact, three marine scientists just published a landmark paper that leads with this daunting proclamation: “Coral reefs are at the brink of a global, system-wide collapse.” Lead author of the paper, Dr. Andrew L. Rhyne: “Ending cyanide fishing and effective trade monitoring are necessary and critical short-term gains for the marine aquarium trade.” Ending cyanide fishing and effective trade monitoring are necessary and critical short-term gains. For those involved in the keeping of marine aquaria, it is logical—perhaps even imperative—to wonder whether or not embattled reef ecosystems can sustain fisheries pressure in addition to all the other stressors they face. Often the heated arguments come down to these two points of contention: 1. Is it possible to harvest live fishes and invertebrates from coral reefs in a sustainable manner? by Francis Yupangco | Dec 17, 2013 | Conservation, Fish, Opinion
Governor Neil Abercrombie signed the controversial West Hawaii Regional Fishery Management Area Rules which limits the collection of many commonly kept marine aquarium fishes from Hawaii .… by AquaNerd | Nov 15, 2013 | Industry, Opinion, Science, Tanks
Several months back, Current USA debuted their Satellite LED lighting for freshwater aquariums, and the whole time we were thinking when they would release a set of stylish, low-profile, tank mounted lights for to the saltier side of the hobby. Sure, they already had the True Lumen and True Lumen Pro strip lights, but these were bare bones setups that, in our honest opinions, sacrificed aesthetics for pure function. Ideally, those lights were meant to hide inside of canopies or tank hoods. Well, the (somewhat) new Orbit Marine LED fixtures is Current USA’s response to that question, as they look pretty sharp, mount over an aquarium with built-in legs, and are loaded to the brim with some really useful features. According to Current USA, the Orbit Marine LED fixtures sports the aquarium industry’s first dual daylight and dual actinic multi-chip LEDs. They accomplish this by combining 8,000K and 12,000K white into one chip and 445nm and 460nm actinic blue into another. by Francis Yupangco | Oct 21, 2013 | Industry, Opinion
Many marine aquarium enthusiasts know about Richard Ross as the Aquarist Extraordinaire behind Steinhart Aquarium’s stunning 212,000 gallon Philippine Coral Reef. He has kept marine aquariums for over 25 years and has made a name for himself through his many... by AquaNerd | Oct 14, 2013 | Corals, Equipment, Opinion, Tanks
If you truly value any of your corals, especially the rare and expensive ones, you should give them away for free. What?!? Does that really make sense? Sure it does, if you follow this reasoning. If you have some rare coral and don’t spread it around to your closest friends, then you run the risk of never seeing it again if you encounter some catastrophic aquarium wipeout. By giving out free frags, you ensure that the coral strain will continue on despite your success with your own aquarium. While it may not make a whole lot of sense to give away something you could make a little cash on, you ensure that you don’t lose out on a coral entirely. So many times, we’ve heard of stunning tanks taking a quick nose dive with one of a kind livestock going with them. For big, mature tanks that have been around for a while, chances are there are frags of each of those corals somewhere in the local community. And chances are, if a tank like that goes down, the locals would be more than willing to help restock that setup
