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 Afishionado | Feb 3, 2017 | Science, Tanks, Video
For part 2 of this episode, we drove to Miami, Florida to visit Julian Sprung of Two Little Fishies. In his office, Julian sat down with us and we talked anything and everything about calcium hydroxide or better known as kalkwasser and how to apply this old but proven... by AquaNerd | Feb 3, 2017 | Equipment, Science
Back in September of 2016, we stopped by CoralVue’s booth at MACNA to talk with our good friend and part time comedian Ricardo Laso. At their booth, CoralVue had a slew of new aquarium products on display from IceCap, Giesemann, RLSS, and Reef Octopus. What stood out the most to me was the “tower of power“. At the bottom of the tower was a relatively small pump, probably a beta or prototype VarioS-8 DC controllable pump. As you can see from the video (see link above), the pump is very powerful but what you may not be able to tell is that the pump is also very quite, making it ideal for home aquarium instillations. Reef Octopus has been in the testing lab for several months and CoralVue by Admin | Feb 3, 2017 | Advanced Aquarist
Scientists have concluded guppies form stronger and more stable social bonds when they're under common threat. But they also form smaller, less inclusive groups under this stress. Sound familiar, doesn't it? by Marcin Smok | Feb 2, 2017 | Corals, Feeding, Industry
Coral Cuisine, a new frozen food from the well-known fish food manufacturer San Francisco Bay, is specially formulated to meet the dietary needs of the smallest members of the reef aquarium. Corals are universally known to be hard-to-feed animals, and SFBB offers a... by Barry Brown | Feb 2, 2017 | Fish, Reef, Science
Good morning friends, I have a wild looking deep-sea creature for you al today called a Batfish, for sure one of the oddest animals on the planet! This was again found deep off the coast of Bonaire by the scientists from the Smithsonian Institution in collaboration with Substation Curacao who have the mini-submersible that dives to 1000 feet. Batfish consist of about 60 species of fishes of the family Ogcocephalidae (order Lophiiformes), found in warm and temperate seas. Batfishes have broad, flat heads and slim bodies and are covered with hard lumps and spines. Some species have an elongated, upturned snout. by Admin | Feb 2, 2017 | Advanced Aquarist
If you don't like watching fish eating other fish (and especially if you love pufferfish), then don't watch this video ... because it's of a frogfish eating a HUGE pufferfish, whose puffing defense proved no match for "The Mouth." by DarienGlave | Feb 1, 2017 | Science
What is marine biology? Marine biology by definition is the scientific study of marine organisms. However, in practice this encompasses a wide variety of jobs and career pathways. There are two responses I typically receive when I tell people that I am a marine...
