by xeniaforever | Dec 8, 2016 | Equipment, Tanks, Technology
An exciting new product announcement from Orphek LED Lighting: the Orphek Amazonas 500 watt LED. Orphek is a leading supplier to public aquariums throughout the world. The most recent project was the public aquarium in the Jialong Port in China; the company was... by Admin | Dec 8, 2016 | Invertebrates
Not only are hermit crabs fascinating for their nature of using of old, discarded shells, but they also exhibit a phenomenon of nature known as ‘chirality’, aka ‘handedness’. It seems that deep in their past, hermit evolution made a ‘decision’: in the main, they’d be... by Joe Rowlett | Dec 7, 2016 | Fish, Science
From the land of the rising sun comes a colorful new species of reef fish that is sure to be the envy of many aquarists. Though only just described scientifically, the Hinomaru Perchlet (Plectranthias takasei) has been known for years thanks to the efforts of Japanese... by Joe Rowlett | Dec 7, 2016 | Fish, Science
The colorful deepwater basslets of the genus Lipogramma just welcomed a pair of new species into their ranks. Though unfamiliar to most, these lovely little fishes are one of the true holy grails for aquarists, with specimens tending to fetch a small fortune relative... by Admin | Dec 7, 2016 | Corals, Photography
I’ve often wondered just how large a single coral specimen can get, and I think this might be a contender for the ‘largest coral I’ve ever seen... by xeniaforever | Dec 7, 2016 | Aquaculture, Conservation, Corals
Congratulations to Jamie Craggs and his team of scientists at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. They are celebrating the first birthday of their captive-spawned corals, and are pleased to announce that their survival rate is over 100 times greater than in the... by Saltwater Smarts | Dec 7, 2016 | Corals, Feeding
Sponges are great filter feeders If you do any diving anywhere, you will see sponges everywhere. Some of them are more colorful than corals, and some of them you can sit in. All sponges are water pumps and filters, which makes them useful in the sea and in our reefs. Sponges don’t move, they sit there, eat, and get fat. (Reminds me of one of my old girlfriends. She had the same complexion and personality as a sponge.) A typical sponge can pump 20,000 times its own volume in water through its cells in one day. All that water is also filtered by the sponge using “choanocytes,” which are just tiny, cone-shaped towers with sticky cells on them to catch food. Each tower has one flagellum, or hair-like thing by xeniaforever | Dec 6, 2016 | Conservation, Corals
Congratulations to the Coral Restoration Foundation, who has just received a $2.1 million dollar grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to restore eight reefs along the Florida Reef...