Nephtheidae in the Wild

On occasion, I’ve seen small colonies of nephtheid corals in captivity, but as yet I’ve never seen a single specimen that is doing anything other than slowly dying. Beyond a few isolated experiences of keeping species such as Dendronepthya in specialists’ systems with...

An Impressive Turbinaria

When aquarists take home a piece of coral from a store or a frag swap, they don’t always comprehend just how large some colonies can grow in the wild, accustomed as we all are to seeing the understandably constrained world of captive coral...

Domino Damsels and Anemones

When we think of fish that host in anemones, we generally think of clowns: the Amphiprioninae, for obvious and understandable reasons. I think we forget that there are quite a few other fish that associate with anemone species at some point in their development,...

The Sohal Tang in the Wild

Acanthurus sohal, also known as the Red Sea Tang, Zebra Surgeon and Majestic Tang, is a stunner of a fish, but it can be quite a bully in the home aquarium when introduced to an existing collection. Here’s a little more about them in the...

Why we use a Powerful Flash for Underwater Photos

For someone who makes only a small amount of his income from underwater photography, I drag an awful lot of fragile equipment through airports across the world. Every time I hand over my precious camera gear, I fret about its survival and whether or not I’ll have to...

A Happy Christmas

Of all the small intricate animals I like to photograph underwater, Christmas tree worms are among my favorites; in my book, they are only outranked by nudibranchs.  I thought I’d share some of my favorite Christmas tree worm images, this time from the Indo-pacific,...