by ReefBum | Sep 2, 2016 | Corals, Reef, Science
SPS Deep Dive – ORA Red Planet The ORA Red Planet is one of my favorite SPS for a number of reasons. Number one, it is red and who doesn’t love a splash of red in their reef to color things up. Number two, it is a tabling acropora so it looks like it is a natural part of a reef and number three is its fast growth rate. The last one I had was about a foot and a half wide and it didn’t take too long to get there! The ORA Red Planet was acquired by ORA in May of 2006 and quickly became a popular coral among SPS enthusiasts once it became available for sale. There was certainly an excitement when ORA released it and by Barry Brown | Aug 31, 2016 | Fish, Reef, Science
Good morning friends, I have two rare, deep-sea slit-shells for you all today that were found a few months ago by our crew on the island of Dominica. These were found with our submersible called the “Curasub” at depths ranging from 350 to 600 feet. Here’s a small note from a pleurotomariid expert that wrote in this morning… “the bright colors in some shells and animals from deep water are astonishing…but don’t forget that yellow and red/pink colorations are the first to be filtered out by the light (wavelengths) reaching those depths….and thus are a kind of hiding colors in these depths for predators …..there’s also a hypothesis that particular color pigments present in the encrusting sponges, which form the mean diet in most slit-shell species, are incorporated into the outer prismatic layers during shell development (and those yellow and red encrusting sponges are found around the same habitat where adansonianus lives, in the same depth cline).” These are the shallowest occurring and most commonly collected pleurotomariids in the Western Atlantic with a range that extends from Bermuda to Southern Brazil. Slit Shells of this species live at depths of 180 feet to 700 feet so it’s safe to say that not many folks will ever see one while out diving! In the rest of the Western Atlantic, there are three species of pleurotomariids that co-occur in any given area, but they are not sympatric as they occur at different depths. It’s safe to say that most shell collectors will cry when they see this, these shells are a thing of beauty! by Barry Brown | Aug 28, 2016 | Reef, Science
Good morning all, as you can see Curacao just got hit with another major wave of floating ocean plastics!! This was caused after a week of strong winds and big waves bringing large amounts of trash to the shores of countless Caribbean islands, not just here. From my observations of looking through pile after pile of trash I noticed that this plastic and wood has been out to sea a long time and I bet your wondering how I came up with that?? Well, almost everything I found was covered in live barnacles meaning it was out floating in the open sea a long time. The big question now is; how in the world can this be cleaned up! I must say it’s enough to keep you up at night if you could see this mess in person, I personally felt very helpless just looking at it last night and even made a failed attempt to clean some of it up. by AquaNerd | Aug 28, 2016 | Corals, Reef, Science
The Montipora Family contains about 19 different species but our featured coral of the week focuses on the encrusting purple Montipora nodosa. This unique Montipora will easily encrust on rock work or frag mounts. It is a relatively fast growing coral and it is considered to be easy – moderately-easy to care for in a reef aquarium. Encrusting Montipora Coral is classified by aquarists as a small polyp stony (SPS) coral often referred to as Cabbage, Lettuce or Velvet Rock Coral. It’s a relatively fast growing coral, and under the right conditions will spread and encrust on just about any substrate in the aquarium including the aquarium glass, given the chance. The coral polyps are very small and the calices are less than 2mm in diameter by Saltwater Smarts | Aug 27, 2016 | Aquaculture, Corals, Equipment, Photography, Reef, Science, Tanks, Technology
I get asked fairly often what light is the best light. Unfortunately, there is no right answer. First off, there is the difference in aesthetics. That is a purely subjective decision that only hobbyists can make for themselves. Most of the time hobbyists gravitate towards the blue end of the spectrum because it is very flattering to corals that fluoresce brightly.In terms of coral biology, the type of lighting that will work the best for your tank will depend a great deal on what animals you intend to keep. As I mentioned in Part 1, corals will adapt to lighting by regulating their zooxanthellae, so most coral will grow under any of these lighting technologies. Having said that, it is also entirely possible to have some corals take on a desirable appearance while other corals become less attractive under the same light. Such is the price to be paid for a mixed reef tank by Barry Brown | Aug 27, 2016 | Cephalopods, Corals, Reef, Science
Hi gang, I have an extra beautiful Caribbean reef squid clinging to a colony of mountainous star coral for you all today that I found late at night on our house reef. The Caribbean reef octopus (Octopus briareus) is a coral reef marine animal. It has eight long arms that vary in length and diameter. The mantle is large and chunky in comparison (up to 60 cm long). This species is difficult to describe because it changes color and texture to blend into its surroundings, using specialised skin cells known as chromatophores.
