by AquaNerd | Jun 3, 2014 | Science
Sometimes you have to tear something apart to make it better again. And that’s exactly what happened with our pals at 3Reef, a marine aquarium forum whose roots go all the way back to 1996. What other online aquarium organization can say that? Some, obviously, but not many. Anyways, after running smoothly for several years, the site’s founder Matt Rogers wanted to shake things up by giving the site a new look and new features. After all, technology constantly changes the way we interface with our online stomping grounds. So, after hiding away in a what Matt describes as a “small cave full of beer and cheese”, he came up with a completely new site. Matt spent several months planning and a week of non-stop coding to get the look he wanted. It has a nice, modern finish that runs well on all devices, both mobile and not by AquaNerd | May 14, 2014 | Fish, Science
The Marine Breeding Initiative is gearing up for yet another one of their MBI Workshops, which is slated for July 14th, and while the speaker lineup has been public record for some time now, the show’s organizers made a huge announcement late yesterday regarding the addition of one more. Joining the already star studded cast of subject matter experts is famed aquarium breeder, Karen Brittain. This is huge news for us fish nerds, as Karen is basically a legend of the hobby. Karen is well-known in aquarium breeding circles, having been doing it for what seems like an eternity. She has seen success with breeding Amphiprion latezonatus clownfish, and undertook difficult projects in breeding bandit angelfish, watanabe angelfish, and interruptus angelfish. Since living aquarium legends speak to aquarium groups all of the time, you might wonder why Karen’s “appearance” at the MBI Workshop is so surprising. Well, Karen resides in Hawaii, which makes traveling to aquarium shows a little bit costly and difficult. On top of that, she’s quite reclusive, not basking in the glory of the trade but toiling away in the “trenches” of fish breeding. That statement is not meant to be a knock on those experts who run the aquarium speaking circuit regularly, but instead it is meant to be commentary on just how significant her appearance is at the MBI Workshop. 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 by AquaNerd | Jul 10, 2013 | Aquaculture, Corals, Events, Fish
The aquarium hobby has never before seen more active participation in the captive breeding of marine ornamental species, and that awareness is being helped along by at least two great conferences/workshops. The MBI Workshop has enjoyed several years of success, and the Bay Area Reefers Breeding and Propagation Workshop, which is our focus today, is really coming into its own with their second annual meeting coming up in October. Much like last year’s BAP, 2013 holds some great show content for fish breeding hobbyists. Joe Yaiullo and Todd Gardner will make up the guest speaker list. There will be some coral vendors at the workshop, who will be selling a bunch of aquacultured livestock. A generous raffle will round out the day’s activities. The single-day mini conference will take place on October 19th at the Chabot Community College, the same venue for last year’s event. by AquaNerd | Jun 20, 2013 | Contest, MACNA
The aquarium conference season, like this summer weather, is starting to heat up for 2013. MACNA is just around the corner, and with it comes the vote for the Aquarist of the Year presented by the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America. The peer nominated candidates are each considered write-ins on the ballot, and after all the votes have been tallied, the winner will be selected and later announced at MACNA 2013. Only MASNA members get the opportunity to vote, and the voting process will be open until July 6th. A complete list of past Aquarist of the Year winners can be found in the MASNA site as well.
