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 Admin | Oct 10, 2013 | Fish
We’ve kicked October off with a huge bang, or more like nine of them to be more specific. Earlier in the week, Koji Wada revealed through a teaser image on Facebook, that nine peppermint angelfish (Paracentropyge boylei) were recently brought into his store, Blue Harbor in Japan. His teaser images showed all of the fish being acclimated while still in their individual shipping containers, so it obviously did not show them at their best. After letting the fish settle in, however, Koji has released a much more fulfilling set of images (and videos) for us to feast our eyes upon. Now, anyone in the hobby ought to know just how rare a feat this is. Prior to 2013, only two of these angels were even known to be in captivity. This year, Koji managed to get his hands on 14 of them. He brought in five back in February, and an additional nine sometime at the end of September. On top of that, he also found a way to import a few other rare species, most notably a rare deepwater Chromis and the extremely rare Claire’s Fairy Wrasse (Cirrhilabrus claire). embedded content From all of the back and forth chatter we’ve been monitoring on various social media outlets and aquarium forums, all nine of the peppermint angels have been sold. by AquaNerd | Oct 2, 2013 | Conservation, Corals
Here’s a bit of good news for the aquarium industry. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has decided to postpone listing 66 coral species under the Endangered Species Act by six months. After hearing extensive comments on the matter, NOAA determined that they needed to gather more information before making a final decision. They will complete their data solicitation by October 2013 and expect to make a decision on the information no later than June 2014. If NOAA finds sufficient reason to list the proposed corals, then each species will then become illegal to own or even propagate. And just taking a quick glance at the list, passage of the proposal would affect each and every one of us, tremendously. That announcement out of the way, here’s a little background on the story. The listing of these corals under the ESA stemmed from a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to list a total 83 coral species. That petition was originally filed in 2009, but inactivity on NOAA’s part prompted legal action by the CBD. After some initial back and forth, an agreement was eventually constructed in which the National Marine Fisheries Service would conduct a year-long study of the proposed coral species in order to determine if their listing under the ESA was necessary by AquaNerd | Oct 1, 2013 | Corals, Equipment, Fish, Invertebrates
During our recent trip to MACNA 2013, we spent a great deal of time at the Aqua Medic booth combing over their latest and greatest products. Despite several new additions to their line this past year, it wasn’t necessarily their hardware that the sales reps were so chatty about. Instead, they spoke at great length about their newest project, the Aqua Medic Live wholesale livestock facility. Always intrigued by new things, we took note of every detail thrown our way, especially since the Aqua Medic guys were just so excited about it. After seeing just what this new high end operation has to offer, we can certainly share in their enthusiasm. So, come join us for a virtual tour of this neat facility and read all about the details below. Located in Loveland, Colorado, Aqua Medic Live officially opened on August 17th of this year and its conception was driven purely by a fish store demand of a wholesale distributor in the mid-west. Aqua Medic Live currently only services local stores and companies willing to pick up their corals, though they plan to start shipping orders within the next couple of months pending logistical planning. The operation is small, but rapidly expanding as demand increases. Currently, the facility houses six coral tables measuring 6′x3′, alongside three 220-gallon show tanks that corals can also be purchased from. by AquaNerd | Sep 30, 2013 | Aquaculture, Fish, Industry
It was love at first sight, according to a new article from Oceans Reefs & Aquariums that announced their first ever intentional hybrid, the ORA Blood Orange Clownfish. The story about how this clownfish hybrid came to be is a bit unusual, but it makes for a great read. In short, ORA acquired a breeding clownfish pair from Larry Lau of Eco Reef Aquariums back in 2012, but it wasn’t a typical pair of clowns. Instead, it was a mixed species couple that consisited of a female Goldstripe Maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) and an Ocellarish clownfish (Amphiprion ocellaris). According to Larry, he sold the female GSM clownfish to a customer 10 years ago. When the customer had to relocate, the clownfish was given back to Larry, who placed her in a large display reef with a large carpet anemone. A year later, Larry was given an adult Ocellaris clownfish and thought the 200-gallon display would be more than enough space for the two fish to cohabitate. To his surprise, the Ocellaris clown swam right up to the GSM, who more surprisingly accepted it into her anemone. The GSM not only accepted the Ocellaris as a living partner, but even danced for him. Within 3 months from introduction, the two fish were regularly spawning, with egg clusters being clearly viable
