Banggai Cardinalfish and The Endangered Species Act
Collection of Banggai Cardinals for the aquarium trade is the major driver for their harvest. These fish have a extremely limited geographic range of about 5,500 km² and small wild population size estimated at 2.4 million individuals. These cardinalfish are composed of pockets of individual populations concentrated around the shallows small and large islands within the Banggai Archipelago. A small population also occurs off Central Sulawesi, within Luwuk harbor. One additional population has become established in the Lembeh Strait (North Sulawesi), 400 km north of the natural area of the species distribution. They live in very shallow water, and are plodding swimmers that are easily herded out of protective cover. This combination of characteristics, coupled with high demand as a desirable ornamental species, makes them vulnerable to overharvest. DueReef Life Support Systems WavePuck
Daniel Nguyen and the guys at Reef Life Support Systems (RLSS) have been working on an exciting new wave maker device known as the WavePuck. Slightly smaller than a hockey puck, this is the 1st public viewing of the 3D printed prototype. I first had a sneak peak at the device this past September at MACNA in Washington, DC but until now I had to keep this information under lockdown until now. Daniel, the owner of RLSS in Canada, has developed a low profile magnetic pivotal wavemaker. At a nominal 1.5″ thick x 3″ footprint, it is now the lowest profile wavemaker device of its kind. Today RLSS announced plans to produce 4 models of the Wave Puck with the 1st model generating a maximum flow rateReef Threads Podcast #244
Gary and Christine recording “in the wild” at MACNA 2015.
We’re back from Washington DC and it’s time for our MACNA wrap-up show. Fire up your ear buds and hear what we saw and did at the annual marine-aquarium event. Also, make your plans to attend in Sand Diego next September. Download the podcast here, or subscribe to our podcasts at iTunes. Also, follow us on Twitter at reefthreads.—Gary and ChristineSponsor: Rod’s Food
Rod’s Food website
Win a reef system
Reef Savvy Tank Giveaway
DC MACNA Doesn’t Disappoint!
Reef display in the CoralVue boothLooking back over the weekend Caribbean Chris and I just spent at MACNA 2015 in Washington, DC, it’s dizzying trying to recollect all that we saw and learned and all the wonderful people we met. For us, there’s just something energizing about MACNA. We always leave the event with our batteries recharged and all sorts of creative ideas for enhancing our content and offerings here at Saltwater Smarts. First off, we’d like to extend salty kudos to the Marine Aquarium Societies of North America (MASNA) and the Washington, DC Area Marine Aquarist Society (WAMAS) for organizing MACNA 2015 and keeping it humming along so smoothly throughout. I can only imagine the level of effort and aggravation it takes to pull together such a massive event. I don’t know what the actual attendance number turned out to be, but the Saturday-night banquet alone drew some 2,300 people!Thousands of salties attended the Saturday night banquet One of the many elements that set MACNA apart from other industry events is the powerful educational component.
