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Reef Builders | The Reef and Marine Aquarium Blog

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  Coral Restoration Foundation video by Fincasters is an even better look at the coral tree nurseries

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 9:26pm CST by Brian Blank

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  Fincast’s John Carlin put together a nice video showcasing the Coral Reef Foundation and the work they are doing to replenish staghorn corals in the reefs surrounding the Florida coast. Coral Restoration Foundation founder Ken Nedimyer gives a nod to hobbyists for our work in coral propagation to the foundation’s success. Currently the CRF has over 21,000 pieces of coral under their care and are slowly repopulating reefs in US waters. The video also does a great job of showing off why CRF uses suspended frags in their coral tree nurseries. If you want to know why you’d better watch the video!
  Readers also viewed:

  • Magical video by Coral Morphologic shows the staghorn coral tree nursery in exquisite detail
  • Celebrate World Oceans Day and Adopt-A-Coral
  • Amazing images from reef restoration nursery on Florida Keys
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium’s renovated “Open Sea Gallery” on video
  • Madagascar coral reefs of the Barren Isles are swarming with fish and reef life
  • This simple two-bommie aquascape exudes subtle beauty
  • Video of Ribbon Reefs shows part of the scale of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
  • New video highlights use of Ecoxotic Cannon LED over a nice bommie of SPS corals

  
  

  
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  Salt Water Connection unveils new dosing pumps

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 9:09pm CST by Brian Blank

  

  Salt Water Connection looks like they just got into the dosing pump business with a pair of peristaltic pumps aimed at being an affordable option for most hobby applications. Known for their affordable and functional protein skimmers, SWC has the potential for a solid, affordable product line with these pumps.

  The SWC 3 Dosing Pump is a master unit and features a built-in controller with three independent pumps on board. The SWC 4 Dosing Pump is a slave unit that augments your SWC 3 giving you four more pump channels to use but does require being connected to the main unit to be able to program and control each channel.

  

  Programming looks pretty simple, using a four-button pad where users can select the volume and time for each pump. Hobbyists can also do manual dosing by simply selecting the pump and holding down the “enter” button. The new are priced right with the SWC 3 Dosing Pump retailing for around $275 and the SWC 4 running for around $250. There is nothing listed on the SWC website about the pumps but they are being listed on Reef Filtration’s website, a distributor of SWC products.

  While these could just be rebadged pumps SWC is hitting a good point in the market. Most affordable pumps in the sub-$100 range offer little programming options and even the programmable AquaHouse dosing pump runs around $85 per pump, so three of them add up to around what one SWC 3 costs with having to just use one controller. Even though there are sexier and more expensive pumps like the DIDOSY that catch our attention, it will be interesting to see what the word on the street is with this one.

  [via AquaNerd]
  Readers also viewed:

  • Coral-Shop aquarium products now officially available in North America via Finsreef
  • Libra dosing pump video quickly shows off touchscreen and dosers
  • Fins Reef official US Coral-Shop and DIDOSY distributor
  • Vertex Cerebra and Libra touchscreen have been retooled to be completely flush-mounted
  • One-on-one with the special edition Profi Line doser from Coral-Shop
  • Reef Angel announces new two-channel dosing pump, availaible for pre-order shortly
  • Video walkthrough of the Profiline digital dosing system from Coral-Shop
  • Johnlen Micom Liquid Feeder is a dynamic dosing pump

  
  

  
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  Aberrant Chaetodon octofasciatus is just like finding a ‘Shiny Pokemon’ in the wild

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 8:22pm CST by Tea Yi Kai

  

  Very cool aberration of the bars in this individual specimen. Picture by PacificBlue blog.

  We’ve all heard of “mis-barred” fishes whereby the stripes are either missing, misaligned or totally warped. Such aberrations are usually mistakes in the expression of these traits, but luckily for these fishes, mis-barring is usually a plus point for fish lovers as it lends a unique and one of a kind touch. Case in point is this interesting specimen of Chaetodon octofasciatus pictured above. 

  Normally, the eight-banded butterflyfish is seen with straight vertical bars that do not touch each other. The funky specimen of Chaetodon octofasciatus above has apparently had two sets of these bars curved and bent together to form two loops over most of the body. C. octofasciatus is a wide ranging and naturally variable fish anyways, with a few color forms.

  Typically seen are those with a creamy-white body coloration, but specimens with a light yellow body also exist in certain areas. Solomon Island forms sport a yellow body with darker orange between alternating bands. Even the vertical stripes are subjected to some form of variations. Individuals from Thailand, Taiwan and possibly other locales have two pairs of bars that are closely spaced together.

  Anyhow, aberrant barring, spotting or coloration are prevalent in many species but the chances of finding one is slim. Kinda like encountering a “shiny pokemon” in the wild, if you know what I mean.

  

  Various forms of C. octofasciatus. A: Paired barring seen in Taiwan specimen. C: slight aberration in number of bars. Photo credits: A - Vincent C. Chen. B,C,D - Massimo Moyer.

  
  Readers also viewed:

  • Inter-subgeneric hybrids of Roaps butterflies are rare and amazing
  • LiveAquaria offered for sale a beautiful and unique Chaetodon miliaris X C. multicinctus butterflyfish hybrid
  • Breathtaking Raccoon butterflyfish hybrid is discovered
  • Chaetodon xanthurus X C. guentheri is odd, even for a hybrid butterflyfish
  • An unusual butterflyfish hybrid of Chaetodon auriga and C. lineolatus
  • Pontyandayo’s reef tank was a tabling acropora and angelfish paradise
  • Amazing high definition video of Tuamotu is reason enough to visit the French Polynesia
  • Prognathodes obliquus and P. dichrous are two similar yet unobtainable species from the Atlantic

  
  

  
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  Orphek Nilus LED is a 120 watt multicolor SPS coral light

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 7:00pm CST by Jake Adams

  

  The Orphek Nilus is an interesting LED aquarium fixture which has just popped up for sale at Marine Depot. Loaded up with no fewer than four LED colors, the Orphek Nilus boasts 30 White LEDs, 22 Blue LEDs, 4 Red LEDs and 4 UV/true violet LEDs. The Orphek Nilus is differentiated from its white predecessor with an all black enclosure, black cord and the all black timer box.

  Priced at $900 for 120 watts, the Orphek Nilus will have some stiff competition from Ecotech Marine’s feature-rich 130 watt Radion XR30w which is priced at $750. However since the Orphek Nilus has 60 LEDs spread over a wider surface area, the Orphek could provide better spread with more overall lumens, and those UV/True Violet LEDs are an added bonus for eeking out even more colors from the SPS corals for which this light was designed.
  Readers also viewed:

  • Orphek DIF100XP and DIF50XP are two new multicolored, multichip LED pendants
  • Mike Maddox is a case study in conflict of interest
  • Orphek LED is one sexy aquarium light with mystery LEDs

  
  

  
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  Bleeding Warpaint and other Scolymia take center stage at Germany’s White Corals

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 6:11pm CST by Jake Adams

  

  Bleeding apples, warpaint reds, spirograph scolies, FrankenScolies, IncrediScolies, Mini Scolies, Orange Scolymia and tye dye super mega ultra Scolymia australis are the creme-de-la-creme of solitary LPS corals which couldn’t be any more ostentatious if they had been painted by an artist’s hand. White Corals of Germany recently obatined the Bleeding Apple Warpaint scolie they call ‘the wicked one’ and that’s because they take their Scolymia seriously that they have a dedicated section on their website for the highly coveted australian button brain coral. In order to get these amazing scolies a supplier must also order dozens or scores of other Scolymia australis which are more muted in appearance but still very attractive.

  With Scolymia australis being a slow growing coral species which reproduces almost exclusively through sexual reproduction, we are concerned with the disparity between how many Scolymia are being harvested and how little they are being propagated in captivity, almost not at all. With so many cheap low grade Scolies available it would behoove an intrepid aquarist to use these to tease out the secrets of breeding Scolymia australis for substantial monetary gain, and to alleve the pressure on wild stocks of the slow to reproduce Scolymia australis.
  Readers also viewed:

  • In your face with Macna’s best Scolymia
  • Funky new little ‘Mini Scolie’ now coming in from West Australia
  • Orange Scolymia are in season at Cherry Corals
  • Fauna Marin LPS pellet coral food quickly eaten by a Scolymia australis
  • Scolymia australis abounds at LiveAquaria’s coral farm
  • Incrediscoly outshines even the Spirograph Scolymia
  • Will the real Acan Maxima please stand up?
  • FrankenScoly shows that even reefers can be mad scientists

  
  

  
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  Pseudanthias sheni is a closely related species to the ubiquitous square-spot anthias

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 4:54pm CST by Tea Yi Kai

  
  

  Nuptial coloration of Pseudanthias sheni. Picture by Itaru Takaku, Yakushima Diving.

  Pseudanthias sheni is a gorgeous, and almost doppelgänger of Pseudanthias pleurotaenia, or the square-spot anthias. Unlike the latter, the Shen’s anthias is somewhat more subdued in coloration, with more shades of white. The caudal fin of P. sheni is comparatively lighter in color and more white compared to its close cousin. Like many other species of anthias, P. sheni is haremic with males tending to large groups of females.

  The males of Pseudanthias sheni are also gaudily colored and very much different compared to the females, which in this species, is an overall yellow-orange with little markings. Females of P. sheni look almost identical to those of P. pleurotaenia. Keep reading for more titillating pictures of P. sheni, including some really awesome spawning ascent shots.

  

  Pseudanthias sheni with a female in the background. This picture was most likely taken during a spawning ascent. Photo by Tsuyoshi kawamoto.

  

  Nuptial phase P. sheni with female. Picture by Tsuyoshi Kawamoto.

  While the differences between the two species may be subtle, one look and its quite obvious that P. sheni is indeed a distinct species. The head and ventral fins of P. sheni are also different from the standard square-spot anthias. This large species was originally reported to be endemic to the Rowley Shoals of Australia, but has since been reported from Indonesia where they often mingle with the similar looking P. pleurotaenia.

  When in nuptial display, the coloration turns from a light salmon-lavender hue to an intense purple and magenta. There haven’t been much reports on P. sheni entering the trade but that’s most likely due to the confusion between it and the square-spot anthias. Take a good look at every square-spot anthias you see the next time. You might just be looking at P. sheni in disguise.

  

  P. sheni in its relaxed non-nuptial coloration. The color of P. sheni is lighter as compared to P. pleurotaenia, with an overall peachy-lavender hue as compared to the dark magenta purple of the latter. Picture by NabiinSea.

  Here’s a brief and rather unclear video of P. sheni in the wild, but it’s pretty obvious even in this video that the coloration of P. sheni differs from that of P. pleurotaenia. Video taken in Ambon, Indonesia.

  Click here to view the embedded video.

  
  Readers also viewed:

  • Pseudanthias sp. 4 from Micronesia is a beautiful and undescribed species
  • Pseudanthias privitera captured on video schooling in the deep of Moorea
  • Pseudanthias calloura documented in Palau as well as the Celebes Sea before official description
  • Pseudanthias cf ventralis from the Marshall Islands may very well be a separate species
  • Pseudanthias leucozonus re-appears from Bali sources
  • Pseudanthias charlenae offered for the trade via Indonesian sources
  • Charlene’s Anthias, Pseudanthias charlenae from Western New Guinea, Indonesia
  • Rare Japanese white-bar fairy basslet and golden hawkfish appear in Thailand!

  
  

  
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  Red Sea refreshes and updates popular Reef Starter Kit with current products

  Posted: February 22nd, 2012, 2:44pm CST by Ryan Gripp

  Red Sea, the Israeli based aquarium manufacturer and goods supplier has refreshed their popular Reef Starter Kit. The Reef starter kit has actually been around a while, with the older version hiding in the back of shelves at local fish stores across the world. Red Sea has slowly updated their line of products to include their new salt, testing kits and reef care products line. It was just a matter of time before the all-in-one kit was updated with the latest consumables from Red Sea. These are now available for retailers to stock to their store shelves with shipments happening in February 2012.The Red Sea Starter Kit comes with optimally balanced Coral Pro Salt that contains biologically balanced, elevated levels of the foundation elements (Calcium, Magnesium and Carbonates) necessary for sustainable, accelerated coral growth. The Reef Mature Pro Kit includes a concentrated blend of nitrifying bacteria, a bacteria growth starter, NO3 : PO4-X, biological nitrate and phosphate reducer and KH-Coralline Buffer to maintain the optimum KH while vitalizing Live Rocks. The Marine Care Pro Test includes pH/KH, Nitrate/Nitrite and Ammonia tests.

   

   
  Readers also viewed:

  • Red Sea reef fish beginning to trickle back into the aquarium trade
  • A closer look at the extremely elusive Cirrhilabrus blatteus
  • Red Sea MAX S 500 line of aquariums gets a thorough video walkthrough
  • Tomiyamichthys dorsostigma is the latest described goby from the Red Sea
  • John Randall working on Fishes of the Red Sea, a new book with 1500 images
  • Red Sea rolls out Reef Care Program trial packs
  • US pricing for Red Sea Max S 400, 500 and 650 revealed, available to Americans very soon
  • Red Sea releases video series on “Reef Care” line