Inverts
The Mystery of the Giant Clams of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean
by Dan Killam (originally published on the Clamsplaining blog)
I have always been fascinated by scientific discoveries that are hanging right in front of our noses. Cryptic species are one such surprise. Sometimes, researchers using...
How to tell if your Mantis Shrimp is Male (a boy)
After being asked, and me actually asking this question long ago, I decided to post a thread to help people discover the gender of a mantis shrimp. There's no real detail on telling if the shrimp is a girl, all you will see are two spots on the...
Anemones and other photosynthetic corals obtain their complement of Zooxanthellae from the water column in the wild. In many case , with stress Anemones can completely loose all of their Zooxanthellae. In case like this, we can jump-start the process by feeding them with live viable...
So, you want to add a Maxima clam to your reef tank. OK, great!
While we normally think of Maxima clams as gold, black, green, or blue, there are some very rare color patterns. The Chimera clam is a rare two-faced Maxima and occur at a rate of about 1 in every few million.
A Wild Collected...
A uncommon subject from an uncommon reefer, you may wonder why do we want to culture aiptasia wend this is one of the primary pests in our hobby since the very beginning . The answer is fairly easy. By understanding aiptasia propagation we can a) create a thriving culture of aiptasia eating...
Introduction
It was almost 20 years ago when I first introduced the Fresh Water Dip (FWD) protocol for the treatment of Pinched Mantle Disease (PMD). Over the years, many reefers altered the protocol somewhat but, on the whole, it still is the only tried and true way to treat PMD, a universally...
If provided the proper conditions, giant clams are a great choice not only for the beginner reef aquarist but even for the most advanced reef aquarists, offering beauty, biological benefits as well as biological diversity. Proper lighting, water movement, trace elements and placement of the...
Introduction
Named after the terrestrial flower, Anemone, because of their often beautiful coloration and flower-like appearance, sea anemones are predatory animals that can be a wonderful but also risky addition to an aquarium. Notoriously difficult to keep, sea anemones, which we will...
Introduction
Below you will find a companion article to our recent one on snails for the reef aquarium. This one is on crabs, and it is, by no means, an exhaustive treatment of the subject, but rather an introduction to the ones most commonly found in the marine aquarium trade and ones you may...
Snails can be a very useful part of a reef tank, consuming algae, detritus and harmful microfauna that can make life difficult for your corals and fish. In a sense they act as a janitorial service for your tank, which is probably why teams of snails and other scavenging organisms are called the...
Peppermint shrimp.
Photo is from the World Wide Corals website. ©2019, All Rights Reserved.
Note from the Editor:
The following breeding information was kindly furnished to us by @Sallstrom, who is a professional marine biologist in Gothenburg, Sweden. In my discussions with him, he felt that...
Starfish or sea stars / Why starfish are cool
Blue Linckia sea star.
This photo is courtesy of @DSC reef, ©2019 All Rights Reserved.
Most people know what a typical starfish looks like, and that they live in the sea and that they are kind of cute. But that’s it. In this article I will try to...
Anemones and Why You Should Wait
When is the proper time to add an anemone to your tank? Right away? 1 month? 4 months? WHAT!? A YEAR YOU SAY!?
That is correct. In most instances it is better to wait 8 months to a year before adding an anemone to your tank. And here is why:
A tank is first...
Feather Dusters – The beauty in the worm
Photo by: BlennyKravits
Ahhh the feather duster. It’s a spectacular sight to see in the home aquarium. The long tube, the soft and wavy “feathers” moving in the current. It’s always cool to watch as it sucks into the tube when a fish gets too close. It...
Invert Spotlight: Conch
The conch is an excellent addition to your clean up crew. They are touted for their skills at cleaning and sifting through your sand bed keeping it healthy and white. Conchs in general are quite hardy and easy to keep in any size tank, though only one should be kept in...
Coral and Invert Quarantine
What?! You want me to quarantine my fish AND my corals and inverts? In a word, Yes. Have you ever quarantined all your fish, were so careful to treat carefully and follow all the rules only to end up with ich or velvet in your display anyway? The reason this happens...
The Mysterious Chambered Nautilus
I recently had the opportunity to see one of these amazing, interesting creatures in person. While I don’t condone keeping this creature in captivity, it does happen and so we ordered one at the store. I was impressed with how well it shipped and acclimated...
Cleanup Crew. Tank Janitors. Tank Cleaners. Functionally, it means the same thing to every hobbyist…. inverts added to your tank to keep it nice and sparkly.
It’s a necessity (Well, not an absolute necessity)
Everyone has one.
But, if you ask those people what critters to include, and how...
Hello Everyone! After much help from our fellow reefers and the rest of the reefing communities around the world, I was able to compile an Anemone Compatibility Sheet!
This Sheet Addresses the Following:
Which Anemones can be housed and touch in an aquarium (listed with √)
Which Anemones can...
hermit crab on acan lord coral image via reef2reef member @Mr. Microscope
Crabs are an essential part of the Red Lobster menu, but they play an even more important role in quite the opposite way in the wild and even your aquarium. Some types of crabs are pure evil when it comes to reef...
