180 Gallon Florida Coral Reef Aquarium Build at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

Brandon McHenry · Oct 26, 2018

I’m very excited to show everyone some new coral additions to our Florida Reef! We have gotten two color morphs of the Great Star coral, Montastrea cavernosa. These specimens were collected for an experiment by our Coral Reef Health and Ecology Reasearch team in south Florida around two years ago. They have been maintaining them ever since and decided to donate them to our system so that we can teach the public about the important research they are conducting on this species. They are currently investigating how this species is threatened by a new coral disease as well as how it’s morphology and genetics change at various depths in the ocean. Can’t wait to see how it does!

don_chuwish · Oct 26, 2018

Great photos!

Brandon McHenry · Oct 26, 2018

don_chuwish said:
Great photos!

Thanks!

Brandon McHenry · Oct 30, 2018

Just a handful of zoa shots for everyone. Enjoy!

fishybizzness · Oct 30, 2018

Are those Caribbean zoa's?

Brandon McHenry · Oct 30, 2018

fishybizzness said:
Are those Caribbean zoa's?

Yup! All were sourced from a supplier down in the Florida Keys. If you were surprised by the colors, so was I!

fishybizzness · Oct 30, 2018

Very nice! These photos were shot around St John in the US Virgin islands. I found this on a site called snorkelstjohn.com. amazing to see the different colors of zoa's in the Caribbean!

fishybizzness · Oct 30, 2018

Not quite as colorful as alot of Pacific species but beautiful nevertheless!

Brandon McHenry · Oct 30, 2018

fishybizzness said:
Very nice! These photos were shot around St John in the US Virgin islands. I found this on a site called snorkelstjohn.com. amazing to see the different colors of zoa's in the Caribbean!

Wow those are very nice. You don’t really think about so much diversity with Caribbean corals but there really is some great diversity!

fishybizzness said:
Not quite as colorful as alot of Pacific species but beautiful nevertheless!

It’s definitely hard to compare Pacific species to anything here in the Caribbean but there is an inherent beauty to our local species that is just very exciting to nurture and showcase.

fishybizzness · Oct 31, 2018

I agree 1000%!

Brandon McHenry · Nov 6, 2018

Say hello to our newest fish additions! We have added 1 Atlantic Surgeonfish, 2 Atlantic Blue Tangs and 5 Pearly Jawfish. These fish are the life of the tank and are very comfortable on our reef.