Fishing Free-for-All Decimates Wild Fish Populations
By: Brandon Klaus
Image from iWatch News
If any activists want to point their fingers at a particular fishery for causing vast amounts of nearly irreparable damage, they need to look no further than the commercial fishing industry. Case in point, a recent story in iWatch News describes the massive decline of the jack mackeral due to severe commercial overfishing off the Pacific coast of South America. According to the lengthy article, jack mackeral, which represent a third of the world’s total fish catch and are a highly valuable food source to many countries, have dropped from stock levels of 30 million metric tons to less than 3 million, and all within the last two decades. On top of that, the populations have dropped by 63% from 2006 to 2011. Despite this disgusting decline, the fishery is still overharvested, as large trawlers simply expand their operating territory to pick of whatever is left of the dwindling mackeral.
Tip of the Day – 1/27/2012
By: Brandon Klaus
If you’re like most aquarium hobbyists, you probably have sump below your reef tank that houses an oversized protein skimmer and possibly a populated refugium. The refugium is full of macroalgae that requires some form of illumination to grow. This lighting serves its purpose well, and the macroalgae is growing beautifully, but that’s not the only thing growing unfortunately. The excess light can spill into the skimmer section of your sump, often causing some form of algae to grow in the skimmer itself. This isn’t a problem, typically, but it can certainly cause issues with the protein skimmer’s performance if routine maintenance and cleaning aren’t performed. Completely breaking down the skimmer every couple of months and giving it a good warm water soak with a little vinegar should remove any excess algae and calcium deposits, and should keep your skimmer running in tip top shape.
Amazing Room Divider Aquarium Install from ADG
By: Brandon Klaus
While we don’t typically chat about freshwater systems, this new installation from the crew at Aquarium Design Group is a build that we just had to share. The setup is a room divider, separating what appears to be a closed in porch area and a living room area. These types of aquariums aren’t uncommon in the hobby, but this particular setup blows all others away with both its beauty and unique design. The wall separating the two rooms is rather thin, too thin in fact to hold such a deep aquarium, but that didn’t stop the ADG fabricators from coming up with an ingenious solution. The stand is built thinner than the aquarium, but uses an extended ledge that sits on top of the wall that is already in place. The wall is essentially acting as the front half of the stand and helps support the weight of the aquarium. The room divider aquarium setup is finished off with a wood panel on the front and dressed up in the back with a similar wood frame. The lighting is very subdued, giving the tank a deep Amazon appearance.
The New ASM Cone Skimmers Now Available to the Masses
By: Brandon Klaus
During the most recent MACNA, we stumbled across a brand new protein skimmer from All Seas Marine, a company whose products have essentially remain unchanged for at least a decade or more, and ritefully so. The ASM G skimmers have always been the go-to budget option for aquarium keepers. They worked fairly well, cost fractions of what other skimmers did, and could be easily modified if the situation called for it. But with the all new ASM Cone Skimmer, we hoped to see some change. We hoped it would be something entirely different than their flagship G-series line protein skimmers, and we weren’t disappointed. The new line of skimmers are very different than the original line, but these differences come to aquarium keepers at a price.
Tip of the Day – 1/26/2012
By: Brandon Klaus
Have a frag tank but not sure if you want to tie it in with your display aquarium or run it as a completely separate system? Well, obviously there are advantages and disadvantages to both. If you plumb the frag tank into your main system, you will add volume to the overall setup and won’t have to worry about acclimating livestock if transporting things between tanks. Unfortunately, tying the two setups into one also leaves you open to cross contaminating both tanks with potential parasites, disease, pests and nuisance algae. The big advantage to keeping the two separate is you have a physical barrier protecting livestock. If a disease breaks out in one setup, it won’t affect everything, but is very limited. From an equipment standpoint, obviously adding any amount of volume to an existing setup or as a separate system is going to require additional equipment or upgrading inadequate equipment.
Unique Orange Peel Angelfish from Pacific Island Aquatics
By: Brandon Klaus
Orange Peel Angelfish from Pacific Island Aquatics
We can never get enough of those oddball fish that seem to permeate our hobby on an increasingly regular basis, and the latest unique gem comes to us from Kevin at Pacific Island Aquatics. The particular individual that caught our eye this time around is an orange colored lemonpeel angelfish (Centropyge flavissima var.) taken from somewhere in the Marshall Islands. So what’s so unique about this fish? Well, the big glaring detail is that it’s supposed to be yellow, not orange. The aptly renamed Orange Peel angelfish sports a distinctly orange hue that gently fades into a dark yellow toward the fish’s pelvic fins. To show just how deep this orange is in comparison to the norm, a yellow tang has been placed into the tank. Obviously the tang is going to look slightly different than a lemonpeel angel, but it serves as a good analog for the comparison. In addition to the orange coloration, this unique angel also has more elaborate blue markings on its operculum (gill cover). Run of the mill lemonpeel angelfish also sport the blue eye ring and some blue markings on their gill plates, but they are far less pronounced and often limited, even in juveniles. This angelfish has those blue marks all over its face, with hints on its mouth and even on the underside of its head. Perhaps this is just an elaborate aberrant pattern on an already unique fish, but it’s definitely an awesome combination of colors. And if you think this fish is only attainable by the well-funded rare fish connoisseurs, think again. The orange peel angel comes with the insanely low price tag of just $45. A plain old normal looking C. flavissima can fetch up to $30 from most vendors.
Setting Them Straight, Fixing Bad Advice from Bad Fish Stores
By: Daniel Leija
The following is the first contribution from our most recent addition to the AquaNerd team, local fish store manager Daniel Leija. Daniel has been in charge of the saltwater section at a local store for as long as I can remember, and we’re excited to have him on board.
Being a long-time employee at a LFS, I hear many great success stories and many customers come in to share some amazing tank photographs. Just like there are positive things exchanged in my day to day conversations with customers, there are also the horror stories. Many beginner aquarists seek the help of fish stores to guide them down the correct path and, unfortunately, many stores throw unreasonable information to customers just to keep them shopping at their store. From my experience, here are some of the things that will surely make any established reefer cringe. It’s a list of bad advice that hobbyists have come into the store regurgitating while attempting to sort through all of the information to find out how to do things right.
Reef Threads Podcasts Are Well Worth the Listen
By: Brandon Klaus
Being an extremely busy individual, I don’t have a lot of time to do too many things outside of my normal routine. With my day job zapping most of my time and energy and the AquaNerd Blog consuming the rest, I have little time for either my family or my aquariums, let alone any new time consuming activities. This lack of time has caused me to miss out on quite a number of opportunities in the saltwater aquarium hobby, one such being the enjoyment of amazing aquarium related resources such as the Reef Threads podcast. I should frame that statement by saying that I’ve know about the podcasts for a while now, but as I said, a complete lack of time has prevented me from sitting down long enough to pay any amount of attention to one of their lengthy shows. Fortunately, through a little intervention by the powers that be, I had that opportunity to soak up an entire show from beginning to end without interruption. At my day job, my company is starting a major project. This project is so big it requires that I be at work at least two straight weeks, followed by a single day off, and then two more weeks. This vicious cycle is supposed to last through March. As luck would have it, there have been some issues occuring during the nighttime hours which have caused me to spend the previous two nights at work, completely alone, trying to solve these issues. During a pretty long stint of downtime, I decided to open up the most recent Reef Threads podcast and let the information flow over me. After all, it was 2 am and I needed a break from the tasks around me. As I sat there and listened to Gary Parr and Christine Williams discuss current events in the aquarium industry, I started to wonder why the hell wasn’t I glued to this resource before. They spend a good 45 minutes talking about nothing but aquariums, offering inciteful thoughts about current news, talking authoritatively about the history of the hobby, and presenting information in a very digestable manner. I have to say now that I’m a fanboy of Reef Threads and I am suggesting to everyone that they need to stop what they are doing and go listen to their show. Download a podcast to your favorite mobile media player or crank it up at your work for all to hear. It’s a great show that’s definitely worth taking the time to listen to.
Xanthic Scopas Tang Shows Up at RVS Fish World
By: Brandon Klaus
Juvenile Xanthic Scopas Tang from RVS Fish World
Scopas tangs (Zebrasoma scopas) seem to come in an unending variety of colors and patterns. Whether they be hybrids between two similar species, multicolor mutatants, or just different enough to catch our eye, the fish continue to be walk that thin line between what is considered uniquely beautiful and grotesquely bizarre. The latest Scopas weirdos, which come to us from Barnett Shutman from CV Neptune Marine, are actually entirely yellow, or xanthic, scopas tangs. The two fish, a juvenile and an adult, look almost identical to their yellow tang cousins (Z. flavescens), and their coloration is either further evidence of hybridization between the two species or gives more credence to the idea that the two species are actually one in the same instead of being two distinct species…just depends on how you look at it. For the record, there is some DNA evidence that Z. scopas and Z. flavescens are actually the same species, but that’s for another time. Regardless of all that chatter, these fish are still pretty cool looking. Both individuals, which have received the moniker Banana Yellow Scopus Tang, were collected in the Katakian Islands in Quezon Province, which is located in the northeastern part of the Philippines. There’s no details on where these fish are going and how much they will cost, but other Scopas hybrids and similar offcolor tangs have gone for over $100 at the retail level.
A few more images can be seen after the break.
Tip of the Day – 1/25/2012
By: Brandon Klaus
Why is treating ailing fish with copper still one of the go-to methods for aquarium keepers these days? Copper-based medications are extremely harsh on fish, corals, and invertebrates alike. Sure, some fish can withstand coppper treatments in higher concentrations and for longer periods of time, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less harsh on the animal. In fact, some species of fish can’t be treated with copper at all. For alternatives, we suggest you start by buying a healthy fish, quarantining that individual for several weeks, feed copious amounts of highly nutritional foodstuffs, and if necessary, treat any ailments with less harmful medication. Heck, even freshwater dips for fish would be better than long term treatment with copper.
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