Minimum Size to be Considered a Mother Colony?
I was perusing the gorgeous frags for sale on the ReefCentral Propagated Corals & Tank Raised Livestock Selling Forum out of boredom and I noticed one striking fact…many people are referring to some of their tiny, frag-sized corals as mother colonies. This discovery brought to mind the question, “At what size does a coral become [...]
ORA’s New Mandarins Available to Hobbyists Starting Today
It’s official. As of yesterday the new captive bred ORA Mandarin dragonette is available to aquarium hobbyists. These previously hard to care for fish have now been successfully raised in captivity and trained to eat prepared foods. In the wild, dragonettes eat copepods and other tiny crustaceans, that just aren’t as available in the home [...]
BP Burns Sea Turtles, Slapped with Lawsuit
Some more news from the BP Oil Spill. According to an AFP story on Yahoo!, animal welfare groups AWI, Center for Biological Diversity, Turtle Island Restoration Network and Animal Legal Defense Fund are suing British Petroleum for burning sea turtles. That’s right, they are burning sea turtles. And not the regular old run of the [...]
Dolphins and Sharks Gathering Near Shore, Fleeing Oil Spill
The effects of the massive (and continually growing) BP oil spill on local wildlife are becoming more widespread. At the onset of the spill, the media focused on shorebirds, marsh areas, and the impact on tourism, but now a little light has been cast on local sharks and dolphins. According to a recent AP article, [...]
Misconceptions About “Designer Fish”
I came across a great thread on ReefCentral about Designer Fish, and as I read I noticed quite a number of misconceptions regarding certain fish, specifically the Picasso and Snowflake clownfish. Several people who participated in the discussion had the idea that these clownfish were genetically altered or designed to look the way they do [...]
How BP Handles a Coffee Spill
I’m sure most of you have seen this video, but for those who haven’t, it’s an absolute must. Sometimes the best way to cope with tragedy and other terrible situations is to laugh. So that’s what we’ll do. Above is a fairly funny video of how BP would handle a coffee spill. They manage to [...]
Trash in Our Oceans
Our oceans have become a giant trashcan for the world. Debris from land, beach goers, fishermen, and other careless humans have made their way into lakes, rivers, and seas. To make matters worse, a lot of the trash is plastic, and plastic takes hundreds of years to deteriorate. According to Plastic Debris Rivers to Sea [...]
Finally, Some Success with BP
Here’s some positive news on the BP oil spill. Apparently, the blow-out preventer was successfully cut and capped, slowing down the massive deluge of oil into the gulf (for the moment at least). This is also coming after several failed attempts to stop the leak. While it’s not a 100% fix, it’s a step in [...]
Why Do Aquarium Hobbyists Buy Difficult Livestock
Image courtesy of “flipside” from MARSHreef There was a thread about Mandarin dragonettes on my local reef aquarium club’s website that really had me thinking…why do hobbyists continue to purchase difficult to keep animals? On top of that, why do aquarium store owners and wholesalers continue to order them? I understand that these sensitive creatures [...]
Should Aquarium Ownership Require a License?
I was watching a television show the other day while I had some down time and noticed a Red Macaw that was being housed in extremely poor conditions by an owner who had no clue on how to properly care for the animal. Then my mind began to wander and I started thinking about endangered [...]
