Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

How to Frag Branching SPS Coral

This guest post by My Reef to Yours Coral Frags will teach you all about fragging branching SPS coral!

Fragging live SPS is easy and is a great way to share coral frags with your friends. This article will cover most branching SPS such as Acroporas, Birdsnest, and others. If it has branches, we can frag it safely.

Sustainable Aquatics Launches a New Website

I like to keep aquarists informed of the latest from companies that go above and beyond, and whos actions benefit people, the environment, push the hobby forward, or all three. Ultimately how a hobbyist spends his or her dollar that dictates where this hobby goes, so spending wisely is important for the future of our hobby and ecosystem.

Great Coral ID Resource Unveiled by SDMAS

Remember the AIMS coral ID site?  It's an amazing yet relatively untapped online representation of JEN Veron's Corals of the World books.  I say "relatively untapped" because it's nearly unuseable - navigating and searching AIMS is about as user friendly as this intersection.  You'll notice the AIMS link is to an Acro valida, because after 15 minutes I still couldn't find the index page for that site.

Well, fortunately for us the good people at SDMAS said "no more!", and through an incredible amount of work they put together a hobbyist-friendly version of the AIMS site.  The link is right here, enjoy!

Phytoplankton - What Your LFS Isn't Telling You

Ah, the green stuff. The miracle cure, the lifeblood of a reeftank, the savior of fan worms and clams of all ages... Or maybe not so much.  Could it be that phytoplankton actually does more harm than good in a reef aquarium?

In the ocean there is a lot of phytoplankton and it's crucial to the ecosystem. In the ocean. In your tank, however, phytoplankton dies and fouls up your water quality. I mean let's think about it, you're pouring live green stuff into your tank where chances are that only a miniscule part of it will be used for food. In fact, it is arguable if any realistic part of it will be used for food by your tank's inhabitants.

 

Sustainable Aquatics Now Offering Tank Raised Angelfish

As their Sustainable Islands project progresses, our favorite aquaculture company continues to offer more and more tank-raised species available to hobbyists.  This week Sustainable Aquatics announced limited availability of tank-raised Queen Angelfish and Blue Angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris and Holacanthus isabelita, respectively).  Both species are available at 2-3" in size at very respectable prices to dealers. 

The Smithsonian Grows Two Anemone Species from Larvae!

The Smithsonian Museum's Invertebrate Exhibit has succesfully sexually propagated Urticina anemones!  Unlike 'splitting' or 'fragging', the sexual propagation involves the fertilization of gametes and the successful growout of the anemone from larvae stage to adult stage, something that's much more difficult to do.  I performed some research at A&M University that involved the study of Metridium anemone larvae, and let me tell you that raising them to adulthood hasn't been done!  From the Smithsonian:

The Gold Australe Killifish: A Breeding Project, Part Two

So, now that you've read about how to spawn gold australe killifish, you'll want to know how to care for the eggs and raise the fry to adulthood!


The method for egg raising I use is unique, and as far as I know.  The idea for my method came to me after walking in my mom's sewing room:  she had clear plastic containers that contained several small 'cubicles' to organize beads and other sewing items.  I realized what a great container that would make for holding killifish eggs, and raising the fry in, and my method was born!

 

 

The Gold Australe Killifish: A Breeding Project

The gold australe killifish is an uncommon but beautiful fish, and is one of the first out-of-the-ordinary fish that I have ever managed to breed.  If you’re like me, and you don’t have a ton of time and money to devote to breeding, these are the perfect fish for beginners to try albeit being somewhat difficult to find.  Known scientifically as Aphyosemion australe, these fish tolerate most normal freshwater aquarium conditions, being affected only by far out parameters. Not only are they extremely hardy, but they are really easy to breed!  In captivity, the Gold Australe Killifish lives for approximately 3 years, making them one of the longest living killifish.

 

Sustainable Aquatics Benefits the Hobby, the Environment, and Local Peoples

We're a big fan of anyone that practices sustainable ecological principles in this hobby, and none more than Sustainable Aquatics.  Offering a variety of captive bred clownfish species and morphs, Sustainable Aquatics takes things one step further with their Sustainable Islands project. 

Tank Raised Clown Triggerfish!

We at Captive Aquatics care a great deal about ecology and ethics, and we're pleased to announce that we have yet another tank raised species to offer our customers thanks to Sustainable Aquatics and their Sustainable Islands program: the Clown Triggerfish.  Available in 2-3" sizes, these captive raised triggerfish are boisterous, colorful, and have a ton of personality!

---

Like this? Please bookmark via the social bookmarking buttons below, subscribe to our free RSS feed, and sign up for our free weekly newsletter on the right!

Share |

© Captive Aquatics™ | CA Blog | Sponsor Info | Review Info