Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog
tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1846807
2012-09-16T20:39:46-05:00
A freshwater, saltwater, reef aquarium and aquatic ecology blog with beginner and advanced articles, led reef aquarium lighting info, aquarium product reviews, and more!
TypePad
How to Frag Branching SPS Coral
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c017744c79770970d
2012-09-16T20:39:46-05:00
2012-09-17T08:25:17-05:00
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. Tools needed: Latex Gloves Wire Cutters or Bone Cutters Superglue Gel Frag Disks or Rubble Rock You want to wear gloves during this process to protect the coral and to protect you. Take a bowl a fill it with tank water. We can then place our mother colony in the bowl for safe keeping. Examine the colony and determine what branches you want to take your frags from. Simply take your cutters and cut the branches you want to frag at the base of your colony. You are fine to remove the mother colony from the water during this process, you just don’t want the coral to become dry. Once you have finished your trimming you can place your colony back into your tank and place the fragged pieces into your bowl with the tank water. Next we will want to attach...
Captive Aquatics
Sustainable Aquatics Launches a New Website
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c01538efa884b970b
2011-06-05T23:24:03-05:00
2012-09-10T01:30:15-05:00
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. Sustainable Aquatics, (arguably the most progressive aqua/mariculture company for the ornamental hobby when it comes to helping both the environment and native peoples) has launched a new website, and continues to add more species almost weekly to their reportoire of captive bred or captive cultured marine ornamentals. Our first choice for both fish and coral, we highly recommend their quality livestock and practices.
Captive Aquatics
Great Coral ID Resource Unveiled by SDMAS
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0148c807f98d970c
2011-01-29T17:10:10-06:00
2012-09-10T01:32:33-05:00
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!
Miguel Tolosa
Phytoplankton - What Your LFS Isn't Telling You
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0134885fbda4970c
2010-10-26T00:01:00-05:00
2012-09-10T19:00:35-05:00
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. To lay to rest some of the myths: fanworms do not need phytoplankton, neither do pods, tubeworms, your rock, or clams. Or anything. It's quite possible, and by quite possible I might mean a 100% certainty (refer to disclaimer below), that nothing at all in your tank will notice the difference as to whether phytoplankton is present or not. In my system I haven't been using phytoplankton from day one, and I have walls of fanworms and tubeworms, tons...
Miguel Tolosa
Sustainable Aquatics Now Offering Tank Raised Angelfish
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0133f46f8214970b
2010-09-21T16:52:46-05:00
2010-09-21T17:48:57-05:00
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. By collecting post larval fish from the reef, the impact of collection for our hobby is considerably lessened, perhaps to the point of virtually zero impact. I applaud Sustainable Aquatics on their continued successes! As a Sustainable Aquatics dealer, we at Captive Aquatics offer all of their excellent tank bred and tank raised fish to our clients!
Captive Aquatics
The Smithsonian Grows Two Anemone Species from Larvae!
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0133f34e2bde970b
2010-08-25T00:31:14-05:00
2010-08-25T16:13:29-05:00
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: "Washington, DC - The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has become the first in the zoo and aquarium community to use coral larvae settling techniques to successfully grow two species of anemones—an accomplishment that will provide the Zoo a unique opportunity to learn how anemones grow. We have many questions about how to care for these animals as they grow from larvae to adults,” said Mike Henley, an animal keeper at the Zoo’s Invertebrate Exhibit who applied the technique to the anemones after they had spawned. “The oceans are not an infinite resource and so anything that we can learn about the captive management of coral and anemones will go far in our ability to conserve them.” The anemones—both of which are commonly called Tealia red anemones under...
Merritt Adkins
The Gold Australe Killifish: A Breeding Project, Part Two
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c013485f67a4c970c
2010-08-08T00:22:29-05:00
2010-08-08T00:32:04-05:00
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! After a couple days, I had collected 10 eggs from my spawning pair. I transferred each egg to a separate space in the container; this one way if one egg acquired a fungal or other infection, it wouldn’t affect the rest of them. I maintained water quality in the 'cubicles' via twice daily water changes. After a week, the eggs hatched (after hatching, remove the shell with tweezers) and the fry will need to eat. I fed the small fry microworms, until they were big enough to take larger food. It took about 3 months or so for the fry to reach...
Kyle Phillips
The Gold Australe Killifish: A Breeding Project
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c013485e12416970c
2010-07-31T06:35:00-05:00
2010-08-08T00:32:17-05:00
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. While it isn’t as simple as your common guppy, breeding the gold australe killifish is a rewarding experience nonetheless. To breed them, put a pair of them in a 5-10 gallon tank alone. The easiest way to prepare the killifish for spawning is to feed high protein food, such as bloodworms, mysis shrimp, nutri-diet fish eggs, and high quality flake food. Inducing a spawn is as easy as putting a 'spawn mop' (a “mop” made of yarn) into the tank, and waiting patiently. The eggs will be clear when laid,...
Kyle Phillips
Sustainable Aquatics Benefits the Hobby, the Environment, and Local Peoples
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0134859aed76970c
2010-07-21T23:41:12-05:00
2010-07-21T23:42:14-05:00
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. Located in Jefferson City, Tennesee, Sustainable Aquatics has a sizable operation, occupying 21,000 square feet. This allows them not only to breed over a dozen species of clownfish, but also to udertake projects, such as captive bred Banggai cardinals, gobies, seahorses, and other species that should be available soon. In addition, it allows for their Sustainable Islands project to prosper and grow. Why are we such big fans of Sustainable Aquatics, and not, say, ORA or C-quest farms? Unlike ORA, SA does not sell exclusively to local fish stores, and as you may or may not know, we are not a fan of the vast majority of local fish stores. C-quest is an excellent source of captive bred fish and coral as well (and we are fans of their livestock) but Sustainable Aquatics is consistently attempting to go 'above and beyond' with new projects, new ideas, and new successes, and for that we commend them. We highly recommend...
Captive Aquatics
Tank Raised Clown Triggerfish!
tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a010535f11c3d970c0133f24c8d46970b
2010-07-15T02:50:44-05:00
2010-07-22T02:13:04-05:00
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
Captive Aquatics