Achilles Tang

In this seventh article of our "Newbie Corner" column, Tom Murphy (Waterkeeper) discusses Natural Filtration Part II View the full article

This month we are showcasing the Asheville Marine Aquarium Society (AMAS). View the full article

Check out the latest upcoming events of interest to marine aquarists. View the full article

Top Ten Excuses You Use To Talk Yourself Into Going To The Fish Store... View the full article

My 150 gallon Cuttle Farm Army Reef! View the full article

What if hydrology is more important for predicting biodiversity than biology? New research challenges current thinking about biodiversity, and opens up new avenues for predicting how climate change or human activity may affect biodiversity patterns. View the full article

Actually, I think they will do ok in a soft coral tank that you should feed often. Tubeworms tend to starve in SPS tanks because we try to keep the water nutrient free and these tubeworms relish a lot of stuff in the water column... phyto, zooplankton, marine snow, mucus and all that kind of miniscule stuff....

An event as simple as the world's first bite may have sparked an ancient "explosion" of life 500 million years ago that led to the rise of the broad groups of animals that are still alive today. A Harvard professor suggests that it was an increase in interactions between species, such as predation, that drove an escalating evolutionary process that led to the development of teeth and claws and the wide variety of characteristics that we see among Earth's animals today. View the full article

Scientists have helped to identify that the presence of large amounts of seaweed in coastal areas can influence the climate. A new international study has found that large brown seaweeds, when under stress, release large quantities of inorganic iodine into the coastal atmosphere, where it may contribute to cloud formation. View the full article

Officials declared a commercial fishery failure for the West Coast salmon fishery due to historically low salmon returns. Hundreds of thousands of fall Chinook salmon typically return to the Sacramento River every year to spawn. This year, scientists estimate that fewer than 60,000 adult Chinook will make it back to the Sacramento River. View the full article

Male seahorses are nature's real-life Mr. Moms -- they take fathering to a whole new level: pregnancy. Although it is common for male fish to play the dominant parenting role, male pregnancy is a complex process unique to the fish family Syngnathidae, which includes pipefish, seahorses and sea dragons. View the full article

Scientists confirm computer model predictions that oxygen-depleted zones in tropical oceans are expanding, possibly because of climate change. Oceanographers have discovered that oxygen-poor regions of tropical oceans are expanding as the oceans warm, limiting the areas in which predatory fishes and other marine organisms can live or enter in search of food. View the full article

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have identified a potential "red tide killer." Red tides and related phenomena in which microscopic algae accumulate rapidly in dense concentrations have been on the rise in recent years, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in worldwide losses to fisheries and beach tourism activities. Despite their wide-ranging impacts, such phenomena, more broadly referred to as "harmful algal blooms," remain unpredictable in not only where they appear, but how long they persist. View the full article

Bacteria that feed on seaweed could help in the disposal of pollutants in the world's oceans, according to a new study. Researchers explain that as marine pollution is on the increase novel approaches to removing toxic contaminants is becoming an increasingly pressing issue. View the full article

Marine snails, sea urchins and other animals from the sea are teaching researchers how to make the world a better place. Consider, for example, the possibilities of designing a lightweight armor that would protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq from Improvised Explosive Devices. Or, what flexible ceramics might offer industry. Or, how everyone could benefit from new ways of producing and storing energy. View the full article

Scientists have discovered a new climate pattern, the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation. This pattern explains, for the first time, changes in the water important in helping commercial fishermen understand fluctuations in the fish stock. They're also finding that as the Earth is warming, large fluctuations in these factors could help climatologists predict how oceans will respond in a warmer world. View the full article

Hurricanes and storms limit the ability of corals in Belize to "recruit" new coral into their communities, according to a new study in Marine Environmental Research. Coral reefs --- which can grow to be thousands of years old --- form and grow when free-swimming coral larvae in the ocean attach to rocks or other hard surfaces and begin to develop. Intense storms can wipe out this "recruitment" process. View the full article

Similarities between half-billion-year-old and recent food webs point to deep principles underpinning the structure of ecological relationships, as shown by researchers from the Santa Fe Institute, Microsoft Research Cambridge and elsewhere. Analyses of food-web data suggest that most, but not all, aspects of the trophic structure of modern ecosystems were in place over a half-billion years ago. View the full article

Endangered North Atlantic right whales are safer along Massachusetts Bay's busy shipping lanes this spring, thanks to a new system of smart buoys. The buoys recognize whales' distinctive calls and route the information to a public Web site and a marine warning system, giving ships the chance to avoid deadly collisions. View the full article

Shape matters, even in hearing. Specifically, it is the shape of the cochlea -- the snail-shell-shaped organ in the inner ear that converts sound waves into nerve impulses that the brain deciphers -- which proves to be surprisingly important. A direct link was found between the cochlea's curvature and the low-frequency hearing limit of more than a dozen different mammals. View the full article

Anyone noticed a face in this picture?

Conditions are ripe for another large red tide bloom in New England waters; weather and current patterns will determine outcome. The end of April usually brings the first signs of harmful algae in New England waters, and this year, researchers are preparing for the worst. View the full article

Natural barriers like waterfalls play an important role in preventing lake trout from spreading through Glacier National Park, so maintaining those barriers should be a priority, researchers said after conducting a four-year study in the park. Park workers might have to remove ice, logs or debris to keep the water from rising behind those barriers. If they don't, lake trout will have an easier time swimming up the rivers and invading new lakes. View the full article

The Wildlife Conservation Society recently launched a four-year study to determine if climate change is affecting populations of a quintessential Arctic denizen: the rare musk ox. The research team will be assessing how musk ox are faring in areas along the Chukchi and northern Bering Seas, and the extent to which snow and icing events, disease, and possibly predation may be driving populations. View the full article

In less than three decades the round goby has become one of the most colorful features of the southern Baltic. The fish, which comes from the Black Sea, has rapidly adapted to Baltic conditions and can locally dominate coastal fish populations. This has led to competition with indigenous fish species, such as the flounder, but it has also become a significant contribution to the diet of important predatory fishes, such as cod and perch. View the full article