Harlequinmania

The research vessel Polarstern of the German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will arrive back at its homeport of Bremerhaven after a seven-month expedition on Friday, May 20. Nearly 200 researchers from institutes in 15 countries took part in the expedition. View the full article

The research vessel Polarstern of the German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will arrive back at its homeport of Bremerhaven after a seven-month expedition on Friday, May 20. Nearly 200 researchers from institutes in 15 countries took part in the expedition. View the full article

Click through to see the images. I'm a sucker for books on breeding marine organisms and at one point I had actually contemplated breeding these little nudibranchs for fun (profit questionable). Much to my surprise, a blog post on this this subject popped up this afternoon that mentioned a book on breeding berghia nudibranchs is now available on Premium Aquatics (an Advanced Aquarist sponsor). For those new to the hobby, Berghia nudibranchs are small whitish nudibranchs that chow down on one of the scourges of our tanks: Aiptasia. According to Premium Aquatics' page about the book: The secret to successfully breeding the Berghia nudibranch all lies in the breeding system itself. Follow a step-by-step tutorial on building a proven breeding system that is low in daily maintenance so that you can spent your time feeding and shipping your Berghia! The book covers three levels of breeding systems from hobbyist to a light commercial system. The system(s) are reported to be easy to build and most components can be sourced from your local fish store. We published an article titled Breeder's Net: Easy Berghia Nudibranch Propagation by Justin Credabel on breeding them in our November 2008 issue of Advanced Aquarist and it's worth a read if you want to learn a bit about their biology and some basic breeding techniques. I did a bit of digging for more information about this book and learned that it was published April 4, 2011 and that it is a CreateSpace published book, meaning the author has decided to not go the traditional publishing route and instead self-published the book using CreateSpace's self-publishing platform. Good for him. Incidentally, we've also used CreateSpace for all of our books as well and we've always been quite happy with the quality of the book. The book itself is 140 pages in length and features a color cover and black and white interior photos. The table-of-contents states that the book covers care, shipping, marketing, breeding systems (hobbyist and light commercial) and maintenance, and Aiptasia as well (your little nudibranchs will need a food source of course). It's available for $19.99 (plus S&H) from Premium Aquatics. If you're interested in breeding these nudibranchs, definitely check it out. (via Reefbuilders) View the full article

Oh yes was trying to ID it.. Didnt check the price today, they got 2 pcs as far as i remember.

Click through to see the images. Bioluminescence is the ability for an organism to produce it's own light and this ability is observed in many marine organisms. Anglerfish (order Lophiiformes) use it for hunting. Sea pens (order Pennatulacea) show this characteristic when touched. Crystal jellyfish (Aequorea victoria) emit bright flashes of blue light. The list goes on and on. In this TED video, bioluminescent expert Edith Widder talks about this weird and wonderful world of bioluminescence and offers some amazing video footage of different marine organisms displaying this behavior when hunting, mating, and in self-defense situations. Watch the video below be amazed: http://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_the_weird_and_wonderful_world_of_bioluminescence.html View the full article

Some photo from irwanna today. Some nice super sun, eagle eye zoas and sps ..

Some photo taken from SL today.

Heard CF got Australia coral shipment this week also.

Click through to see the images. Leukemia is a type of cancer that causes an unusually high concentration of white blood cells in the body. In this particular study researchers targeted a leukemia called "T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia" (T-ALL for short), which is the most common type of leukemia found in children. It's characterized by a very quick population explosion of immature white blood cells in the body and if left untreated can be quickly fatal (in as short as a few weeks). Zebrafish, interestingly enough, can also contract T-ALL. What scientists did was to specifically breed an aggressive form of T-ALL into zebrafish using a genetic technique called serial transplantation. Over the course of multiple generations and transplantations, T-ALL became more and more severe in the zebrafish. These particular zebrafish were also genetically modified so that their white blood cells would fluoresce green (pictured above). What this allowed researchers to do was to visualize the severity of T-ALL in a given fish and then search for unique genetic signatures of the disease in that particular fish. The ultimate goal of this research was to find new genetic signatures for T-ALL and then apply this knowledge to bone marrow biopsies of infected patients. This would then help doctors tailor the treatment regime with the specific form of T-ALL found in a given patient. (via The Salt Lake Tribune) View the full article

Click through to see the images. Reef2Reef members are the most avid exotic coral collectors I know, so it was a natural community to find some of the most exotic Blastomussa wellsi photos to showcase. Enough with words and on to the photos! B.wellsi #1 of m'akoyPINOY B.wellsi #2 of m'akoyPINOY B.wellsi #3 of m'akoyPINOY One sweet Blasto colony from A Reef Creation First Time's Orange Crush Orange Crush frag by First Time A B.wellsi from yours truly Another one of my personal B.wellsi with an understated pastel pigmentation. Even a healthy, run-of-the-mill red Blasto is amazing The beautiful stripped Blasto of youngtimothy View the full article

Click through to see the images. Reef2Reef members are the most avid exotic coral collectors I know, so it was a natural community to find some of the most exotic Blastomussa wellsi photos to showcase. Enough with words and on to the photos! B.wellsi #1 of m'akoyPINOY B.wellsi #2 of m'akoyPINOY B.wellsi #3 of m'akoyPINOY One sweet Blasto colony from A Reef Creation First Time's Orange Crush Orange Crush frag by First Time A B.wellsi from yours truly Another one of my personal B.wellsi with an understated pastel pigmentation. Even a healthy, run-of-the-mill red Blasto is amazing View the full article

Click through to see the images. 3reef.com is giving away a total of six PR-25s and four ML7s! Please visit 3reef's contest page for more information on how to win these wonderful LED lights from Orphek. The top three winners will each walk away with multiple Orphek LEDs. The Orphek PR-25 is a screw-in PAR38 form-factor LED bulb (screws into a standard incandescent socket). 12 diodes are driven at 2 watts per piece to produce approximately 25 watts of light. The output is said to be equivalent to a 150W metal halide. The Orphek ML7 is a moonlight with four blue and three UV 2 watts diodes, housed in a screw-in PAR30 form-factor. The ML7 can also be used to showcase coral fluorescence. The PR-25 and ML7 are $199 and $99 USD respectively. Orphek is a sponsor of both Advanced Aquarist and 3reef.com. View the full article

Click through to see the images. 3reef.com is giving away a total of six PR-25s and four ML7s! Please visit 3reef's contest page for more information on how to win these wonderful LED lights from Orphek. The top three winners will each walk away with multiple Orphek LEDs. The Orphek PR-25 is a screw-in PAR38 form-factor LED bulb (screws into a standard incandescent socket). 12 diodes are driven at 2 watts per piece to produce approximately 25 watts of light. The output is said to be equivalent to a 150W metal halide. The Orphek ML7 is a moonlight with four blue and three UV 2 watts diodes, housed in a screw-in PAR30 form-factor. The ML7 can also be used to showcase coral fluorescence. The PR-25 and ML7 are $199 and $99 USD respectively. Orphek is a sponsor of both Advanced Aquarist and 3reef.com. View the full article

By the way, do remember to look out for our own SGREEF tank at the marine competition section

Wow that's a very difficult question, but so far i cant remember seeing a long queue in Aquarama before LOL... Just bring along your Cards and Fat wallet for shopping .

Updates from Sealife ; Golden butterfly (Small), emperor angel,Purple tang, asfur angel , majestic angel, sohal tang ,clown tang (Small)

New shipment from Irwanna today from Bali, lots of Purple tang, nice eagle eye zoas, bi color angel, and other common fish.. Suncorals in various color - yellow, red, and green and supersun. Heard there will be a SPS shipment this sat.

Not really true.. In fact i would said that those good deal would be meant more for local visitor rather than oversea / trade visitor during the first two day. You have to be in the same trade in order to go in during the trade days, but i heard 2 year back someone uses a Interior design namecard and manage to get in for free LOL.. There will be many tank / equipments up for sales after the competition and setup.

too bad no sponsors for the free ticket for us leh .. But i got pass to go in lah, maybe like what solo77 said we can rotate and use the pass or ticket LOL...

The first two day of Aquarama is only open for trade visitor only. Public can only go in on Sat and sunday but had to pay an entrance fees of $8.00 / adult. I feel the entrance fees of $8.00 really turn people off going there, since it is suppose to be a show to promote the hobby but the fees may just turning people away from it . Below info extract form aquarama Trade Visitor 26 May (Thursday)10.00am – 6.00pm 27 May (Friday)10.00am – 6.00pm 28 May (Saturday)10.00am – 1.00pm Public Visitor Adult S$8 per entry Child Free admission 28 May (Saturday)1.00pm – 8.00pm 29 May (Sunday)10.00am – 7.00pm

Yes that's right

Hi bro, maybe you would like to consider trying Reefmax Lugol Idoine solution ? I find it to be almost the same as Tropic marine and price wise is slightly cheaper. HTH

Click through to see the images. I suppose most serious hobbyists will watch a program concerning corals reefs on the Discovery Channel or Animal Planet (or other) television channels. With the cost of big-screen televisions rapidly falling in price and their use becoming commonplace, viewing these video essays on a giant screen can be spectacular. If you're a coral afficianado such as me, you'll especially enjoy those shows dealing with the invertebrates of coral reefs. Some of the most astounding videos can be of coral spawning. We the extreme close-up video of corals extruding their egg bundles to the shallow seas during early evening. It would be easy to believe that all corals reproduce in this manner but such is not the case. One such case is the coral Porites lutea in Hawaii. Facts about Porites lutea (Milne-Edwards and Haime, 1860): Phylum: Cnidaria Class: Anthozoa Subclass: Hexacorallia Order: Scleractinia Suborder: Fungiina Family: Poritidae Genus: Porites Species: lutea Figure 1. A field of purple Mound Corals (Porites lutea) in Kahalu'u Bay, Hawai'i. Note the tiny black 'Humbug' damselfish (Dascyllus sp.) bravely defending its home, the Pocillopora meandrina at the bottom center of the photo (by the author). Porites lutea (formerly P. evermanni) is a common coral in Hawai'i and throughout the Indo-Pacific Ocean. These animals are mostly often found in water up to 6 meters (20 feet) in depth. Coloration can be brown, yellow-brown, gray, sometimes with purple highlights and less often entirely purple. It is never yellow-green like P. lobata (Fenner, 2005). Porites colonies are among the longest living animals known where some are hundreds of years of age. Kahalu'u Beach Park on the west coast of the Big Island of Hawai'i provides a perfect spot to easily observe P. lutea and other coral colonies. A mysterious rock wall (Hawaiian legend suggests the wall was built by the Menehunes - a race of secretive, tiny people) shelters the bay from intense wave action and provides calmer waters preferred by P. lutea and a rapidly aging coral observer (me). Hence Kahalu'u is also a favorite spot to document coral spawning activities. Members of the ReefWatchers group have observed spawnings of Pocillopora meandrina, P. eydouxi, and Leptoseris bewickensis there. The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of Aquatic Resources monitoring team members provided some details of P. lutea's reproductive behavior (Sara Peck, personal communication). Evidence of a spawning was observed on July 9th, 2009, sometime between noon and 1400 hours, while DLNR's Dr. Bill Walsh and Brent Camen were monitoring a transect line off the west coast of the Big Island Of Hawai'i. They observed a large cinnamon colored cloud of spawn surrounding and obscuring a P. lutea colony estimated to be some 9 meters (30 feet) across. Would these corals spawn again the next day? Intrigued, I cancelled the plans I had and prepared to photographically document the daytime spawning of this species. I had hoped to be in the water at noon on July 10th, but as luck would have it, I would not get wet until about 1230 hours. The day was one straight out of a travel brochure - a blue sky above the palm trees, plenty of sun, and calm warm water. Snorkeling across the reef flat to the coral bommies, I noticed the water seemed a bit turbid, and within five minutes of entering the water I would know why. There was a mass spawning event of P. lutea occurring. The first colony (out of 7) I observed was apparently finishing its spawning, as I saw only one slow discharge of sperm. I hurriedly and clumsily opened my dive bag to remove a kitchen baster and a small plastic bottle and collected a spawn sample. I began to look for further evidence of spawning, and didn't have to go far - I entered a shallow depression filled with P. lutea - and they were all spawning (this almost mono-specific stand of Porites is in the introductory photo which was taken after the spawning event was over). Things were getting hectic. I had the baster and bottle in one hand, and the underwater camera in the other. Get a photo - take a sample. I needed some help. I surfaced and hailed a nearby snorkeler. I rapidly told him of the situation, and asked if he would help me. He nodded his head, and I began to take more photos and samples. I never saw that snorkeler again and can only suppose that swimming in a sea full of coral gametes held absolutely no appeal to him. The best show was still to come. Even through the water's reduced visibility (estimated to have dropped to only 6 meters, or ~20 feet from a normal 16 meters - ~50 feet), I could see the outline of a massive P. lutea surrounded by an underwater fog of gametes (see Figure 2). I watched in awe as this coral slowly released gametes for at least 20 minutes (some colonies were observed spawning for as much as 30 minutes). More photos and samples were taken. After an hour, the spawnings stopped, but I stayed in the water for another 30 minutes in hopes of seeing female colonies releasing eggs (quick looks at my bottle with composited spawning samples had revealed no eggs during this very hectic hour). I reluctantly left the water as the bay's normal clarity returned, suggesting the event was over. Once in the lab, I made my notes and a microscopic exam of the spawn sample. Unfortunately, I could not spot any eggs either visually or microscopically, and after examining quite a few detritus particles, I abandoned my search. Figure 2. Spawning of a male P. lutea. Note the corona of cloudiness to the right and above the colony - these are release of sperm. Photo by the author. Combining two observations, this is what we know about daytime spawnings of Porites lutea. Spawning Event of July 9, 2009 (Observers: Walsh and DLNR monitoring team) Though not directly observed, a large female colony at a depth of 10 meters (30 feet) was obscured by a cloud of gametes (eggs). The cloud of eggs was cinnamon in color*, and 'sticky', clinging to wetsuits. Spawning occurred between noon and 1400 hours. Spawning Event of July 10, 2009 (Observer: Riddle) Spawnings of 7 colonies were observed Colonies were apparently all males Slow continuous release of sperm appearing as 'white smoke' and lasting up to 30 minutes Entire spawning lasted at least one hour (12:35 - 13:35 hours) These spawnings occurred 2 and 3 days after full moon and on a rising tide (approximately 2.25 and 1.5 hours after the morning low tide, 7/9/09 and 7/10/09, respectively). Sexuality: Gonochoric (separate male and female colonies) Reproductive Mode: Broadcast spawner (sperm)*; no egg release observed Sexual Maturity Size: Smallest spawning colony was 450 cm2 (roughly 72 square inches - 6x12 inches), but maturity could quite possibly be even smaller. No eggs were collected; however previous reports state eggs contain zooxanthellae (Neves, 1998). * Parthenogenesis and brooding have also been reported as a possible reproductive mode in P. lutea (Fadallah, 1983). Figure 3. An initial report of timing of P. lutea spawnings in waters of the Big Island of Hawai'i. Note that other researchers have noted P. lutea spawnings later in the year in Hawai'i. Our observations are at odds with that reported by Kenyon (1995). Histological examinations of 3 P. lutea specimens gathered in May in Palau (7N, 138E) found no eggs. Does P. lutea spawn earlier (or later) than those in Hawai'i, or is this a case of mistaken identity? Which leads us to our next topic. Taxonomy Corals are generally difficult to identify to the species level, and the specimens of genus Porites are particularly so. Porites lutea in Hawai'i were formerly called P. evermanni (thought to be endemic to Hawai'i). However, Forsman et al. (2009) report samples of Hawaiian P. evermanni are genetically indistinguishable and similar in corallite characteristics from a Panamanian Porites. In addition, it was identical genetically to a branching morph of P. annae from American Samoa. Plasticity of coral skeletons due to any number of pressures creates the 'coral species problem' that will likely take some time to resolve. We used the identification of P. lutea suggested by Fenner (2005), where gross morphology of the skeleton is used, as well as color. His observations and recommendations allowed us to successfully locate spawning Porites colonies within Kahalu'u Bay. A later conversation with Dr. Paul Jokiel validated Fenner's identification methods. We should note that the Porites species closely resembling P. lutea is P. lobata. Information available to us states that Hawaiian P. lobata spawns during July and August evenings, two to four nights after the full moon and at 2100-2300 hours, or 0100-0300 hours (Gulko, 1995). In Closing To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. lutea's daytime spawning as early as July in Hawaiian waters. There is a report of Hawaiian P. evermanni reproducing in August and September just after the full moon (Hunter and Hodgson, unpublished, in Neves, 1998; also in Richmond and Hunter, 1990). Richmond and Hunter (1990) reported P. lutea spawns during November and January (summer) on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Obviously, our initial report is preliminary and will be refined with time. The take home message is clear - not all corals spawn at night or do our observations of P. lutea's spawning behaviors correspond to any particular lunar phase. In fact, our observations suggest spawnings are random during periods of warmer water. There is yet another possibility - some Porites lutea populations could use gonochoric brooding as a reproductive strategy, where sperm is released to the water column and fertilizes females' internally held eggs. This is rare in corals (estimated to be used by 7% of coral species) but has been reported in Porites rus colonies in Zanzibar (Bronstein and Loya, 2011). Hence, Porites species have been reported to use many reproductive modes - parthenogenesis, gonochoric broadcast spawning and gonochoric brooding (in addition to fragmentation). Footnote No observations, mostly due to time constraints of volunteers) of P. lutea spawning were made in 2010 (although they surely occurred). Our hopes are high for the 2011 spawning season, and we hope to have new information to report later this year. References [*]Bronstein, O. and Y. Loya, 2011. Daytime spawning of Porites rus on the coral reefs of Chumbe island in Zanzibar, Western Indian Ocean (WIO). Coral Reefs, in press.[*]Fadallah, Y., 1983. Sexual reproduction, development and larval biology in Scleractinian corals: A review. Coral Reefs, 2: 129-150.[*]Fenner, D., 2005. Corals of Hawai'i. A Field Guide to the Hard, Black, and Soft Corals of Hawai'i and the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, Including Midway. Mutual Publishing, Honolulu. 144 pp.[*]Gulko, D., 1995. Hawaiian Coral Reef Ecology. Mutual Publishing, Honolulu. 245 pp.[*]Forsman, Z., D. Barshis, C. Hunter and R. Toonen, 2009. Shape-shifting corals: Molecular markers show morphology is evolutionarily plastic in Porites. BMC Evol. Biol., 9:45.[*]Kenyon, J., 1995. Latitudinal differences between Palau and Yap in coral reproductive synchrony. Pac. Sci., 49(2): 156-164.[*]Neves, E., 1998. Reproduction in reef corals. Results of the 1997 Edwin W. Pauley summer program in marine biology. University of Hawai'i, Hawai'i Institue of Marine Biology. Technical Report No. 42.[*]Richmond, R. and C. Hunter, 1990. Reproduction and recruitment of corals: Comparisons among the Caribbean, the tropical Pacific, and the Red Sea. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser., 60: 185-203.[*]Thongtham, N., Transplantation of Porites lutea to rehabilitate degraded coral reef at Maiton Island, Phuket, Thailand. Proc. 11th Int. Coral Reef Symposium.[*]Veron, J.E.N., 2000. Corals of the World. Australian Institute of Marine Science. View the full article

Click through to see the images. The entire enclosure is constructed of aluminum with a corrosion-proof black coating. The main light measures 5.75" x 2.00" x 0.875", and the entire unit weighs 1 lb 7 oz. The fixture is passively cooled. The power cable is detachable with the power switch located on top of the main housing. The Hydra Aquatics Retina I comes complete with a mounting arm capable of swiveling at two points. This allows for height and location adjustment, as well as moving the fixture completely out of the way when aquarist want to service their tanks. The built-in mounting clamp is designed for frameless aquariums up to 8mm (5/16 inch) thick. The Hydra Aquatics Retina I is now in stock at Marine Depot for $99.99. The price is impressive given the metal construction and light output. Marine Depot also has informed me they will soon have the Orphek (an Advanced Aquarist sponsor) PR-25 and the smaller PR-ML7 in stock. View the full article

Coral farm still have a few yesterday.