Fish
Monthly Archives: February 2012
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Two Little Fishies Announces New CDX Media
Today at the Global Pet Expo in Orlando, Florida, Julian Sprung was on hand to announce several new products in the TLF line. The first major announcement was the release of the CDX product. CDX stands for Carbon Dioxide Absorption media, and this media will work in the existing TLF reactors with a small modification to the input elbows. This is a DRY media, meaning you attach it to the air intake for your skimmer and air is sucked through the media to take free CO2 out of the aquarium. This is very useful in increasing your pH level without adding chemicals to the water itself. The media and reactor adapter will be available at your local fish store in the coming months.
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ReefAngel – a controller made for the DIY reefkeeper
As some of you may or may not know, I am not only an aquarium controller addict, I am also probably one of the most vocal advocates out there for making this a standard piece of equipment on just about every reef tank. I say this not because they are great gadgets, but because of the fault tolerance as well as peace of mind they can offer — preventing common disasters such as heater failures, tank leaks/overflows, etc. 
Over the last year or so I have been watching the rise in popularity of the ReefAngel Reef Controller. Not only does it promise to deliver a platform with a wider set of potential options and features than others on the market, it was also about 10-20% cheaper than the competitors when simply looking at a features list. So, needless to say I was very excited when offered the chance to review a working unit. Over the course of three days I have spent about three hours evaluating this product. In that time I realized a fundamental aspect of this controller. So, to begin, I would like to use an analogy to help you understand how I see the ReefAngel fitting into the current aquarium controller market and to quickly allow you to know if this controller is right for you.… More:
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MASNA Live Feb 2012 – LSMAC, New BOD, "Tank Bred" panel, & Ret Talbot
February 2012 MASNA Live Show Notes: | Four short interviews with Lake Superior Marine Aquarium Club members Jay Hanson, Mike Doty, Frank Wotruba, and Jim Grassinger. Map of Esko, MN http://goo.gl/6N1u6 | Pictures of LSMAC tanks: http://goo.gl/lzFJF | Introduction of two new MASNA Board of Directors members Amanda Cox and Carl Nelson.
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Tagged cuttlefish, does-tank, Hawaii, house, new-website, raised-mean, talbot, tanks
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Dan Underwood speaking at the 2012 Marine Breeder’s Workshop
Dan Underwood from Seahorse Source is the latest speaker to be announced for the 2012 Marine Breeder’s Workshop on July 28th in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Breeding seahorses can be easy! Seahorses will often breed just by putting males and females together. Rearing the fry can be an entirely different story. Very few can raise a large percentage of fry successfully; even fewer can do it consistently. Dan will cover his methods and techniques that allow him to raise more than 80 percent of his fry consistently and often reach well into the high 90 percent ratios. Commercial aquaculturist Dan Underwood is the co-founder and co-owner of Seahorse Source, Inc. Dan started breeding seahorses, with his wife Abbie, as hobbyists in 2003. After having success as hobbyists, they decided to go professional in 2005. They have worked with 10 different species of seahorses and currently enjoy consistently high success rates rearing all species they breed. In addition to breeding seahorses, Dan remains close to the hobby level by participating on various seahorse related forums, volunteers as a moderator on Seahorse.org, and manages a help desk. He also does consulting work helping other professionals with seahorse related issues. … More:
Is Ecotech the Apple of the Reef Hobby?
OK, I’ll come right out and say that I’m a bit of an Ecotech fan. I have two MP40s, one MP10, and a pair of Radions on my 120g tank. I’ve paid for all of them, so Ecotech has not influenced me directly by giving me any sort of product to write this. Back to the question at hand, is there anyone else in the hobby that sees parallels between the world’s largest company, Apple, and Ecotech? To start, Ecotech focuses on a few products and does them extremely well. You may like other products better for water circulation and lighting, but the general consensus in the hobby is that these products (subsequent to initial version issues) are workhorses, and with little maintenance they operate unimpeded for years. Second,… More:
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ORA’s New Clownmobile
Our friends at ORA recently decided to get a new van for making their airport deliveries, and decided to take it to the next level as only a reefer would, by painting the vehicle to look like a clownfish! Pretty cool if you ask us. LINK … More:
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Aquatic Inspiration in Chicago’s Aqua Building
Recently, the city of Chicago took the title of “Coolest Apartment Building for Reefers” with this incredible building known as Aqua. This luxury apartment building is 86 stories and contains deluxe amenities. Many of the other buildings in the area sport some sort of water-themed facade, so despite it’s size, it actually fits into the area nicely. One thing that is quite clear to readers of this blog, many artists take inspiration from the oceans, reefs and lakes, and we don’t expect this to stop any time soon. While many buildings do indeed take clues from coral growth forms, when can we expect an architect to dive in and create a building that is clearly and utterly derived from coral patterns?… More:
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Hubble Telescope: Waterworld Really Exists!
Earlier this week, NASA revealed that the Hubble Telescope has discovered an entirely new class of planet: a true Waterworld. By examining how light from a star passes through the atmosphere of the planet, dubbed GJ1214b, researchers were able to estimate that the skies over the planet were “steamy”, rich in water vapor. Actually, to be more precise, they were MOSTLY water vapor. The scientists, knowing the size and mass of the planet, have been able to determine that has much much much more water than Earth. Perhaps the most tantalizing part about this aquaplanet, however, is that at some point in its history it likely passed through the so-called “habitable zone” of the red dwarf star it orbits. At this point however, the surface of GJ1214b is a balmy 450 degrees Fahrenheit. It also weighs seven times as much as Earth and has a 38 hour year. Full story here: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/13/full/… More:
The Bill I Knew: Lessons and insights from a pioneer
The passing of Bill Addison, owner and founder of C-quest marine ornamental fish hatchery, is a very sad loss for our industry. Although fish farming represents just one chapter in his life, his contributions were significant and it makes me happy to see how much he is appreciated by the aquarium community.
- Bill and Me in one of his favorite places, Roatan
From the first moment I met Bill Addison, I knew I had found a kindred spirit. I had never heard of him or C-quest until I found the address in the 1994 Aquaculture Magazine buyer’s guide.
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Reef Threads Podcast #71
Tweet Capricornis colony owned by Al Schreiber. This week we remember Bill Addison and discuss the Kent carbon recall, safety when removing equipment, balanced diets, captive bred/raised vs
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Posted in Equipment, Fish, Podcast
Tagged else-load, Equipment, fish, podcast, typeof-add, var-load
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Toward a Working Definition of Tank-Raised
While the issue has never entirely gone away, this past week saw a seismic resurgence in a semantic debate concerning two often misused and frequently abused terms in the marine aquarium industry: tank-raised and captive bred. These are terms that should have value for the aquarist contemplating a purchase, and despite the continued discussion, there are, at least based on my research and reporting, good working definitions for both terms to which people at all levels of the trade should be held accountable. This Week’s Debate and Blue Zoo Aquatics Tank-Raised Cuttlefish The most recent iteration of the debate began when Blue Zoo Aquatics, a Los Angeles-based online retailer of marine aquarium livestock and dry goods, posted a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) tank-raised cuttlefish for sale in their Collector’s Choice store. Collector’s Choice is the portion of the Blue Zoo Aquatics website where they sell unique, rare or otherwise distinctive animals. Soon after Blue Zoo Aquatics posted the WYSIWYG tank-raised cuttlefish, aquarists began to talk via social media. Excitement, speculation and assumptions dominated that chatter. Some aquarists, wary from previous abuses of the term “tank-raised,” questioned… More:
Cuttlefish Use a Human-like Level of Eyesight to Help Camouflage Themselves
Sarah Zylinski, a researcher at Duke, recently focused her attention on the eyesight of cuttlefish. Through various tests, she was able to identify the ability of cuttles to identify shapes in the same way that humans do. Despite cuttles being colorblind, they actually have a very developed sense of sight as indicated by their ability to pick out circles in a pattern. How do the cuttles prove that they see the object? They use their ability to change color as a camouflaging mechanism. Included in the great article on the study, is a link to a cool cuttlefish image gallery that you HAVE TO see. … More:
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