Your Portal to Aquatic Discovery
From Microcosm Aquarium Explorer
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- CORAL Reef Life 2010 Calendar: Porcelain Crab on night-blooming sea pen. Denise Nielsen Tackett
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- Oscar: Species Profile of a Perennial Favorite JJPhoto.dk
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- Losing Nemo: Australian researchers look at ocean acidification and vulnerable clownfishes. Scott W. Michael
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- Jay Hemdal Live/ © Jay Hemdal
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- Rare Indian Ocean species: Cocos Pygmy Angelfish Inken Krause/CORAL Magazine
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- Cracking the Diadema Code: Moe brings Diadema urchins to cusp of metamorphosis. Steven Moe
[edit] Welcome to Microcosm Aquarium Explorer
Microcosm™ Aquarium Explorer: the new, trustworthy resource for adventurous, involved aquarists and eco-travelers, brought to you by the experts who publish Coral Magazine.
[edit] Losing Nemo
When Nemo, the cartoon clownfish, leaves the safety of his trusted anemone, his friends and his senses help him find his way home again. But what if something interferes with Nemo’s sensing ability, and he can’t find his way back, ever? New research points to a scenario in which this is both possible and probable. Read more...
[edit] New Blogs: Jay Hemdal on Aquarium Photography
Public aquarists often have difficulty photographing their exhibits. Not only do they have the same problems as home aquarists (flash reflection off the glass, issues with white balance, fast moving fish, etc.) they have the added distortion caused by thicker viewing panels (often with fingerprints or scratches on the surface). In some cases, the answer is to photograph the subject in a special photo tank. In other cases, this simply is not practical. I had explored both photo tanks and "top down" photography as potential solutions to these issues in my book, Advanced Marine Aquarium Techniques. Another method I presented in the book was the use of underwater cameras in aquariums. At the time, I was using a 3.2 megapixel Canon in a waterproof case. This allowed for barely tolerable results as the housing was bulky and the camera had low resolution. Read more...
[edit] Martin Moe Reports Breakthrough in Captive Breeding of Threatened Diadema Urchins
"I am encouraged! Over the last 3 years I have been working intensively to develop a process for the mass culture of the long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, the key herbivore of the tropical western Atlantic coral reefs.
"As you know, before the plague of 1983, this urchin maintained the ecological balance between coral growth and macro algae growth on our Atlantic reefs and also conditioned the limestone substrates to better accept settlement of coral and other invertebrates. Ecological restoration of western Atlantic coral reefs depends in large measure on the return of Diadema in ecologically functional numbers. This may/should eventually occur naturally as pioneer populations increase and expand, but natural restoration has been limited and spotty over the last 29 years. Read more...