This article is exclusively about the particularly colourful Montipora corals. Many thanks to all the picture authors for the fabulous photos in the article :-) We have taken the liberty of supplementing the coral pictures in PRINTMAGAZINE with a few more - for which there was unfortunately no more space - here.
From Coral Reef Magazine Issue 1, April 2020 - by Silvia Gerhard. When I started marine aquaristics 7 years ago with a small 20l nano reef, I would never have dreamed of keeping such rare beauties in the long term. Minimal technology is my principle. A small Eheim skimmer, Eheim Aquaball internal filter with Rowaphos, Tunze nanoturbelle, Jäger regulator heater and a 24 watt Tropic Marin Led lamp are all I need.
After an almost two-year hiatus, Indonesian coral farmers are allowed to export their corals again as of this week.
Now it had hit us. The red Montipora, which had grown so well, showed pale colours and the first dead areas, preferably at the edges. You search and search and often only late come to the last possibility, namely that it is a predator that is attacking this beautiful coral. The certainty was there, we have Montipora snails! Enjoy the video and the article, which also offers some advice on what you can do.
Our aquarium has now been in place for 14 months and the first corals are bumping into each other. Some get along quite well, but some don't get along at all. The fight for survival among the corals is breaking out, so to speak. This episode is about the coral species that get along quite well, but also about others where you have to intervene before one coral destroys the other. Of course, there is also a video.
I can still remember how we were with Theo in Belgium at the end of 2017 and were able to take pictures under blue light for the first time with a film. That was a huge difference. At Interzoo in May 2018, the first clip filter came onto the market. This came from D-D Solution. In December 2018, the ARKA MY Reef Studio came out, which is quite similar, but was offered at a slightly lower price.
There is probably hardly a reader who has not been almost bombarded with vocabulary such as "coral bleaching", "coral bleaching", "El Niño", "climate change" and "increasing water temperatures in the oceans" for some years now. What billions of coral polyps created in about 600:000 years of construction, the formation of the largest coral reef in the world, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, humanity is destroying in record time. Now - thank God - a first active rescue attempt by scientists is emerging to save the reef after all.
The import ban from Indonesia is still in place. Since May 2018, no more corals have been coming from there and almost all of them are coming via Australia. This reduces the species enormously. What is the trade doing now with regard to offspring corals? We went to Aquapferkt, a wholesaler, and took a look at their breeding efforts. The whole thing as usual via video.
These findings, which are the result of new research methods, have once again led to new genus and species names and we have to "save" these in the lexicon. But besides taxonomic changes, we are pleased to see that completely new genera (e.g. Australophyllia) and new species (e.g. Micromussa indiana and Micromussa pacifica) are described. See the article for more information and photos.
Since we are often asked what the Cites obligation and the necessary certificates are, we have summarised the important key points. Because it sounds wilder at first than it actually is.
Dazzling colours, aren't they? At first you wouldn't believe it, the large polyp coral looks so colourful. Since I was interested in how to achieve something like this, I asked the photographer Duran Le Kepe to tell me something about his 2 systems - and the key data he used. This resulted in a strong picture report and an interview, where we will learn a lot about blue light and UV.
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