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Amphipods: Microcrustacean Biodiversity in Saltwater Aquaria  Amphipods (Gammarus sp.) are an awesome small crustacean to have in both reef and fish-only aquaria! We just started culturing our own amphipods at our aquaculture facility, to hopefully bring this live superfood into your home aquaria! Amphipods are in the subphylum Crustacea, class Malacostraca, and order Amphipoda. They share many physical characteristics with other crustaceans and may look like mini-shrimps. In the wild, there are thousands of different species of amphipods that live in both freshwater and saltwater. There are even some terrestrial species! Most species are ten millimeters or less; and even...

Reefing 101 By: Patrick Egan I’ve always wondered how someone could have so much success with a reef aquarium. Corals growing so tightly to one another they spiral around each other in a dance to the surface. I have had my fair share of success keeping corals, but there’s always that one coral that’s just never happy. In a panic, adjustments are made and the next thing you know another coral is unhappy. You couldn’t just leave well enough alone and now everything is stressed. Sometimes you just have to let the aquarium decide the fate of your corals. If...

A couple of years ago we brought in a dwarf cichlid that I had never seen before, Nannacara anomala also known as the Golden Eye Cichlid. They were still pretty small and colorless, but when I looked them up I saw the stunning coloration that they got,. Their small max size prompted me to buy a few. I took home two females and a male to go into my 40 gallon community tank. They quickly became my favorite of all the dwarf cichlids. Not only do they get fantastic coloration; they stay relatively small, and are one of the most...

Congrats on your new Aiptasia eradicators! These little Berghia nudibranchs will hunt for the most hard to reach Aiptasia. Included is a pipette for easy transfer. It is recommended to use the pipette to drip acclimate the Berghia until the salinity of water matches that of your tank. Turn off any powerheads or large sources of flow before adding them to your tank. Gently take the nudibranchs into your pipette and place them near any Aiptasia. Be careful to not place them directly onto the Aiptasia as they can still get stung or eaten. Enjoy as these little guys rid...