For those of you wondering why all the animals around reefs are so vividly colored, I definitely recommend checking out this multimedia presentation at National Geographic titled “Coral Reef Color, A Fish’s-Eye View.” Join NatGeo photog extraordinaire Tim Laman as he uncovers the mystery of reef colors!

I’ve got two colonies of zoanthids that were doing awesome and spreading like wildfire but over the last few weeks have noticed what appears to be receding and bleaching polyps. One colony is a Tubb’s Blue that began to pale shortly after noticing the skirt “arms” were growing quite long. The other is an unknown that is green with a burgundy/brown skirt that seems to lose polyps. For a while both colonies did not open and I did notice some small specks on the closed polyps. I am not 100% sure this is zoa pox but the symptoms do explain my troubles.

An interesting article on All Headline News titled “New Study Finds Humans Can Help Some “Super” Coral Reefs Recover From Effects Of Climate Change” is a small step away from the normal doom-and-gloom of the devastating human effects on coral reefs and provides a glimmer of hope.

In case you haven’t heard about House Resolution (HR) HR 669, it is a bill Congress is reviewing called the “The Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act”. This bill, if passed, will change the way that the US Government classifies animal species that are not native to the United States. With good intent, it may go a bit too far with wide-reaching effects on this hobby as well as for other pet owners.

My friend Scott Fellman introduced the topic of taking inspiration from nature in your tank design and brought up the Golden Ratio when he was at my local club presenting a topic on aquascaping uniquely fitting called “Aquascaping for the Aesthetically Challenged.” You may have heard of the Golden Ratio, Divine Proportion or the Fibonacci Sequence in geometry, art history or mathematics and now you’re going to hear about it in reefkeeping.

One man’s chore is another man’s fun! I’m spending the day up at my friend’s reef shop, Kalypso Aquatics, lending a hand and learning a bit more about the hobby while we’re at it. I love coming up since Elliott give me the change to hack…errr frag some corals.

Living in California’s Central Valley (Modesto), there aren’t a lot of choices for a quality reef shop. I did find a gem about 45 minutes North of me. Kalypso Aquatics, located in Lodi, is a great shop for the local reefer.

Elliot, the owner, regularly reaches out to help the local reefers offering free reverse osmosis water, holding sick livestock in his copper treated tanks, and a great place to pick up coral frags.

His coral tanks offer a variety of corals from softies to SPS. Has a small but nice selection of fish but can special order for you if you just give him a heads up.

He has great prices on clean up crew snails, offers live and dry sand, and has nice live rock for $4 a pound (wish I knew about this place before I bought mine!). The store carries some essential equipment but not a wide selection. Also carried at Kalypso is reef and fish foods, test kits, and salt.

I am probably missing some key things, but he is always very welcoming even if I am just stopping in to observe fish and corals. I plan on getting a majority of my livestock from this shop.