Cover of CORAL Magazine Volume 19, Issue 3: DOTTYBACKS – May/June, 2022. On the cover: Splendid Dottyback, Manonichthys splendens: Blue Planet Archive/Reinhard Dirscherl. Background: Acanthogorgia isoxyagorgonian: Blue Planet Archive/David B. Fleetham.
HEREWITH, a sampling of articles and opening pages for readers curious about what the new CORAL Magazine issue brings.
Table of Contents for the May/June 2022 issue of CORAL Magazine. You can view this TOC online.Editor & Publisher James Lawrence reflects on Jeanne Villepreux-Power, a self-taught naturalist and arguably the first true marine biologist. Born in France in 1794, she is the woman responsible for the first aquarium in the historical record. What might Villepreux-Power think upon meeting her modern-day counterpart and kindred spirit, CORAL editor and contributor Scott Michael, who took to aquarium keeping as a way to study the marine life he had encountered in nature?REEF NEWS presents findings and happenings of note in the marine world. In this issue: Australian researchers test devices to restore large areas of lost reefs; “Tropicalization” will bring reef fishes into northern waters (read an earlier version of this story online); Sea cucumber secrets: Environmentally friendly organic coatings from the sea; and Spitting polyps: How corals and anemones get their endosymbionts.
REEF VISIONS: A portfolio of extraordinary reef life spotted by Matt Pedersen in the current aquarium trade. This issue opens with a coral we first teased as a mystery ID, the Unique Corals Masterpiece Valida, a new strain selected from the waters of the Solomon Islands. Learn more about this coral in an exclusive online bonus, and turn the pages of CORAL to see what other reef life is looking for a home in your reef aquarium!
The beguiling dottybacks can be wonderful additions to the reef aquarium; however, if care is not taken when picking a species to keep, they can cause serious aquarist headaches. Read on as Scott Michael helps you avoid the pitfalls in Dottyback Encounters, our nearly 30-page cover story and the definitive overview of the Pseudochrominae!Island Rising, our Aquarium Portrait, features the work of Marius Schumann and his inventive approach to maintaining a thriving reef aquarium as well as an islet of Tillandsia bromeliads growing above the waterline.Russell Kelley’s CORAL EXPLORER returns with Part 2 of a focus knowing the species in the genus Lobophyllia. In this installment: Lobophyllia ishigakiensis, L. rowleyensis and L. vitiensis.Author Felicia McCaulley and photographer Michael Vargas team up again to place the entire genus Goniopora under our Species Spotlight. Don’t miss this highly informative and strikingly illustrated coverage of a genus once truly thought of as “cut flowers” for the reef tank.Advanced Aquatics brings a bonus to the dottyback coverage in this issue. Whether you’re just curious, or more experienced in the art of marine fish breeding, veteran Spanish author José María Cid Ruiz shares a modern look at home aquarist-level captive-breeding of the Orchid Dottyback, Pseudochromis fridmani.
Matt Pedersen is a Sr. Editor and Associate Publisher with Reef To Rainforest Media, LLC & CORAL Magazines, and is a Sr. Editor and Publishing Partner with Aquatic Media Press, LLC & AMAZONAS Magazine. Matt has kept aquariums for 38 years, has worked in most facets of the aquarium trade, is an active aquarist and fish breeder (both marine and freshwater), and was recognized with the 2009 MASNA Award as the MASNA Aquarist of the Year.