Reef Network

Global Reef Comminity

09/03/2026

🐟 A fish once believed extinct came back on the strength of three individuals.

The new issue of AMAZONAS Magazine runs from China to Sulawesi: new forms in a genus that has been in our aquariums since 1869, a dwarf bumblebee catfish from Sumatra’s blackwater, two ricefishes sharing one river, and a rice field biotope born in the magazine’s own pages.

So can a species come back after being erased from the wild, thanks to the aquariums in our homes? This issue has more than one answer to that.

📖 Check out the “Reviews” highlight in our bio for the link to the full review on our website! 🔗✨

08/30/2026

Its common name is Poison Goby. It has no venomous spine.

The defence is the skin:

Toxic mucus coats the whole body Predators taste it and spit it out Acropora colonies with a goby inside get bitten less

Butterflyfish bite rate on occupied colonies: 62-98% lower

Buy the coral before you buy the fish. Under 5 cm branch length it will not settle.

🔗 Fish highlight

08/23/2026

A bulb that lights up is not a bulb that works. T5 runs on hours, your calendar counts months.

2500 ÷ 8 h/day = 10.3 months
2500 ÷ 10 h/day = 8.2 months
2500 ÷ 12 h/day = 6.8 months

Run 12 hours a day and “once a year” is already late.

What 2500 actually is, and the three signs that warn you before the calendar does:

🔗 Equipment highlight

08/19/2026

This fish is a barber. That is not a nickname, it is the name.

Sazima named it figaro in 1997 after the barber of Seville, because it opens a station on a rock at dawn and works until dusk. One study on Brazilian reefs counted 34 client species lining up at those stations. Damselfish were the most frequent customers. Some clients were fifteen times longer than the goby cleaning them.

It only lives on the Brazilian coast, nowhere else on Earth, and it is listed as Vulnerable. So buy captive bred. Breeders have raised it through settlement since 2009.

Full care guide is in the “Fish” highlight on our profile.

08/12/2026

Rock is sold by the kilogram. Your aquarium measures volume.

A test you can run at home before you buy:

Weigh the rock dry
Soak it 24 hours
Let it drain, weigh again

Every gram it gains is a millilitre of pore space.

1000 g dry → 1400 g wet = 400 ml of pore water
Solid skeleton: 1000 ÷ 2.9 = 345 ml
Total volume: 745 ml
Porosity: 54%

Above 35% of dry weight is porous. Under 20% is a paving stone with a price tag.

🔗 Academy highlight

08/04/2026

This crab picks its shell. Then the shell decides where it gets to live.

A study in Hawaii found the ones carrying cowrie and worm shells never left the shallow tide pools, sitting out in the open on bare rock. The ones that found a proper whelk shell went straight down into the subtidal. The reason is simple: that shape actually stops a predator.

So the pile of empty shells in your aquarium is not decor. It is the only thing standing between a working cleanup crew and a shell fight.

👉Full care guide is in the “Crustaceans” highlight on our profile.

07/30/2026

🌊 There’s one spot in your aquarium you never look at. Behind the rockwork.

If the flow doesn’t reach it, detritus piles up, oxygen runs out and hydrogen sulphide can form in that corner. Red cyanobacteria showing up in the same spot every time is no coincidence... 🪸

So is the answer a more powerful pump? Actually the opposite. Split the same flow across two smaller pumps and the streams collide in the middle, create turbulence and leave no dead spots. 🤔

Also in the guide: flow rate by aquarium volume, propeller vs gyre, and which acid to clean with.

👉 Full guide linked in the Equipment highlight on our profile.

07/24/2026

Picture a 5 cm fish that shelters among the spines of a sea urchin. The Red Head Goby (Elacatinus puncticulatus) is the only member of its genus absent from the Atlantic, and the neon blue band on its head is no accident: it is an advertisement aimed at fish waiting to be cleaned.

It is also one of the few cleaner gobies successfully bred in captivity. Eggs hatch in 7 days, and the father does the babysitting.

👉Full care guide is in the “Fish” highlight on our profile.

07/18/2026

🐟 They look fierce. They’re actually gentle giants.

The new issue of AMAZONAS Magazine , themed “Big Beauties,” puts three giant Central American cichlids in the spotlight: Coptodon, Parachromis, and Tomocichla. Imposing, bold, even a little intimidating... yet surprisingly calm when given enough space. And beyond their colors, even their breeding behavior is full of unexpected surprises. 🐠

So what does it take to keep these imposing beauties at home? Which aquarium, which water, which companions? 🤔

There’s more in this issue: wolf characins with saber-like teeth in their lower jaw, a tiny blind fish pulled from a village well in India, and overlooked aquascaping plants.

👉 Full review linked in our bio / the “Freshwater” highlight on our profile.

aquarium fishkeeping reefnetwork

07/15/2026

👁️ One sees, one digs. Neither survives without the other.

The Tangaroa Goby shares its burrow with a nearly blind pistol shrimp. The shrimp digs the tunnel, the goby stands guard at the door. At the first sign of danger, a single tail-flick… and both vanish underground in a second. 🦐🐟

So how do you set up this partnership in your own tank? Which shrimp is the best match?
👉 Full care guide linked in the “Fish” highlight on our profile.

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