www.fragfarmer.com - Ready to Open!

I had a nice visit with Eric Caamano at his newly remodeled shop last weekend, Central Aquarium and Reef in Upland, California. Eric has added three or four new large set ups, plus a new fish/invert compartment tank. He has also added a large amount of dry goods at very reasonable prices. Look for the fragfarmers.com/Central Aquarium new website to be launched soon and if you're in Southern California, his grand opening is scheduled for September 10th. Eric is a great supporter of the Western Marine Conference 2006 and will be attending as a vendor.

Mono Lake: Brine Shrimp Everywhere!

On our recent trip to San Diego and Scripps Institute of Oceanography, we made a quick stop at Mono Lake's South Beach to view the tufa formations. I had been to Mono Lake a number of times, but never in the summer months. I was amazed at the number of brine shrimp along the shorelines. The shrimp is an ample food supply for the number of birds populating the area. Brine shrimp used in a marine aquarium has little nutritional value, but is often used to entice new additions to eat. Mono Lakes ph is over 10 and the specific gravity is an astonishing 80.8 parts per thousand (1.060 sp), where natural sea water is at about 35 ppt.

Coral Magazine: From the Editor

Kathleen Wood, Editor for the U.S. publication of Coral Magazine wrote a fantastic article about patience as a key to success in keeping reef or fish only aquariums. I subscribe to Coral Magazine for many of my customers to help them learn about keeping marine animals. This issue has a wonderful subject matter on keeping sea urchins. Urchins are fantastic additions to reef tanks. They do a great job in keeping undesirable algaes in control and even help promote coralline algae growth by releasing spores as they eat. Unfortunately, urchins can not be kept in acrylic aquariums due to the fact that they will scratch the surface of the aquarium as the eat diatoms off of the acrylic. Pick up a copy of Coral today at your local fish store. Their articles and photography are the best in the hobby industry.