In about a week, the crew over at Reefs.com will be releasing a coral identification database for their already established Reefs Mobile App. We’re delighted to be the first line of corals featured in the Reefs App Coral Database!  All of ORA’s coral photos and descriptions will now be available in the palm of your hand for on the go identification.  Hopefully this handy app will help answer some of your ORA Coral questions when there’s no computer within reach. Head over to their site to lean more about it!

After an 8 year holiday Pink Stylophora is back on our availability list. We’ve picked an awesome strain that grows in tight little colonies with small branches. This is one of the nicest pink varieties we’ve seen.  The color ranges from dark pink in shaded areas to vivid magenta in high light. Head over to the product page for more details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqQABPQtbc

We promised a video showing how our van was turned into a giant clownfish when we first posted the story on February 28th.  We must say, the crew at Carwrapsolutions.com really came through on this one.  They shot and edited this video for us depicting the application process on every side of the vehicle.  We had no idea how much work actually went into this!  Check it out.

Part 1 of 2.

What’s black, white and orange and looks “funny” driving down the highway?  ORA’s new Clownmobile.

A couple of months ago we retired our trusty clownfish chariot, a 2001 Ford Econoline van.  After 10 years of of airport runs and a few too many gallons of spilled saltwater it was time to put her out to pasture.  We were ready for something new, something more fuel efficient, something more. . . fun.   We already had a Dodge Sprinter van so it made sense to get something smaller for the days when we didn’t have a full load of boxes.  After much deliberation we decided on a Ford Transit Connect.

So there we were with a stark white canvas and minds full of ideas.  Should we just do a simple logo like our old van?  Maybe we should cover it in a photo-realistic reef scene?  How about a giant clownfish?  Wait, a giant clownfish, that would be great!  People would surely get a kick out of seeing something like that drive down the road.  Our minds wandered as we envisioned the Mutt Cuts mobile from Dumb and Dumber with a fin, instead of a leg covering the gas filler.

We spent hours laughing and having fun thinking about things like bubbles blowing out of the tail pipe, but eventually we tamed down our ideas and went with a cartoonish and somewhat abstract clownfish pattern on the sides.  We spoke to a number of vehicle wrap companies and eventually wound up going with CarWrapSolutions.com in Davie Florida.  We were curious about the application process but the installation location was almost two hours away so we didn’t get to see it happening.  Robert at Car Wrap Solutions was kind enough to shoot some video for us but it will be about a week before we can get it online.  Stay tuned for that in part 2 of this article.

You can see this thing from a mile away and boy does it turn heads and produce smiles.  Florida residents, keep an eye out for it!

Three years ago Brian from Ocean Gallery II in New Jersey imported a beautiful pair of young clownfish from the Solomon Islands.  Upon arrival there was some uncertainty about their identity.  It was unclear if they were Amphiprion leucokranos or Amphiprion thiellei but as they grew older it became apparent that they were in fact A. leucokranos, the Whitebonnet Clownfish.   The pair was housed in one of the store’s 40 gallon aquariums filled with Rose Bubble Tip Anemones. Brian treated the pair as his personal pets and they doubled in size under his care.  Approximately 9 months ago they started spawning.   Clownfish aficionados know how hard this species of clownfish is to find, let alone a pair of them, so a spawning pair is exceptionally exciting.

Unfortunately the young male ate the first small batch of eggs and Brian decided that life in the 40 gallon aquarium might be too stressful since there was quite a bit of activity in the tank.   The pair was moved into a 300 gallon show tank where they  thrived, as did their host Rose Anemone, which grew to 16 inches!   A few weeks ago the pair inadvertently hitched a ride back into a 40 gallon aquarium by hiding in the anemone when it was relocated.   It was then that Brian decided that the spawning pair was so special that they should go to a facility where they could carry on their legacy.   Brian called his friends at ORA to see if we would be interested.

Even though there is plenty of confusion about the validity of the species, Leucokranos are considered by aquarists to be exotic and highly desirable.    We were ecstatic to have the opportunity to acquire a mated, spawning pair.  It has been at least 10 years since we had a pair of Leucokranos in the hatchery and none of us can remember ever seeing a spawn.

On Monday, February 6th Brian carefully boxed up his prized pair of Leucokranos Clownfish for their trip to Florida.  Everything was packed up nicely and the label was placed in a clear plastic envelope on the outside of the box.   He double checked that Priority Overnight was selected and turned the box over to FedEx.   He could not possibly have known that the fish would not arrive at ORA until 9 days later.

At 10:30am on Tuesday morning we were anxiously waiting for the box to be unloaded from the FedEx truck but nothing arrived.  We immediately called the FedEx customer service center in Memphis.  The FedEx rep seemed puzzled as to where the box of rare fish was, but confirmed that the package had not left the Memphis hub.  A trace was placed on the package and the rep promised to follow up as soon as the box was found.  By the end of the day there was no news.  The fish were still somewhere inside the giant hub facility.  Brian from Ocean Gallery called to reassure us that the fish had been packed well, with lots of water, oxygen and 40 hour heat packs, and a second day in transit wouldn’t be a problem.

It turns out that sometime soon after arriving at the hub the shipping label had come off the box and the package had ended up in Overgoods – the FedEx version of “Lost and Found”.   There (thankfully)  the employees had opened the box and realized that the fish needed to get into an aquarium as soon as possible.   With the shipping label gone, and no documents inside the box, there was nothing to indicate that the fish belonged to ORA or Ocean Gallery, so a FedEx employee contacted Richard at a local fish store called Memfish.   Richard agreed to rescue the fish.

This wasn’t the first time Richard had rescued animals from stray FedEx shipments.  Over the years FedEx has asked him to take in all kinds of unusual mammals and reptiles that found themselves suddenly homeless while in transit.    Even though he runs a fish store Richard always agrees to take custody of the animals.   He then contacts a network of colleagues to help the animals get to a better environment and out of harm’s way.

Back at ORA on Wednesday morning we continued working with FedEx but there was still no news.  The FedEx rep reported that they were still actively searching for the box and they were well aware that time could be running out for the fish.

Over at Memfish Richard had no idea about the massive search that was going on back at the hub.  He determined that the Leucokranos pair, now officially his property,  was in excellent condition and fit for sale, so he called one of his best customers who had a penchant for rare clowns and asked him to come by to take a look at them.

On Thursday morning the FedEx rep called with a Good News / Bad News update.   An employee in the Overgoods Department had reported seeing a box with fish inside.   The employee knew that the fish were still alive when they were found and so they had been sent to a local fish store before they perished.  The rep called the shop to explain that FedEx had located the proper recipient but someone at the store told her that the fish had already been sold.  So the Leucokranos were alive and well but living in a private home!

ORA contacted Richard at Memfish to explain the situation and see if the fish could be recovered.   Richard once again, agreed to help and contacted his customer.    When the customer heard what had happened he very kindly agreed to bring the fish back to the store so they could continue on to their intended home at ORA.

The Leucokranos spent the weekend enjoying the Haddoni Carpet anemones in a  Memfish display aquarium.   Richard sent us a photo and reassured us that they were being well taken care of, realizing how important this pair was to us.

We decided not to have the fish shipped for Valentines Day just in case there was a surge in package volume.   So on Tuesday evening Richard packed the pair again and took them to FedEx.

On Wednesday morning the fish finally arrived safe and sound at ORA.  Our quarantine staff carefully acclimated them and placed them in a one of our coral quarantine systems that has several anemones in it.  As you can see from the picture they have settled in nicely.

We would like to thank Brian from Ocean Gallery for offering us this rare and unique pair that he nurtured for three years.

We also want to express our appreciation for the employees at FedEx who diligently searched until they discovered what had happened to the package.  We are grateful to the Overgoods employees who went out of their way to get the fish to a safe place as quickly as possible.

Most of all, we are thankful to Richard from Memfish for rescuing the pair and taking such good care of them and his customer Todd for agreeing to part with them.

Be sure to check out Memfish on the web and Facebook  as well as Ocean Gallery II on the web and Facebook

This week we are adding another coral to our availability list, the ORA Confusa.  Read more about this beauty on the product page Here.

ORA has added another species to its list of captive bred Marine Ornamentals, McCulloch’s Clownfish (Amphiprion mccullochi).  This success story is a little different from others we have shared in the past.  This time we didn’t actually breed the fish but we did raise the larvae.

When the McCullochs first entered the US aquarium market in 2008 we purchased several pairs.  Much to our chagrin they were extremely aggressive towards one another.  None of our fish got along and spawning was out of the question.   Everyone knows how aggressive some clownfish species can be, these guys take it to a whole new level!  There was at least one person out there who was having success in maintaining pair bonds between these fish, Kevin Kohen at Doctors Foster and Smith in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

In 2009, Kevin and his staff at LiveAquaria.com became the first people to successfully raise the McCulloch clownfish in the US.  You can read all about it here.  These were exciting times and many people were eagerly anticipating an increase in the availability of this species.  Between 2009 and 2010, Kevin was able to raise several small batches of fish from multiple spawns in their Aquaculture Coral and Marine Life Facility located in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  From there, the decision was made to dedicate all of their efforts on the care and conditioning of aquatic life in their facility, as opposed to breeding and rearing.

In early 2011 ORA and LiveAquaria formed a collaborative relationship in an effort to raise these coveted clownfish.  The pair bonds between these fish are so fragile that relocating the broodstock to Florida was simply not an option so the decision was made to ship only the eggs.  There are a number of challenges when transporting clownfish spawns. Most importantly they must be shipped at the proper age.  Wait too long and they will hatch off in the broodstock tank, or even worse, in the bag during shipping.  If shipped too early the eggs are likely to decay without parental care.  Water quality and temperature  must be maintained during shipping, this typically requires large volumes of water.  Lastly great care must be taken to prevent the eggs from getting damaged in shipping.  In our case the eggs were shipped on a tile so it was imperative that the eggs not get crushed by the tile should the box get overturned, and that the tile did not puncture the shipping bags.

We were able to overcome most of these shipping challenges and we had several successful hatches of McCullochs in 2011.  To our surprise they have turned out to be pretty slow growing fish compared to similar species like the Cinnamon and Tomato clowns.  It takes quite a while for them to lose their juvenile barring which consists of a tail and middle bar in addition the head bar they keep as an adult.  We were pleased to see they were less aggressive than we expected as youngsters too.

ORA appreciates the opportunity to work with these rare fish and we wish to express our sincere thanks to Kevin Kohen and the rest of the LiveAquaria team.  To fulfill our end of the relationship with LiveAquaria, a batch was shipped to them a few weeks ago.  We have heard they will be going up in the Divers Den any time now so keep an eye out.  The next group should be available for shipping in the coming weeks.  Retailers can keep  an eye on our pricelist or give our sales office a call.

We have just completed a few small changes to the site.

- All of our product pages now have navigation tabs above the image to the right of the title.  These tabs will allow you to scroll through the products in a given category without having to repeatedly use the back button.

- Social Media sharing buttons have been added to each of the product pages.  Now you can share your favorite ORA products with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

ORA is proud to offer a new soft coral from our collection, Grube’s Gorgonian (Pinnigorgia flava). Grube’s (pronounced Grooba’s) Gorgonian is a graceful, thin-branched octocoral that can be described as tan to pink in color with similarly colored polyps. We obtained this coral from Julian Sprung and we’ve been impressed by its hardiness and rapid growth. It has an extensive history in the Aquarium Hobby which Julian was glad to share with us:

“It was originally collected in the Philippines around 1990 by Klaus and Rosalia Grube. From their aquarium in Berlin it has spread all over Europe. So many people have it but don’t know where it came from. I got my colony from the Grubes and grew it for several years into a big bush. I gave a cutting to Peter Wilkens, who took it back to Switzerland and grew it at Wiwi Aquaria. He gave a cutting to Jean Jacques Eckert in France, who still cultivates it in his aquarium. I lost my original colony suddenly about 12 years ago, but was able to get a new cutting from Jean Jacques Eckert during a visit with him for a Récif France conference. I’ve been careful to maintain it now in several tanks. For me this coral is always a reminder of my visit to Berlin where I met Dietrich Stüber and the many wonderful hobbyists there, including Klaus and Rose Grube.”

Many thanks to Julian for introducing this cool gorgonian to the US market and helping us appreciate its extensive history! Frags will be approximately 2 inches and will come attached to a black plastic plug.

Read more on our product page.

While looking through our photo archives we realized that we had a pretty cool series of photos that showed the growth progression of one of the biggest corals in our greenhouse.  We got our first piece of this iconic coral in May of 2006 and our first photos are dated in September of that year.  In the beginning we were taking fragments off of the original piece but at some point we stopped and let it grow naturally.  Over the years there were plenty of  accidents that lead to breakage and a few areas that died back due to a lack of light.  Nonetheless it has grown into an impressive piece.

Check out the gallery below: