Dr. Gerald R. Allen

Gerry Allen is an internationally renowned authority on the classification and ecology of coral reef fishes of the Indo-Pacific region. He is definitely “old school”, in his approach to science, spending more time in the field than behind a desk looking through a microscope. Over a career spanning 40 years, he has accumulated more than 12 years on various expeditions to all the world’s tropical seas and has logged more than 8,000 hours of scuba diving. Dr. Allen has authored 33 books and more than 400 scientific publications. He received a PhD in marine zoology from the University of Hawaii in 1971, studying the classification and biology of anemonefishes as the subject of his thesis. The lure of Australia’s rich, but poorly documented fish fauna attracted Gerry and his wife Connie to Sydney in 1972 and two years later they moved to Perth on the Indian Ocean coast, where they still reside. Dr. Allen served as Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum for 25 years, retiring in 1998. He now works as a full time consultant for Conservation International, conducting marine biological surveys, primarily in Southeast Asia. He still maintains a rigorous research program and is also an avid underwater photographer. He lists mountaineering, rock climbing, bicycle racing and bird watching as his favourite hobbies. Dr. Allen is a past President of the Australian Society for Fish Biology, an honorary foreign member of the American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology, and a recent recipient of the prestigious K. Radway Allen Award for Outstanding Contributions to Australian Ichthyological Science.

Eric Borneman

Anthony Calfo

"Reef Toxicology" (or in other words, "Don't Put That In Your Mouth.")

This presentation examines reef organisms with an eye upon two most fundamental categories: 1) things you can eat, and 2) things you cannot eat. Good humor and jokes aside (but included in good measure!), we will explore the increasing awareness that aquarists have about noxious, poisonous or toxic organisms in another pair of equally practical categories: 1) things you can touch, and 2) don't even think of touching that! We will review interesting creatures on the reef, including some of the most fascinating, if not bizarre species feared, eaten or otherwise used by coastal peoples. And overall, we will consider the dangerous elements (intrinsic and exudate) that some reef organisms produce and how that relates to issues of handling and stocking them in aquaria.

Dr. Bruce Carlson

Dr. Stan Dannemiller

James Fatherree

James Fatherree has been an aquarium hobbyist since childhood, has been keeping marine aquariums for over 15 years, and has spent many days diving in Florida, Hawaii, the Bahamas, Japan and Indonesia. He also managed a large retail aquarium store, owned and operated an aquarium design, installation, and maintenance business for several years, and spent a summer working as a diver/collector/slave for an aquarium livestock wholesaler in Florida. James has also published well over 100 articles and 1,000 photographs in various aquarium magazines in the U.S. and Europe, and has written and illustrated several books on the topics of reef organisms and marine aquariums, the latest of which is Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium.

If you'd like to know more about the author, visit his homepage at www.fatherree.com/james.

Lee Goldman

Lee grew up in Philadelphia, but realized he was spatially challenged when a SCUBA diving trip to Bonaire, N.A. opened his eyes to the natural beauty of the ocean. Within months of his return from the warm Caribbean waters he left to pursue his dream of working as a marine biologist for the beautiful and…cold waters of the Pacific Northwest. There he earned a degree in Marine Biology from Western Washington University. He has since traveled the world working as a biologist and naturalist in places such as Belize, Florida Keys, Vancouver Island B.C., Palau, Philippines, and Guam. In 2003 he was accepted into the Masters Degree program at the University of Guam where he investigated coral interactions and developed new techniques for culturing corals from sexually produced larvae. As a result of his successful endeavors, he started Coral Farm Guam, a company dedicated to conducting research on growing and supplying corals for the aquarium trade, research institutions and reef restoration projects. Lee has published articles about his work for aquarium hobbyist magazines and has been invited to speak at a variety of aquaculture and marine aquarium conferences. He is also a consultant and contributor for Dreamtime Publishing, a company that produces guidebooks on SCUBA diving and snorkeling destinations such as the Philippines and Micronesia. Since completing his Master degree in marine biology, he can be found conducting research on the husbandry of juvenile corals at the Guam Aquaculture and Development Center at the University of Guam. If not found carrying out research on corals, he can surely be found introducing his little girl to all of the wonderful organisms that inhabit the local waters.

ABSTRACT

My talk will focus on two important experiments to advance the knowledge of coral aquaculture. The first experiment revolves around refining techniques for growing corals from larvae. At MACNA XVIII, I introduced the concept of growing coral from sexually produced larvae as a way to supply corals for the aquarium trade without harvesting existing colonies from the reef. In this experiment, I examined the cost-benefit of using live food (Artemia fanciscana) versus artificial food (Golden Pearls^©) on the growth of juvenile corals raised from larvae.

The second experiment examined the interaction between fragments of Acropora pulchra and Porites cylindrica cultured together. It has generally been accepted, based on years of anecdotal observations and a few published scientific papers, that physical interaction between corals will usually have a negative effect on growth rates for both species. This experiment was designed, however, employing two species of corals that use overtopping as a competitive mechanism. Because growth rate is an important function of successfully overtopping a neighbor, I hypothesized that growth rates would be maximized in the presence of a competitor. Even the most seasoned coral grower may surprise by these results!

Ron Hessing

(and Mack!)

Ron Hessing is reef keeper, photographer, author, forum administrator and webmaster of his site www.marineaquarium.nl.  Ron has been involved with the exciting marine aquarium hobby for almost 16 years. The first snorkeling experience at Aruba was the start. For the last six years he has maintained his own 1000 litre (250 gallons) SPS dominated reef. It’s a 1000 litre aquarium.

Ron’s fascination of marine aquariums has resulted in the search of the best that West Europe can offer on this area. A part of these visits is displayed on his own internet site.  As an author he has delivered articles for the Dutch reef keeping magazine and online magazines. An article about the system of David Saxby, London has brought great reviews.

Ron lives in the centre of the Netherlands, with his wife, three sons, two dogs and a parrot.  In the Netherlands and Belgium he gives lectures at aquarium associations. In 2006 he did his first lecture overseas at Nerac II, Lireef NY. To be introduced and placed on the American Masna speakers database is a fine reward!

The presentation at Macna XIX gives beginning and more experienced reefer ideas to modeling his aquarium based on ecological niches on and around the reef.  Do something different and create an aquarium with an interesting and unconventional biotope!

Let’s talk about anemone aquariums, sea grass aquariums, cave aquariums, rubble zone aquarium, reef wall aquarium and so on. Hands on items like simple and complex aquascaping, illumination and water motion will be discussed. Of course we don’t forget the specified species best suitable for each biotope.

Let’s inspire each other, let’s be creative aquarists!

Kelly Jedlicki

Dr. Sanjay Joshi

Sanjay Joshi in real life is a Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State University. He has been a reef addict since 1992, and currently keeps 3 reefs at home 29G, 55G and a 500G SPS dominated reef. He also co-manages the 500G aquarium at Penn State.

He has published several articles in magazines such as Marine Fish and Reef Annual, Aquarium Frontiers, Aquarium Fish, and Advanced Aquarist. In addition he has been an invited speaker at several marine aquarium society meetings. He received the MASNA award in 2006, for his contributions to the marine aquarium hobby.

Daniel Knop

Daniel Knop, born in 1957, lives in Germany. He has authored 16 books and is chief editor of the marine aquarist magazine KORALLE translated to Italian, English, Russian, and French language. Two of his recent books (“Nano Reef Tanks” and “Coral Guide of the Indo Pacific”) are now also available in English language (the Nano book supposed to be released during MACNA). Aside of his work as author and editor, he is co-owner of a company producing marine aquarium equipment and supplements (www.knop.de).

Daniel also works on supporting coral farming and reef conserving activities. In 1994 he developed a concept for farm-raising of corals with the help of native fishermen and other coastal citizens, firstly in the Philippines, later also in Indonesia, where he led projects setting up coral farms. At home in Germany he has reef aquaria from 6 to 6000 litres, and he regularly dives in tropical coral reefs to study inverts and make underwater photographs. Recently, a soft coral genus has been named after him.

Presentation MACNA 2007

“Fascinating Fish Food” – or “Small Creatures Big Performance”

Aside of corals and coral fish, our reef aquaria are home to numerous tiny organism species rarely being recognized at all. But some of those organisms have aesthetic properties and develop interesting behaviour not less fascinating than the usually maintained reef tank organisms. Daniel invites you to do close observation, because there definitely is something else we can observe in our aquaria.

Sarah Lardizabal

Her marine aquarium days started in early college and eventually moved from reef setups to marine planted and seagrass dominated aquaria. She is an avid SCUBA diver who dreams of running her own live aboard operation in Belize and hopes to one day become a professional instructor.

She has interned and volunteered as an aquarist and husbandry aide for several zoos and aquariums in the U.S. including the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland. Sarah hopes to join the research team of an aquarium or zoo, and work as a curator, after completing her education. When she isn't out parading as gator or shark bait, wading through seagrass beds in the Indian River Lagoon and the Chesapeake, she is often luring reefkeepers to 'the dark side' in the Marine Plant & Macroalgae forum here on Reef Central.

Dr. Frank Marini

Dr. Catherine McFadden

• B.S., Yale University
• Ph.D., University of Washington
• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Davis
• NATO Postdoctoral Fellow, Port Erin Marine Laboratory, Isle of Man
• Research Associate, University College, Dublin
• Assistant Professor, Harvey Mudd College
• Associate Professor, Harvey Mudd College
• Research Associate, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
• Professor of Biology, Harvey Mudd College

Research Interests

Professor McFadden’s research addresses the evolutionary relationships of marine organisms, primarily corals belonging to the cnidarian sub-class Octocorallia. She and her students use a variety of molecular techniques to address the phylogenetic relationships among higher taxa of octocorals, relationships of genera and species boundaries in the soft coral family Alcyoniidae, and the evolutionary consequences of hybridization between species in the soft coral genus Alcyonium. Much of the ongoing work in the lab focuses on the construction of a detailed molecular phylogeny for subclass Octocorallia as part of the NSF-funded Cnidarian Tree of Life Project (see http://cnidarian.info/).

Publications

Mike Paletta

Steven Pro

I have been keeping freshwater aquariums for as long as I can remember, but did not start with saltwater fish until 1993 during my junior year of college. Upon returning from school, I was fortunate enough to reside only a short five-minute drive from Poseidon’s Living Treasures, Anthony Calfo’s greenhouse propagation facility. It was here that I gained a tremendous resource of information and inspiration.

I am currently the proprietor of Pro Aquatic Services Company, an aquarium sales and maintenance business in Pennsylvania. I have long been active in the retail and hobby sides of the ornamental aquatics industry. I have taken an active and impassioned role in the industry as a member of the Pittsburgh Marine Aquarium Society, Inc. for the past seven years, having also been elected to the Board of Directors for the last five years. I am also a member of the greater Pittsburgh Aquarium Society, Inc. (the local freshwater club), as well as previously serving a one-year stint on the Board of Directors of the American Marinelife Dealers Association.

You may have seen my name before if you ever visit the aquatic information website http://www.WetWebMedia.com, as I previously answered some of the emailed daily questions along with friends Anthony Calfo and site host Robert Fenner. Eventually, the demands of family and business became too great, and I had to "retire" from the WetWebMedia crew, but I am still active on its message board.

I currently maintain a 120-gallon reef display, a 1500-gallon freshwater pond, a 75-gallon winter home for turtles (when they aren’t out in the pond), as well as numerous smaller tanks scattered throughout his house (much to the chagrin of his wife) which are used for quarantining livestock for customers. My previous 55-gallon reef tank (which was taken down around the first of 2003 to make room for the 120) is profiled on the Pittsburgh Marine Aquarium Society, Inc.’s http://www.pmas.org/pro/. There is a good deal of husbandry information located there and should provide insight into my aquarium keeping philosophy.

Dana Riddle

A small, rocky tide pool full of colorful anemones on the coast of Maine initiated my fascination with marine invertebrates. At that time (the mid-1960’s), keeping most invertebrates in captivity, especially corals, was considered impossible, but I tried anyway with limited success.

The ‘invasion’ of European technology in the 1980’s re-wrote the rules of aquarium-keeping and I gladly bought just about every gadget available. But coral-keeping still held its secrets and I began to purchase laboratory equipment in order to better understand the requirements of these ‘simple’ animals.

Today, my small laboratory is just feet away from a thriving Hawaiian coral reef, and allows year-round observations of corals in their natural habitat. Almost $100,000 of lab gear is available to collect data. This information is then compared to that collected from aquaria.

My passions (obsession?) lead to authoring a book (The Captive Reef in 1997) and almost 150 articles in various hobby literature.  I’ve also been fortunate to have been invited to speak at many conferences and club events over the last 10 years.

Super Corals:

How to Maintain Them! How to Keep Them Colorful!

Gone are the days when reef-keepers on the cutting edge of technology kept brown Acropora specimens. Relatively recent imports have included an astounding array of colorful stony corals, and these are becoming readily available – but at a price. Admit it – you’ve seen them; you’ve wanted them. Before investing in these corals, be sure you understand what it takes to keep them healthy and colorful.  If you think simply ‘lots of light’ is the answer, then think again - you should attend this presentation! Information gathered with a PAM fluorometer, quantum meter, fluorescence spectrometers and other lab hardware reveal some of these corals’ secrets!

Dr. Ron Shimek

I an invertebrate zoologist with over 35 years of experience in teaching about, and working with, marine and freshwater invertebrates.  When I teach I emphasize understanding the organism’s role in its environment and how that role is related to the functional morphology of the organism.  My primary research specialty is predator-prey interactions in unconsolidated sediments, especially the interactions involving various mollusks, particularly scaphopods (tusk shells) and predatory snails.  I have published more than 20 scientific articles, several of which were large monographs, and I have been an invited speaker at about a dozen international or national symposia sponsored by scientific societies. 

I have been Chairman of the Biology Department of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and Assistant Director of the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  Additionally, I have also taught at the University of Washington, the Oregon State University, and Montana State University.  I have also been employed as a taxonomic and ecological consultant for the States of Alaska and Washington, the U. S.  Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the USA Corps of Engineers, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, several municipalities and several private firms.  

Awarded the 2001 MASNA Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Marine Aquarium Hobby at MACNA 13, I have published over 100 articles which have appeared in aquarium magazines published in the United States.  Additionally I am the author of two books: The Coral Reef Aquarium, Published in 1999 by Howell Book House, and Marine Invertebrates. 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species.  Published in 2004 by Microcosm/T. F. H. Publications.   

I speak regularly at national, regional, and society meetings, discussing and promoting rational reef aquarium keeping based on the knowledge of natural systems.

Wilsall, Montana is my home, and I continue to actively investigate the suitability of different organisms for the aquarium hobby. 

Roy Torres