Welcome, and thank you for visiting the Digital-Reefs Marine Database Portal!

The product of years of photography and research, these galleries are a never-ending “labour of love”, and “work in progress”. If you notice an error or just wish to contribute constructively to expand the knowledge-base, please read the Contributor Guidelines and consider becoming a contributing subscriber. The database has been structured broadly in line with current taxonomic classification but please note that, to cater for a varied audience and due to the complexity involved, it isn’t intended to be perfectly accurate in this regard. On this subject, please consider reading our taxonomy primer (due soon) if you are new to the subject.

To browse the database, generally you should click (or touch, for mobile users) either a thumbnail’s title text or the thumbnail image itself to ‘drill down’ to species level information. Please note that during the first half of 2022 areas of the site are still under major construction (read the Site Development Journal as this gives some more detail on what you will ultimately be able to achieve here). In my experience, you may need to refresh each page if viewing on a mobile device to ensure you are viewing the latest version of that page.

Take note that you can use the search tool to look for key features. As the site is also optimised for mobile use, consider having it handy when you next pay a visit to the fish store. In this way the site can help you confirm the exact identity of any intended purchases! (you can’t always trust shops, stores or even importers to accurately identify marine species in my experience). Having said this, I always recommend that you plan what species you intend to keep well in advance of this stage. Impulse buys invariably don’t work out well when it comes to reef-keeping! On the subject of ethics, please note that I am extremely careful not to “stress-out” the subjects of my photography in any way, indeed generally only healthy specimens are portrayed (otherwise a note is included to explain why not). Given this, you can even use the site to compare and assess the health of livestock, existing or planned.

In terms of image quality, I am proud to say that my images are some of the clearest and highest quality available on the web today (that’s what people tell me anyway!). In cases where image quality is lower, these are likely to be older images that I’ve decided to include as, if I didn’t, the species in question would not be represented. Rest assured that I am constantly working to not only obtain new images but also to replace any lower quality ones. Generally, I try to announce any new additions or replacements in the relevant section of the blog.

If you experience any technical issues with the galleries, or wish to share your thoughts or comments, please do feel free to contact me as I always welcome constructive feedback.

IMPORTANT COPYRIGHT NOTICE – all images on this site are the property of Digital-Reefs.com and may not be reproduced for any reason without first obtaining permission. This applies to both commercial and non-commercial intended use. Please use the contact page to drop me a note with your requirements. I use Copytrack protection on this site to monitor and protect against theft of intellectual property.

I hope you enjoy the database! Click or touch a thumbnail’s TITLE TEXT to begin exploring.