Marine experts at Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium are taking no chances with their latest arrival – a trigger-happy peacock mantis shrimp Dubbed the ‘fastest claw in the South’, the shrimp may only be 12 cms from nose to tail but he’s still capable of landing a devastating knockout blow with the equivalent force of a … Continued

AQUARIUM AWASH WITH JELLY BABIES Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium is awash with dozens of baby jellyfish.  The horde of moon and upside down jellyfish were donated by other UK aquariums to form part of captive breeding programmes at the Rock-a-Nore Road wildlife attraction.  Moon jellyfish get their name from the four purplish ‘half moons’ on … Continued

A quartet of tiny terrors is set to go on display in Hastings’ Blue Reef Aquarium’s Jungle Room. The Rock-a-Nore Road attraction is looking after a pair of juvenile imperial scorpions along with two baby Chilean rose tarantulas. The new arrivals are part of their newly-expanded Jungle Room feature which is home to a variety … Continued

Aquarists at Hastings’ Blue Reef Aquarium have picked a name for their newly-arrived blacktip reef shark with the help of younger visitors. The Rock-a-Nore Road wildlife attraction invited youngsters to choose a suitable name for the baby shark. They received close to 50 suggestions and have spent the past week sifting through entries before picking … Continued

Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium is asking youngsters to come up with a name for their newly-arrived baby blacktip reef shark. The tropical shark, which is less than a year old and measures just 60 centimetres in length, is settling in well to his new home in the aquariums giant ocean display. He has formed a … Continued

A bizarre cowfish, which resembles an armour-plated box and spits water when it’s hungry, has gone on display at Hastings’ Blue Reef Aquarium.  The exotic species is also known by a bewildering number of different common names including the humpack turretfish, the helmet boxfish and the camel cowfish.  It is found from East Africa to … Continued

Eight rare fish babies have gone on display in a special nursery tank at Hastings’ Blue Reef Aquarium – complete with its own sea urchins. The Banggai cardinal fish have all been captive bred, however in the wild the babies spend a lot of their early lives among the long spines of a sea urchin … Continued

Keith, the giant iguana, is making the most of the recent spell of hot weather by enjoying going for walks on Hastings beach. The exotic one-and-a-half-metre-long reptile was re-homed at Blue Reef Aquarium after its owner could no longer look after him. Just like humans, iguanas need vitamin D to keep them fit and healthy … Continued

Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium is hoping to hear the splash of tiny fins in the coming months with the arrival of four small-eyed ray egg-cases, with more expected in the coming days. The small-eyed ray gets its name from its conspicuously small eyes which are surrounded by tiny thorn-like structures. The species is classified as … Continued

A species of gecko, thought to be extinct until a single specimen was rediscovered following a tropical storm in 1994, has gone on display at Hastings Blue Reef Aquarium. The crested gecko is originally from the isolated island of New Caledonia in the south west Pacific. It was believed extinct until the discovery in 1994. … Continued