RoffaReefs is founded in 2021 by Sander van Lopik.
At Burgers’ Zoo, Sander was working with Europe’s largest living coral reef. With WWF’s sharks and rays back in the North sea project, coordinated by BlueLinked, a diverse work experience has been produced.
With this experience he was ready for a challenge. Working as an aquarist in the Rotterdam Zoo was a logical next step to extend and use his knowledge. He started trials in breeding marine fish at home and in the zoo. Being the main responsible employee for fish feed in the Oceanium, Sander began to realise working sustainable in this sector is not self-evident. This resulted in the development of the vegan fish feed and complementary 3D feeding racks for fish.
Larvae of the twinspot lionfish at the Rotterdam Zoo — 2018 
National Geographic (Dutch), June 2020
In order to make the aquarium sector self-sufficient in its need for reef critters, Sander is working on a breeding system based on knowledge gained in aquaculture and aquaria. With estimations of all coral reefs being threatened by 2050, time has come to work on accelerating our learning curve by designing an effective system that reduces room for human errors.
It is time to give reefs something back they desperately need after taking so many of its inhabitants. With knowledge gained through this system we can maybe even revive reefs where they used to be in cooperation with current reef restoration projects and the Rotterdam Zoo.