What we have here is a glowing deepwater morph of the already highly sought after Helfrich’s firefish, Nemateleotris helfrichi. This particular variant comes from Cook Island at about 220 feet which is over 100 feet deeper than the normal Helfrich firefish. Diving to 100 feet is doable with standard SCUBA or Nitrox but for more than 130 feet divers must use a mixture of gases and they have to endure long and numerous decompression stops on their ascent. All of this effort is reflected in the price of the fish which sold for $599 on LiveAquaria yesterday.
And you thought Helfrich’s firefish were rare

Jake Adams
Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.
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