It’s been a while since we’ve heard any news of Gramma dejongi but it appears that a couple fresh specimens of the Cuban basslet have made their way to Japan. Aqua-Magic has landed two of the newly-described Gramma dejongi by way of DeJong Marinelife and they are being offered up for sale at the very rich price of nearly ¥350,000 or about $4500 each at current exchange rates.
While Europe and Asia have enjoyed a few specimens of the golden-yellow gramma with pink trim, the American embargo on all Cuban products still precludes these Caribbean reef beauties from being seen in America, which is a shame because we know a lot of fish breeders who’d happily pay some real coin to invest in broodstock for this species.
Mark our words though, when it finally happens, when we finally see Gramma dejongi in the US of A the first few will be exorbitantly expensive but that high price tag will spur captive breeding and within a couple of years this species will be a success story of captive breeding otherwise unavailable reef fish species. An even more likely scenario is the captive breeding of DeJong’s gramma in Europe where the species is already showing up once in a while, and those offspring being subsequently distributed around the world.
