LiveAquaria has been scoring with some really top notch fishes lately especially from the Curacao and Red Sea region. Latest additions to the Diver’s Den to come out from these locales includes the Klayi basslet, Carmabi basslets, the Spanish Flag grouper from Curacao, as well as the paucifasciatus butterflyfish and nigrolineatus fang blennies from the Red Sea.
Joining the repertoire of stunning fishes are the newest Lipogramma evides and the elusive Pseudochromis olivaceus. Together with the Lipogramma klayi that is currently still on Diver’s Den, LiveAquaria has now, one of the two most sought after deepwater basslets from the Atlantic.
Lipogramma evides is a gorgeous little fish in monochrome unlike its more colorful cousin, L. klayi. The two however, are spectacular in their own right and only until recently, were considered very rare – with the former being much less often encountered. As more collection is being carried out in the deeper waters of the Atlantic, we’re beginning to see more and more of these dainty little basslets, which are locally abundant down at that depth.
With the recent footages and videos of the immensely beautiful Lipogramma robinsi and the new trilineatum basslet to enter Japan, the Lipogramma basslets have up till now, never seen so much buzz and hype surrounding them. The other fish that we’re bringing to attention that was posted at the same time with L. evides is the very seldom seen, albeit not very attractive, Pseudochromis olivaceus.
It seems almost unfair to mention this dull, ugly duckling of a dottyback in the same post as L. evides, but the reclusive Red Sea endemic Olive dottyback is just as seldom encountered in the trade and has the potential to look much better than the picture of it above. Recent collection of Red Sea fishes have given way to species that were lost from the trade for a long time and the Olive dottyback is the newest member to re-enter the trade.
Given time, and hopefully a proper setting, the Olive dottyback, as its name suggests, will take on a uniformly olive green coloration with a yellow belly as well as sprinkling of blue flecks and a rather large, conspicuous operculum spot.
