The swissguard basslet, Liopropoma rubre, is a gorgeous Caribbean basslet that mostly gets overshadowed by the candy basslet and other deeper living species, but not this one. Liopropoma basslets are already pretty enough but it’s actually very rare to see unusual specimens of any kind, practically unheard of in fact, and while we’ve seen one example of a swissguard x candy basslet hybrid, so this ‘hypo-melanistic’ L. rubre is extremely special.
The swissguard basslet is a gorgeous yellow-ish fish transected by four bold deep red stripes with unpaired fins adorned in black and edged in light blue at the margins. Take away all the melanin which accents the fins and darkens the red strips and what you get is this strikingly colorful hypo-melanistic swissguard basslet where the red and yellow markings stand out like a photoshop job.
This very unique specimen was spotted by our European editor Jeremy Gay at Abyss Aquatic Warehouse sporting a healthy price tag of £1499 or just a hair over $2000, which is approximately ten times the street price of a normal standard issue L. rubre. While the price might be too rich for some you have to admit that the hyper yellow fish is quite the looker and this group of small Liopropoma basslet are quite hardy and can become surprisingly personable in the right reef tank setting and you’re sure to enjoy an example of this species for a lot longer than a rare anthias or wrasse.
The color and patterns of Liopropoma basslets are extremely conservative so it’s really an awesome treat to see such an outstanding specimen like the high yellow, hypo-melanistic fish on display at Abyss Aquatic Warehouse. Just knowing that this color variation is possible in swissguard basslets should encourage captive breeding of this species because you never know how quickly the phenotype might pop up in a brood like how we saw ‘platinum’ Gramma dejongi in the limited captive breeding of this species.
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