This week, Vibrant Corals and Fish in Irving, Texas, imported the rare three-spotted rabbitfish (Siganus trispilos). To my knowledge, I have not seen these species in the captive trade before, so this may be the first time they have been imported. Because I can’t verify this claim, I am comfortable calling it “rare” (at least in the trade).
So far the Dallas World Aquarium and House Of Fins have received this species.
I spoke with the collectors about the species’ native habitat, area of collection, and more. Laurance Davey-Mazza, a representative of Sea Horse Horizons in Western Australia, relayed the following information to me from Kyle.
A photo from Sea Horse Horizons
“They have been collected by Jason and Kyle from Sea Horse Horizons here in WA we are sending our first ones off to America on Wednesday.”
“They are found in huge coral stands that can be many meters across and impenetrable, which makes them very difficult to catch. They are extremely rare and have a restricted distribution on the Western Australian coast. Generally, when divers encounter them, they are seen as adult pairs, but it’s rare to see juveniles. Due to recent cyclones that have smashed the reef, there is a lot of rubble and algae in some locations, which has seen the numbers of juveniles in the particular area where these were collected increase, as well as making it easier to collect them. There is much of the Western Australian coast that is logistically remote and unexplored, and it’s nice to see some new fish species being sourced as many of the collectors here concentrate on corals.”
I want to echo their statement. While we’ve seen many awesome corals brought in over the last few years, such as “kingspawn”, button scolys, Wilsoni and Croc island scolys it’s nice to see diversity in the collection with non-coral coming from the region.
If you’d like to purchase this fish you can do so here at Vibrant Corals and Fish.
