If you spent any time wandering the floor at Reef-A-Palooza Orlando recently, you likely crossed paths with Alan Lee. He is only 24 years old. As the founder of Koral King, Alan has built a massive reputation for sourcing some of the most exclusive and elusive livestock in the entire hobby. But at this latest show, Alan brought something that truly stopped traffic: a pure white tang with a staggering $35,000 price tag.
The hype around this fish is absolutely real. The story behind it is nothing short of an aquatic heist—a massive testament to Alan’s relentless dedication to the reefing community.
The 2.5-Year Maldivian Mission
Unlike many of the piebald or calico koi tangs that occasionally hit the market, this specific fish is a total anomaly. Roughly 95% of those color-morph tangs revert or change their colors after a few months. However, this tang has been in captivity for nearly three years now and has maintained its pure white coloration.
Even crazier? This fish wasn’t sourced through a massive commercial exporter. A local living in the Maldives, who keeps his own home reef tank, reached out to Alan randomly two years ago with a picture of his incredible catch. Catching it was a monumental feat; local divers there don’t have the best equipment or high-tech submarines. When they put on a scuba mask and tank, they only have 30 to 40 minutes at most to not only find the fish, but catch it and bring it up alive.
When the local sent an updated photo five months ago proving the tang was still pure white, Alan knew he had a golden opportunity.
The Journey: In November of last year, Alan flew all the way to the Maldives just to see this fish in person. See the adventure – https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUw1fdNgKZT/?igsh=MXZpNjBuczN3NGVnag==
The Red Tape: After returning to the US, it took five months to get all the paperwork, secure an import license, find a broker, and clear everything with FWC.
The Arrival: The fish endured a 32-hour transit to get here. Alan picked it up in Miami at 11:00 PM, drove five hours straight to his shop in Gainesville, and finally began drip-acclimating the animal at 3:00 AM.
If you’re wondering how the fish handled the trip: once Alan put a salinity probe in the acclimation bucket, the tang immediately came up and started attacking the probe. It was incredibly strong and healthy right out of the Maldivian waters. It took two and a half years to get this single fish to the USA. Currently, the community is voting on a name, with “Ghost,” “Tofu,” and “Blanco” being the top three choices
Inside the Vault: A Mind-Bending, Mushroom-Sized Blastomussa
While the White Tang steals the show, Alan’s Koral King “vault” holds some equally jaw-dropping corals. While touring the shop, Alan showed us what is quite possibly the largest single Blastomussa head we’ve ever seen. It’s a single, massive polyp that is so large, most people assume it’s a mushroom coral at first glance.
For the coral nerds out there, when you encounter these giant single-polyp Blastomussa (often referred to by hobbyists as “Vito” blastos), they are usually solitary showpieces that do not produce babies. But this particular chunk of biological gold is breaking all the rules. Upon closer inspection, Alan discovered it’s actually sprouting babies underneath the massive main polyp—the very first time he’s ever seen this happen on this specific variant. Because of this incredibly rare genetic trait, this is one mother colony Alan absolutely refuses to part with.
Undescribed Basslets, Yurples, and Deepwater Lore
As if the coral vault and the $35,000 tang weren’t enough, Koral King’s display tanks are loaded with other holy grail fish. One major standout? The notoriously difficult-to-acquire Dr. Seuss fish. Pushing the boundaries of what a retail shop display can be, he currently houses two Dr. Seuss fish in a single tank—a feat he believes makes him the only fish store in the world to pull off such an exclusive pairing.
Alan’s deep connections have also landed him some insane “lore drop” exclusives over the years:
The Undescribed Basslet: Alan acquired a fish originally listed as Liopropoma lunulatum. After showing the fish to expert ichthyologist Dr. Yi Kai Tea, it was determined to have unusual patterns and is not a lunulatum at all. To this day, it remains a brand-new, completely undescribed species.
The “Firsts” in the USA: Alan’s history with rare fish is deep; he was the very first person to bring an Odontanthias rhodopeplus into the United States. He also holds the title as the first person to import Yurple Tangs into the USA.
The Final Masked Angelfish: Alan recently sold what might be the very last captive-bred Masked Angelfish available in the hobby for the time being. He secured this holy grail baby right before Karen Britain—the Hawaiian breeder responsible for nearly all U.S. specimens—announced she was quitting.
From Crawfish Rescuer to College Hustler
The young mastermind behind Koral King has an incredibly impressive backstory to match his livestock. Alan isn’t an industry veteran with decades of commercial backing; he started in 2019 at around 17 years old.
His entry into the hobby is incredibly relatable. His family was cooking a seafood boil with live crawfish, and Alan wanted to save one. He ended up buying a small tank to put the crawfish in, and while that original invert didn’t make it, it kickstarted his passion for aquariums. He started working as a bartender to fund his new obsession and set up a BioCube 32, eventually buying his very first coral: a Duncan, alongside a clownfish and a diamond watchman goby.
He began posting his rare finds on his Instagram account, and it blew up. When he moved to college at the University of Florida in Gainesville, his side-hustle moved right along with him. Alan was famously selling high-end corals right out of his college dorm room from a discontinued Innovative Marine drop-off 20.
Building a Curated Oasis in Gainesville
Tired of having people cycle in and out of his apartment with coral boxes, Alan took a massive leap. He opened his store in October of 2022 when he was just 19 years old, right in his junior year of college. He spent his days balancing university classes with running back to the shop to help open, taking exams, and doing homework late at night.
Today, visiting Koral King is a highly curated experience. Right at the door, he set up a stand of orange sunglasses so customers can grab a pair for free and instantly see the corals pop. Beyond the display tanks housing a rare banana eel and his prized Dr. Seuss fish pair, Alan also maintains a rare plant room. Filled with Lady Gouldian finches and ultra-rare variegated Monsteras and Platyceriums (staghorn ferns), it shows a deeper biological passion that transcends just saltwater.
Alan Lee represents the vibrant, energetic future of the reefing hobby. Through a mixture of sheer willpower, deep passion, and a fearless entrepreneurial spirit, the Koral King is making sure the hobby stays colorful—even if his prized $35,000 tang is completely white.
Watch the Full Tour on ReefBuilders!
Reading about the White Tang is one thing, but seeing it in motion is an entirely different experience! We highly recommend checking out our full video tour of Koral King over on the ReefBuilders YouTube channel.
In the video, you get to ride along as we explore:
The Complete Shop Tour: Walk through the glowing raceways and see the jaw-dropping mother colonies Alan has spent years growing out.
The $35,000 White Tang: Get a close-up look at this one-of-a-kind tang swimming in the Koral King vault.
Expert Fish & Coral Education: Listen in as Alan drops serious knowledge on transitioning from LPS to SPS corals, when to run UV sterilization, and the best “stepping stone” corals for beginners.
The Rare Plant Room: Step away from the saltwater and into Alan’s Zen garden, featuring finches and some of the rarest variegated house plants and staghorn ferns in the United States.
Head over to the video, hit subscribe, and let us know in the YouTube comments: what do you think Alan should name his prized White Tang?
Follow Koral King
Want to keep up with Alan’s latest rare livestock drops and see what else he adds to the vault?
Instagram: You can follow his journey and check out his daily updates at @the_koralking.
Website: To contact him or view his current inventory, head over to his official site at www.koral-king.com.
Until Next Time! – Shawn
