Canthigaster tyleri is the clown trigger of tobies

More and more, amazing species of tobies like this Canthigaster tyleri are coming to light giving us more reasons to love the colorful diversity of sharpnose puffers. Tyler’s toby is a deepwater reef fish from the Indian Ocean which clearly…

Canthigaster criobe is a stunning new toby sharpnose puffer from French Polynesia

Canthigaster criobe is the new species of toby (or dwarf puffer) which has recently been described from the Gambier Archipelago, French Polynesia, in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean. There are well over 30 species of Canthigaster toby pufferfish, most of…

My Top 10 Predatory Fish for 50-Gallon Aquariums and Under

One of my favorite types of tanks is nanos with predatory fish. In a small water volume, it’s easy to manage the high nutrients that come naturally with keeping more predatory fish due to their metabolism and food source. Nanos…

31 New Records of Reef Fish Found in Hong Kong

Underwater visual surveys conducted across 55 dive sites in Hong Kong have revealed another 31 reef fish species from 14 families living there. The species include members from Acanthuridae, Chaetodontidae, Diodontidae, Gobiidae, Labridae, Mullidae, Nemipteridae, Pinguipedidae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae, Ptereleotridae, Solenostomidae,…

Vermetid ‘Tubeworms’ Are Bad for Aquariums, AND Coral Reefs

We’ve hated vermetids for as long as we’ve been reefing, and now science has given us the last nail in the coffin for this unwanted aquarium critter. Although they look like tubeworms, vermetids are actual a kind of snail which…

A Deeper look into Mokupapapa Discovery Center’s Aquarium

We recently visited a very unique aquarium at the Mokupapapa Discovery Center in Hawaii. The mere size of this aquarium is not what makes it impressive but the beautiful and extraordinarily rare fish that it contain. While there are many…

Teenyreef’s impeccable 10 gallon reef tank

Today’s featured reef tank is not a massive piece of room furniture, but rather a a restrained, miniature desktop masterpiece. Teenyreef’s nano reef tank is a shining example of how much you can do in the confines of a 10 gallon…

The Saddled Toby: Puffer Personality in a Small Package

Sometimes good things come in small packages. Such is the case with Canthigaster valentini, better known as the saddled toby, black-saddled toby, or Valentin’s toby (you may also see “sharpnose puffer” substituted for “toby” in various sources). Reaching only about…

Survival on the reef part 1: Masquerading under false colours

Look at this amazing pair of Meiacanthus grammistes. Eh hmm…wait a minute. That’s not quite right. Look closer. Cardinal fish? Bingo. This is a pair of Cheilodipterus nigrotaeniatus and they are excellent mimics of their venomous fang blenny models. Mimicry is an…

6 great iPhone applications for identifying and learning about reef fish

If you’re one of the 10 million people who got a shiny new iPhone 6 this weekend, or just happen to have a shiny slab of computing power that fits in your pocket, you should really take advantage of it…