Valenciennea yanoi, a new species of sleeper goby from Japan

Valenciennea yanoi is a yet another new species of sleeper goby from Japan that is definitely going to turn some heads. Sure we get tons of new species of gobies every year, but sleeper gobies are a little more special, being large…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Valenciennea helsdingenii

Chances of bumping into cool fish increases exponentially when you’re out and about marauding the various Balinese wholesale facilities. Picking out a truly rare gem amidst a swathing plague of reef fish requires a keen eye and an innate intuition. That…

Unknown Mauritius Valenciennea sleeper goby spotted at Greenwich Aquaria

Sleeper gobies are large showy sand-sifting gobies of the genus Valenciennea, of which there are many popular species in aquariums. A newly discovered specimen from Mauritius hints that there could be yet another new addition to this highly desirable and attractive…

A BlueHarbor treat: Meiacanthus kamoharai and Valenciennea bellae

Meiacanthus kamoharai is quite possibly the most beautiful of the fang blennies. Unlike most Meiacanthus, the kamohara fang blenny ditches the stripey dress code that is associated with many in this genus.  Instead, a silver vein runs along its jet black…

Valenciennea bella is a goby you’ll definitely want sifting your sand

Most reefers get a little bit iffy at the thought of adding a sand sifter goby to the reef tank. The thought of a sand spewing fish dropping aragonite particles all over the ever precious acan frags and scolymia is…

Sunday tank maintenance: Do you siphon or not siphon your substrate?

Maybe it’s because we’re from the land that we are so obsessed with the substrates in our aquariums. Deep sand, shallow sand, live sand, Aragonite, sugar-sized fine, coarse, chips, coral gravel, or bare bottom – we’ve done them all, and…

What It’s Like To Be A Reefer In Saskatchewan Canada

Bayside Corals The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is located about as far from the ocean as they come, and we didn’t expect much when we started an online search for reefers and reef shops in the city of Saskatoon.  To my…

Pseudojuloides labyrinthus, a sexy new pencil wrasse from Kenya

Pseudojuloides labyrinthus is an exciting new species of pencil wrasse from the Western Indian Ocean. The labyrinth pencil wrasse joins a fresh crop of Pseudojuloides wrasses which have been described in recent years, many of them being discovered by a fellow…

Cool video shows the whole process of exporting fish from Mauritius

We like to promote the marine aquarium industry, and particularly the export of tropical marine fish, as a force for sustainable harvest of marine fish, sometimes undertaken by tight knit families living in coastal island communities. Nowhere is all of…

5 Types of Marine Fish that are Reef Safe with Caveats

When we say a marine fish is “reef safe,” we usually mean that it won’t eat the corals or other sessile invertebrates that we keep in reef systems. Using that definition, we can easily determine that, for example, the peaceful,…