In our aquariums we often like to culture a diverse culture of ‘Pods’ including amphipods, copepods and ostracods but our tanks would look wildly different if we were aiming for an authentically deep sea refugium. Take for example these giant…
Deep Water
Decompressing marine fish from the deep reefs of Curacao
The following is a guest contribution from Joe Oliver, a resident Marine Biologist for the Curacao Sea Aquarium and Substation Curacao. As an aquarist (hobbyist or professional) there is a huge array of fishes available as possible options when it comes…
Awesome Fish Spotlight: Antilligobius nikkiae, The Sabre Goby
We feature yet another deepwater Curaçao fish today, but this time it’s a goby from the monotypic genus Antilligobius. Antilligobius nikkiae is named after Dutch ‘Antillen’ referring to the region now known as Antilles or Caribbean Sea.; nikkiae: Named after Nicole Laura…
Wondrous and awe-inspiring images from the abyss
Blackwater diving is not for the faint of heart, but underwater photographer Joshua Lambus shows us why it is worth trying out. Blackwater diving involves diving in the dark of night in the deep sea to view the massive migration…
Will you stop hiding from me! Lonesome Liopropoma
Today’s post is c0-contributed by Mr. Tay, a friend of ReefBuilders and one of my best fish buddies in Singapore. Mr. Tay is known online by his alias “Digiman”, and has an extensive collection of deepwater and unusual fish, many…
Rolling in the Deep in this awesome video from Papua New Guinea
OceanShutter.com recently released this remarkable video shot in Papua New Guinea. While many other reefs and dive destinations in the Coral Triangle are dealing with the negative impact mankind has had on the local ecosystem, PNG is one of the…
Golden grouper collected in the Philippines is extremely lucky to be alive
The fish pictured above is a super common Boenak grouper, Cephalopholis boeanak, with a one-two punch of extremely rare traits.The reason we are writing about this fish at all is that it exhibits and marked form of xanthism turning it a…
Trimma irinae is a gorgeous new deepwater nano goby from Papua New Guinea
Trimma irinae is a new species of deepwater nano reef goby hailing from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea. It may not be that novel to see a new species from Papua New Guinea, Milne Bay, or from the genus Trimma, but…
The new Grammatonotus from Philippines has a stunningly unique tail
The recent expedition to the Philippines have yielded many bonuses for the California Academy of Sciences. A few days ago we saw the collection of Sacura speciosa, and just when we thought nothing could top that, boom. A new Grammatonotus…
New stunning Grammatonotus species discovered in Philippines
We are constantly awestruck with the amount of new species of reef fish being discovered recently and yesterday a new Grammatonotus sp. was uncovered by the California Academy of Sciences dive team exploring the reefs surrounding the Philippines. After already collecting some…