Fish

Identity Theft! False Cleanerfishes In The Reefing Hobby

Wholesalers, LFS owners, and fellow hobbyists, let me tell you something. This freaky thing might well be lurking in your holding pens and display tanks, hidden in plain sight. What even is this? Why would this very real threat be…

Five Alternative Fish to Green Chromis

Life is short when you’re a reefkeeper, with so many fish, so little time, and so few tanks to keep them in. Here are some alternatives: Common name: Blue Chromis Scientific name: Azurina cyanea Origin: Western Atlantic Size: 15cm/6″  Blue…

Unusual Gold Parrotfish arrives from Indonesia

A xanthic Scarus psittacus has arrived in the UK, which its importers say is the first of its kind they’ve seen. The 5” fish was caught at Serangan Island just off Bali in the Indian Ocean, in 2-3 meters of…

Cirrhilabrus heterodon: valid species or nah?

Let’s get deep in the weeds with fairy wrasse biogeography, specifically, the Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura group. In 2022, Kai et al enlarged this group with the description of a pair of colorful new species, C. chaliasi and C. aquamarinus, both 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…

Coral City Camera Captures Indigo X Barred Hamlet Hybrid in Miami

Coral City Camera has filmed what it believes is a hybrid between two hamlet species. The live underwater camera stream captured the suspected hybrid as it swam through an urban coral reef in Miami, Florida. CCC thinks it is a…

Fiji’s Undescribed Stonogobiops Shrimpgoby

The year is 1977. Star Wars is a box office sensation, Billy Joel is topping the charts with his multi-platinum album The Stranger, and the King of Rock & Roll, Elvis Presley, is found dead in his Graceland bathroom, but…

Biota Breeds Blackcap Basslets – We Interview the Breeder

When Biota announced that they had successfully bred the Blackcap basslet, Gramma melacara, we were keen to find out more. Larviculture specialist Todd Gardner filled us in with all the details: Can you keep Blackcap basslets in pairs or groups…

Golden Reef Solomon Islands FINDS PAIR of Aberrant Bicolor Angelfish 

Golden Reef Solomon Islands L.T.D has collected not one but two aberrant Bicolor angelfish, and what’s more, they’re a pair!  Bicolor angelfish, Centropyge bicolor, are widespread throughout the Indo-Pacific, from East Africa to the Samoan and Phoenix Islands, north to…

Flashback Friday – Jake’s love for Butterflyfish

Working on Reef Builders we think about Jake Adams every day, and miss the conversations we used to have with him about all things reefing. Something we spoke about a lot was Jake’s own fish collection, and he would test…