As someone who enjoys a day on the water fishing, I have to give a tip of the hat to the various anglerfishes (a.k.a. frogfishes) of the family Antennariidae. These incredibly cryptic fishes make us human anglers look like rank…
Marine/Saltwater Fish
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,…
The Powder Blue Tang: An Iconic Beauty Demanding Exceptional Care
The powder blue tang (Acanthurus leucosternon) is a breathtakingly beautiful, widely recognized (even among non-hobbyists) marine fish that can be a real pain to maintain in aquaria. While it is possible to keep one successfully under ideal conditions, most specimens…
Dig Those Crazy Pajama Cardinalfish!
A hardy, peaceful, wildly patterned species, the pajama cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera) makes a great choice for novice and experienced marine aquarists alike. Owing to its very manageable adult size, it’s a great candidate for modest-sized systems, and like many of…
Elasmobranch Enthusiasts (Part 1): Modern Husbandry – Space
From the ferocious great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) to the graceful white-spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari), Elasmobranchii are a diverse group of boneless fishes that are circumglobal, inhabiting a diverse array of habitats, temperature ranges, salinity, and niches in the…
The Kole Tang: A Commendable Surgeonfish for Medium-Sized Aquariums
Among the so-called bristletooths of the genus Ctenochaetus is one of my favorite tang species and one that I highly recommend to other hobbyists with well-established, medium-sized to moderately large systems—the Kole tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus). Physical traits C. strigosus, which…
How to Estimate the Right Aquarium Size for Any Given Fish Species
There is no hard-and-fast rule regarding the space requirements for fish in captivity. Indeed, this value varies greatly from one species to the next. However, instead of relying on guesswork, try the following method to accurately assess the space needs…
When Marine Fish Mysteriously Disappear
You’re strolling past your marine aquarium, minding your own business, when you notice that something is amiss. The [insert name of fish here] that invariably comes right up to the front of the tank whenever you enter the room is…
Ribbon Eels: Elegantly Exotic but Usually Best Left on the Reef
Why are the most attractive and interesting-looking marine fish always the most difficult to keep alive in aquariums? Okay, maybe this isn’t actually such a truism. After all, there are lots of gorgeous-yet-easy-to-keep fish in the aquarium trade. It just…
Seeing Red: The Colorful, Cantankerous Maroon Clownfish
Many of the clownfishes have a well-deserved reputation for feistiness. But there’s one clown that makes all the others seem like milquetoasts by comparison—the maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) from the Indo-West Pacific. Though it’s among the hardier and more strikingly…