Saltwater Fish

Hawaii gets another proposal to ban marine aquarium fish collection

Talk of banning the collection of marine aquarium livestock in Hawaii is back again just eight months since Hawaii’s House Bill 580 was reported here on Reef Builders and only six months since we reported on HB580’s failure. Yet it seems…

Todd Gardner’s Larval Candy Bass – Will Persistence Pay Off?

Around 10.5 months ago, Todd Gardner could see the captive-bred Liopropoma event horizon, only to fall short of metamorphosis at day 46 or so.  Difficulties soon followed, and for most of the summer there wasn’t much to say.  Well, Todd…

Guest contributor Adeljean Ho weighs in on the Proaquatix Tangerine ocellaris clownfish

Adeljean Ho was introduced to me by Dr. Matt Wittenrich at MACNA in Orlando. When discussing this fish with Dr. Wittenrich, he suggested that Adeljean had another opinion. After sharing a draft of my opinion post with him, the response…

Dr. Matthew L. Wittenrich successfully breeds the rare Lancer Dragonet

MACNA attendees always get something special they may get nowhere else.  This time around, Dr. Matthew L. Wittenrich (Dr. Witt for short) developed one of the most modern and progressive-minded presentations I’ve seen, and he did it exclusively for MACNA…

Mike Hoang’s ‘Thunder’ or ‘Goldflake’ Maroon Clownfish are showing some really promising patterning

You may recall that about this time last year we were very excited about a misbar Maroon Clownfish being shown off by ORA at MACNA.  Later on, video of this overbarred or piebald Maroon Clownfish morph, strain or oddball suggests…

Male Naoko’s fairy wrasse displaying nuptial colors with frenzy

This excited Cirrhilabrus naokoae is a nuptial displaying male who is showing the peak of coloration for this species. This video produced by Kevin Kohen of LiveAquaria filmed this male Naoko’s fairy wrasse in his own display aquarium trying his…

A small specimen of Xanthichthys kiritimati triggerfish shown off by LiveAquaria

Tentatively named ‘Xanthichthys kiritimati’, the Christmas Island triggerfish is characterized by a thin string of spots on the dorsal part of the body, and the same blue-face stripes and colorful tail margins. The new Triggerfish from Christmas Island has been…

Xyrichthys pentadactylus, just one of the many Razor fishes out there

Xyrichthys pentadactylus is one of many species of razor fish, or more commonly known as razor wrasse. Razor wrasses are adapted to life on open sandy reefs, and all possess highly compressed bodies which look paper thin from the front,…

Cortez Marine collector pleads guilty for illegal harvesting of Clipperton Angels

Steve Robinson of Cortez Marine, a wholesale operation located in the Bay Area community of Hayward, Calif., has plead guilty to to illegally collecting the rare Clipperton angelfish endemic to an uninhabited French atoll 800 miles off the coast of…

EcoAquariums PNG Ltd is the new exclusive exporter for Papua New Guinea livestock

Eight months after the official word that EcoEZ’s PNG SEASMART program had come to legal blows with the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG), you might have given up hope on seeing PNG fish anytime soon.  In fact, it has…