1.1 Fairy Wrasses: The lubbocki group

The lubbocki group houses six members divided evenly into two separate but closely related clades. They are the lubbocki clade and the marjorie clade. All members of this group are small to medium sized species with a recurring red and white…

Distribution of the Trochocopus subgenus with a new range extension for the neopercularis complex

The largely puerile and often intimidating Bodianus is a large genus of labrid most noted for their belligerent and mischevious behaviour. While a large portion of the genus are often teeth bearing invertebrate hunters, a handful are minimally problematic and…

Biota Marine adds four species of Eviota to their repertoire of captive bred successes

These particular few weeks have played host to a flurry of aquaculture stories, from Bali Aquarich’s hybrid Pomacanthus and brand new A. trimaculatus, to Biota Marine’s captive bred Clown Triggerfish. Palau based Tom Bowling and Till Deuss from Biota Marine are…

Quality Marine Receives Biota Marine’s Cultured Balistoides conspicillum

“Caribbean Chris” and I are proud to assert that promoting sustainability in the marine aquarium hobby is an important part of our mission. However, every now and again, we’re asked to clarify precisely what we mean by “sustainability” in this…

Biota Marine’s Cultured clown triggerfish already shipping from Quality Marine

There’s been quite a frenzy of captive bred fish in the marine aquarium world lately, but the new cultured clown triggerfish from Biota Marine in Palau are an exciting new group of fish altogether. Frank Baensch has raised crosshatch triggerfish…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus in nuptial display

Today’s Awesome Fish Spotlight features an opulent member of the wildly popular genus Cirrhilabrus, more affectionally known as the Fairy Wrasses. Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus is a common species with a wide distribution across much of the Western Pacific, from Japan through…

Diversity and forms of the Pseudanthias ventralis species flock: How many are there?

In light of our recent trend in picking apart cryptic species within a given complex like we did for Pseudanthias pascalus and Nemateleotris helfrichi, we continue yet again with a rather massive undertaking. This time with Pseudanthias ventralis. This beautiful species is…

Centropyge abei and Chaetodon smithi: Black and yellow superstars of Waikiki

If you ever visit Hawaii and don’t stop by the Waikiki aquarium, consider yourself a felon and a convicted criminal for breaking the fish geek code. In a small public aquarium within the Waikiki neighbourhood of Honolulu lives two mega superstars of…

Undescribed Plectranthias from Papua shows up in Bangkok, Thailand

If there’s a genus we love more than or equal to Liopropoma here at Reef Builders, it’s got to be Plectranthias. Unfortunately, Plectranthias is poorly reviewed and the genus is riddled with numerous undescribed members which leads to confusion in identifying various species. To make…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Prismatic Tosanoides flavofasciatus

A throwback to our final Osaka review saw us mentioning briefly the incredible prismatic beauty of Tosanoides flavofasciatus. Like Liopropoma aurora, this species, especially this particular specimen is deserving of a full and separate post to really showcase its beauty and…