Video updates on BlueHarbor’s Roa excelsa and Prognathodes basabei

It has been a few weeks since the butterflyfish demigods landed in BlueHarbor, and we’re pleased to report that they are doing amazing. We first caught wind of these fish while they were still with Rufus Kimura, and then again…

Mango angelfish from Guam resurfaces after long hiatus

It has been awhile since any fish from Guam has made its way into the trade. Sans the small collection made by Joe Russo last year, this is the first time in a long hiatus that we’re seeing the reappearance…

Inter-subgeneric hybrids of Roaps butterflies are rare and amazing

Roaps butterflyfishes can form hybrids with other unrelated members of the butterflyfish group although very rarely, to form inter-subgeneric hybrids. Fishes and other animals generally hybridize with other species that are highly similar, usually in the same genus, or within the…

Chaetodon tinkeri shows why the roaps butterflyfishes are fearless and hardy

Hybrids aside, Chaetodon tinkeri is the least common and arguably the coolest obtainable member of the five roaps butterflyfish – with emphasis on the word obtainable. As far as butterflyfishes go, all five species within this subgenus Roaps are hardy…

Chaetodon xanthurus X C. guentheri is odd, even for a hybrid butterflyfish

When the topic of hybrid butterflyfishes gets brought up, almost certainly does the discussion revolve around the Roaps subgenus and their related hybrids. In the past year or two, we’ve seen several magnificent hybrids from this group emerging from the…

Roa excelsa status: one is still swimming

As we reported a while back, one of the best shops in Japan, Blue Harbor, obtained two Roa excelsa from Hawaii three weeks ago. Unfortunately, one of the butterflyfish was already dead in a plastic bag when they arrived at…

Gold Crown Butterflyfish variant shows up in Japan

Following up on the story we posted several days ago regarding the gold crown butterflyfish, Chaetodon (Roaps) flavocoronatus,  as we expected at least one of these specimens has shown up for sale in Japan. However, in contrast to the nearly…

Gotta love those Roaps butterflyfish

Even with a supposed downturn in the economy there appears to be no shortage of beautiful and pricey butterflyfish from the subgenus Roaps. We’ve seen many more Tinker and Burgess butterflyfish in finer aquarium shops around the country this year…