Goldflake Griffis Angel Hybrid is a Blueface Version of its Parents

Boy do we love us some rare angelfish hybrids, and today we’ve got the second goldflake x griffis angelfish hybrid we’ve documented in less than a year. This new set of glamour shots of the Apolemichthys xanthopunctatus x A. griffisi cross come to…

Gorgeous xanthic scribbled angelfish discovered in East Australia

A xanthic specimen of the scribbled angelfish, Chaetodontoplus duboulayi, was discovered in Mackay, eastern Australia. The news of this very unusual female scribbled angelfish comes to us from Aqua Lovers in Japan who received this fish and shared an incredible photo…

3.2 Fairy Wrasses: The temminckii group

The temminckii group plays host to some of the genus’ larger and more unappealing species. Burley, pugnacious and often glazed in matte grey, these un-fairy looking fairy wrasses are more often than not associated with the ugly duckling sobriquet. Despite…

The speciation, biogeography and hybridization of Zebrasoma

The family Acanthuridae boasts of charismatic, charming and iconic reef fishes that are immediately recognizable both in the field and in the trade. All eighty or so species spanning the six various genera have a single unifying trait, and that is…

2.1 Fairy Wrasses: The scottorum group

Moving away from the first major Cirrhilabrus clade, we explore the various species groups that differ by having larger and longer pelvic fins. The scottorum group is a small conglomeration of two confirmed species, one of which is highly polychromatic…

When life gives you lemons

Life sucks. Let’s not pretend to be one of those sickeningly sweet and optimistic people who say otherwise. We all have our bad days be it from a break up, a Judas level betrayal or just simply trying to eat an ice…

Survival on the reef part 3: Distractions and decoys

Continuing with our mini series on reef fish survival techniques, we stray away from mimicry and take a look at how some fishes use the art of distraction to fool their predators. Not everyone has the ability to conceal their body…

Captive Bred Mandarins Return…But Only for a Moment

After Scott Fellman’s well-written rant surrounding the explanation and loss of ORA Mandarin Dragonet production, the collective breeding world pretty much wrote off seeing captive-bred Synchiropus spp. for the foreseeable future. I echoed Fellman’s sentiments recently in my own story…

Tail-less bandit angelfish is practically beyond belief

A bandit angelfish is a very special fish to begin with but a tail-less Apolemichthys arcuatus is unheard of. This wild-caught specimen is the first documentation of tail-less-ness in this species that we know and while it looks really strange in…

Another incredible Belonoperca pylei arrives in the United States

Considering our initial excitement three months ago that a single Belonoperca pylei finally arrived in the United States rather than head over to Japan yet again, you can image our excitement that a second Belonoperca pylei just arrived in America.…