The Peppermint Angelfish that won the world over

Despite the Peppermint Angelfish’s (Paracentropyge boylei) recent meteoric debut in the mainstream aquarium trade, it’s status as an iconic book fish has hardly been relinquished. Familiarity has not made us jaded with the clinquant beauty of this incredible species. In fact, it’s a…

An eye for a Bigeye

The family Priacanthidae, more commonly known as Catalufas and Bigeyes, are strange looking fish that look less out of place with Alice and her wonderland than in the ocean. The family comprises of roughly twenty species, in four genera namely Cookeolus, Heteropriacanthus,…

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…

Opulent Osaka Part 4: A BlueHarbor tribute, and the man behind the brand

We’ve come to our last and final installation of our four part Osaka travelogue. If you’ve been following parts 1, 2 and 3, we hope you’ve enjoyed it, and thank you for exploring some of Osaka’s most opulent reef keepers…

What’s in a name?

Scientists are often pretty whimsical in their own way when it comes to describing a new species for science. To the undiscerning amateur like us, we may find scientific names cumbersome, made up of an unpronounceable mass of consonants with an unearthly…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: The clandestine life of Centropyge colini

Fabled angelfish of the deep, with a mysterious ectoplasmic glow. Centropyge colini is a dwarf angel riddled with mystique and inexplicable beauty. Of the various deepwater dwarf angelfish known to science, only a few species fall readily into the hands…

Cirrhilabrus claire trio was invited to America by Quality Marine

Cirrhilabrus claire is one of our all time favorite species of fairy wrasses and lucky for us, it seems like this year might be be a fruitful one for this incredible and exciting fish from the South Pacific. Two years…

A first look at the REAL Cirrhilabrus claire from its type location of the Cook Islands

As I type this, my breath is rapid, and my fingers are bent from random spasmodic twitching. We’ve seen Cirrhilabrus claire before, and a few times now. We’ve even covered it extensively before, but nothing could have prepared us for this.…

Sneak video preview of DeJong’s world debut display of tiger and peppermint angelfish

Featured here are two of the aquarium world’s rarest species of marine angelfishes; the peppermint angelfish, Paracentropyge boylei and the tiger angelfish, Apolemichtys kingi. Both of these two demi-gods of reef life have been thoroughly featured on Reef Builders throughout the years but this…

Countdown to 2015 with BlueHarbor’s immaculate rare fish calendar

2013 was such a fantastic year for rare fish and aquarium tidbits and we’re so stoked to see what 2014 will bring. Here’s a fun way to countdown 2014, and what better way than with BlueHarbor’s splendid calendar. In typical…