Tryssogobius Tuesday: A guide to the genus of fairy gobies

Amongst the giddying myriad of nano-sized gobies suited for the home aquarist, few genera exuberates brilliance and mystique quite like Tryssogobius. The genus comprises of delicate dainty gobies, of which seven are scientifically recognized. There are invariably many more waiting…

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…

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…

Reef Nuggets 1: Damsels in disguise

Here at ReefBuilders, we keep our readers on their fins as we strive to deliver the latest aquarium happenings around the world. At the same time, we also try to pepper our blogroll with informative posts so as to keep that…

Ruby red dragonet make simultaneous worldwide splash

A stunning ruby red dragonet of the genus Synchiropus has made a big splash in aquariums around the world. Starting in South Africa, then on to Singapore, Japan and Los Angeles, the brilliant red dragonet has been spotted in shipments of…

Lutjanus indicus and L. papuensis, two new snapper species that are actually attractive

Snappers aren’t very high on the aquarists’ list of must-have fish although many of them are truly attractive, including the two newly described species from the Indian Ocean. Lutjanus indicus and Lutjanus papuensis are two new species of snappers described by…

Top 20 new reef fish species of 2012

Every year we look forward to all kinds of new corals, reef fish and products in the marine aquarium hobby but 2012 was an especially rich year for new taxa of various bony reef fish. Like most years we saw…

Reef Fishes of the East Indies is a new book from Allen and Erdmann with 25 new species (updated)

Reef Fishes of the East Indies is a new forthcoming book which will be a hefty publication on reef fish from Gerald Allen and Mark Erdmann. With almost 1,300 pages spread across three volumes, Reef Fishes of the East Indies…

Walking cat shark is just one of many unique species found in Raja Ampat and the Bird’s Head Peninsula.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHJWqYw3IIM[/youtube] The walking cat shark of Raja Ampat was recently discovered in 2006 and is just one of many incredible species found in this hotspot for diversity. From the video above it is clear where the shark gets its name…

Astreopora montiporina is a new species from West Papua that plates like a Montipora

The coral above is not a Montipora but a new species called Astreopora montiporina which is named after the common plating coral. Like A. cenderawasih and A. acroporina the new Astreopora montiporina was also discovered in Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua Indonesia and it…