Chromis vanbebberae: The White Tail Reef Fish Gets Elevated to Full Species

Chromis vanbebberae is a brand new species of damselfish that was described at the end of last year and finally puts a name to a fish we’ve long had on our radar. This curious smaller Chromis has been known for some…

Maldivian Koi tang comes with valuable catch information

For every aberrant koi tang we feature here at Reef Builders, we’re bombarded by about six more from around the globe. To the point where we weren’t even going to feature this fish, based just on its looks and high…

Captive Bred Yellow Tangs from Biota are the only option!

All of you should know by now, that the aquarium fishery in Hawaii has been shut down so wild yellow tang are not available anymore. Luckily, Biota company invested few years ago together with Oceanic Institute in Hawaii into commercial…

Picasso Sailfin Tang is a Desjardini, not a Veliferum!

The Picasso Sailfin Tang is the first of its kind, an aberrant Red Sea Sailfin Tang, that has just made its way to America. Virtually all of the aberrant Zebrasoma ‘Koi’, ‘Piebald’ and ‘Tricolor’ tangs have all been scopas tangs, Z. scopas,…

Yellow Koi Scopas Tang is a Filipino Banana Split

Zebrasoma scopas is a widespread but highly variable surgeonfish species, with unusual color aberrations that are prized by the reefkeeping world. The Indian and Pacific Oceans have produced many freaks over the years from as far apart as Kenya to…

Powder Blue Tangs & Emperor Angelfish: Two Common Fish That New Reefkeepers Should Avoid

Reefkeeping is a paradox. We set up an aquarium to display all the wonderful diversity of the tropical oceans, only to be told that we can’t keep the vast majority of species in our tanks. I help out in my LFS on Saturdays and the following two species are probably the two that people ask me for and point out the most, only for me to deliver the grim news that they can’t have them. And here’s why.

Wild Aberrant Scopas Tang Discovered in Kenya

Aberrant Zebrasoma tangs come in many different varieties; there’s ‘koi’ scopas tangs, calico scopas, yellow scopas, piebald and white yellow tangs, but today’s spotlight falls on a very unusual piebald scopas tang. This curious specimen photographed by Dawn Goebbels in…

Can You Believe this Gem Tang Survived?

Several weeks ago we peered into one of our reef tanks to notice that something was not quite right with one of our gem tangs. The medium sized Zebrasoma gemmatum specimen had been in our care for the better part of…

Barcode Gem Tang Returns to Marine Collectors

Yellow tangs have piebalds, scopas tangs have koi variants, and now it seems that the highly desirable gem tang has its own variant called the Barcode gem tang. The barcode Gem tang is a special variant of the gem tang…

Black Belt Yellow Tang is a Fun Remix of the Iconic Reef Fish

The Black Belt Yellow Tang is an interesting variant of Zebrasoma flavescens that was first brought to our attention from a specimen acquired by LiveAquaria two years ago. What makes the yellow tang so supremely iconic is its stark yellow…