Panda Angelfish will have you Playing the Species Guessing Game

We love to play the fish ID game at Reef Builders, and this week we got to play it with the dwarf angelfish from the genus Centropyge pictured here. Our first guess was that it is a hybrid, as there…

Pigment Abnormalities may be related to Significant Population Decline

Researchers have documented new records of marine fish pigmentation abnormalities, including an albino-melanistic fish, the first record of a leucistic Great Hammerhead Shark, the first record of leucistic Almaco Jacks, and the first melanistic Giant Manta ray in the North…

We just can’t get enough of the TSA Fruity Splice Acropora

We’ve known about this spliced acro for a while now, but after Remy went to see it in person we just can’t stop thinking about it. We reached out to Top Shelf’s Kevin Burda for more info on his discovery. …

Cleaner wrasses recognize themselves in the mirror

A research article published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences has found that cleaner wrasses, Labroides dimidiatus, have the capacity for mirror self-recognition (MSR). Researchers tested the theory by using mirrors, as Cleaner wrasses attack unfamiliar conspecifics…

14 of our favorite featured fish from 2022

Cast your eyes over our pick of the hottest fish to make the Reef Builders news in 2022.

Marine Fish Workshop to be held at CITES CoP 19

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species is to discuss ornamental fish species at their annual Conference of Parties, held this year in Panama. The Convention regulates everything wild from Tigers to Timber, with the aim of ensuring that…

The Tailless fish of Jave Marine

As we scrolled our social media news feeds this week we couldn’t help but notice the penchant for tailless saltwater fish shown by Indonesian livestock collector CV Java Marine Group. We have documented many tailless fish over the years and…

Two Different Half Black Surgeonfish Collected an Ocean Apart

In the early days of freshwater ornamental fish breeding, one of the first mutations that consistently appeared in high profile species like angelfish and discus was a half black trait that originated at the tail. It seems like this mutation…

New ‘Chainlink’ Maroon Clownfish Discovered in Papua New Guinea

The Chainlink Maroon Clownfish is a new aberrant individual of Premnas biaculeatus that was just collected in Papua New Guinea by Golden Ocean. While the discovery of the Chainlink Maroon Clownfish is an awesome surprise, it’s less of a shocker to…

Black & White Moorish Idol Discovered by RVS Fishworld

It’s astounding how one little tweak of color or just a small change to the pattern of iconic reef fish can give them a remarkable new appearance. The latest glitch in the coral reef fish matrix is a black and…