Longfin clownfish clinches title for “guppy of the marine aquarium”

While “Guppy of the Marine Aquarium” has long been a title bestowed upon the Banggai Cardinalfish, I’ve long felt that the true guppy of the marine aquarium world, with its ubiquity of hobbyist breeding and ever-increasing diversity of aberrant, non-wild…

Bali Aquarich shows off “Picasso / Galaxy” Tomato Clownfish

Moments ago, Bali Aquarich revealed yet another clownfish species with atypical markings.  This time, it’s the Tomato Clownfish, Amphiprion frenatus.  With so many unusual clownfish variants showing up in captive breedig populations, how is this fish any different? (more and…

A yellow Scopas Tang that’s even brighter than a Yellow Tang

The ubiquitous and staple Zebrasoma scopas (Scopas, or Brown Tang) is so variable that over the years we’ve seen aberrations and variations running the gamut from Koi types, ghost white, tricolored, dirty yellow and almost everything else in-between. While dirty…

The Indian Ocean is producing some really nice tricolor “Koi” Scopas Tangs

We’re not sure exactly what’s stirring up in the waters of the Indian Ocean, but it’s definitely producing some gnarly aberrations of the commonly known scopas tang, Zebrasoma scopas, that we know and love. This little gem shows similar characteristics to…

“Golden Boy” coral beauty angelfish

“Golden Boy” is a stunning example of an aberrant Centropyge bispinosa. This unusual color form was first reported in the mid 1980’s from Pago Pago in American Samoa by two aquarium fish collectors, John Drieberg and Brian Champ. Initially this…

Revisiting Lemon Tea Yi Kai’s best marine aquarium stories

Tea Yi Kai aka LemonLemon is one of the most prolific aquarium writers the web has ever seen, and we are fortunate that he decide to hang his hat within the ‘pages’ of Reef Builders. Being from Singapore and having…

Incredible xanthic triggerfish makes its way to Elos Aquastudio New York

Xanthic Undulated Triggerfish have been firmly lodged in our minds ever since FAMA featured one on their front cover in the nineties. Anyone remember the title story “Melekeok’s Golden Triggerfish”? Although that initial xanthic Balistapus undulatus was from Palau, every few…

Lightning Maroon to be first successfully cloned clownfish

It’s been 10 months since Matt Pedersen anounced the first sucessful spawning and hatching of the world’s only captive bred Lightning Maroon clownfish offspring.  The aquarium world has since held their breath, waiting to see what comes next.  While having…

Hypomelanistic flame angelfish looks completely transformed from the original

Unusual flame angelfish seem to get a lot of attention here on the front page of Reef Builders but considering the vast numbers of Centropyge loricula made available to aquarists every week, these unique flames are truly rare. The latest example…

Hyper red flame angelfish makes its way to South Africa

Pygmy angelfish variants are cool but few can compare to aberrant flame angelfish when the colors of Centropyge loricula get put on overdrive. The deep dark black tiger stripes have been replaced with deep red ones on a yellow-orange body…