Cirrhilabrus exquisitus is an unusually widespread and variable species which appears to form a lineage alongside the scottorum and cyanopleura groups, with all three sharing characteristically mid-length pelvic fins. Unlike any other species of Cirrhilabrus, the Exquisite Fairy Wrasse has…
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2.1 Fairy Wrasses: The scottorum group
Moving away from the first major Cirrhilabrus clade, we explore the various species groups that differ by having larger and longer pelvic fins. The scottorum group is a small conglomeration of two confirmed species, one of which is highly polychromatic…
1.2 Fairy Wrasses: The lunatus group
Cirrhilabrus johnsoni was first described in 1988 based on specimens collected in the Marshall and Caroline islands. This small species served as the twentieth member of a rapidly expanding genus, and was decidedly different with a crescent shaped caudal fin adorned…
Neon green Psammocora discovered living as a rollolith in Australia
A couple of neon green Psammocora have just been discovered to be living unattached, as free living coral colonies known as ‘rolloliths’. Psammocora is just the latest stony coral genus to be documented living as a rollolith, a growth form in…
Distribution of the Trochocopus subgenus with a new range extension for the neopercularis complex
The largely puerile and often intimidating Bodianus is a large genus of labrid most noted for their belligerent and mischevious behaviour. While a large portion of the genus are often teeth bearing invertebrate hunters, a handful are minimally problematic and…
Diversity and forms of the Pseudanthias ventralis species flock: How many are there?
In light of our recent trend in picking apart cryptic species within a given complex like we did for Pseudanthias pascalus and Nemateleotris helfrichi, we continue yet again with a rather massive undertaking. This time with Pseudanthias ventralis. This beautiful species is…
Brilliant yellow branching flowerpot lands at Unique Corals
Flowerpot corals of the Goniopora genus is not usually a coral to get really excited about, but a new type/strain just landed at Unique Corals which is making us want to set up a field of them. The new corals are a…
Aberrant Ctenochaetus binotatus shows up with patchy skin coloration
Another surgeonfish has been collected in the wild with the strange piebald coloration that seems to be pretty common in wild surgeonfish and now we’re really getting anxious to know what this condition is, or what causes it. The genus Ctenochaetus is…
Double headed ‘Siamese’ Acanthophyllia
A very rare and strange Acanthophyllia was really imported by Eye Catching Corals which features two identical polyps and corallites growing from a common stalk. We’ve seen “double” Acanthophyllia before which were of different sizes and colors and clearly simply…
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…
