New bill threatens to ban commercial reef fish harvest in Hawaii – updated

On the heels of Ret Talbot’s January 2011 CORAL Magazine article on the Hawaiian Marine Aquarium Fish Trade comes a bill in the Hawaii State Legislature to amend Chapter 188 of the Hawaii State Statute.  Specifically, revisions to marine life…

Reef Culture Technologies is ramping up to breed angelfish again

After a long absence from breeding marine angelfishes, we are happy to announce that Frank Baensch has already begun to get Reef Culture Technologies back into gear. For a few years in the early 2000s Frank Baensch was a prolific…

Classic: Blue Reef Photography is a rare fish lover’s wet dream

The following post is a classic which we originally posted way back in April 2009. It features fish which are still so rare that this post is definitely worth another turn. Ballina, semicinctus and conspicillatus angelfish, Amphichaetodon butterfly, latezonatus clownfish…

Book Review: Guide des poisons de Tahiti et ses Iles

The following contribution is from Dr. Hiroyuki Tanaka, a well known expert on reef wrasses and an avid collector of all reef fish books Guide des poisons de Tahiti et ses Iles is a new excellent guide book to fishes…

Rare fish collector Rob Lower dies of dive-related injuries

Rob Lower was a marine ornamental fish collector who specialized in finding and catching many rare Hawaiian endemic reef fish, many of which were only accessible by diving to the limits. Over the last few years Mr. Lower was one…

Blue Harbor scored the tiniest masked angelfish ever caught for aquarium life

[youtube width=”670″ height=”425″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmWImDY4464[/youtube] The tiny little masked angelfish caught last week in Hawaii is already safe and sound in it’s new home at Blue Harbor in Japan. Koji Wada and the Blue Harbor staff received this little treasure right before…

Tiny little masked angelfish caught and filmed in Hawaii

Superstar deepwater reef fish collector Rufus Kimura and Co. have successfully captured a tiny little masked angelfish juvenile, Genicanthus personatus. Right as we were retiring for last night we heard whisperings that a juvenile Genicanthus personatus had been caught at…

Collecting expedition to new Hawaii location succeeds in catching masked angelfish

So far. That’s right, not only have divers Rob Lower and Ron Tubbs succeeded in collecting two one masked angelfish, Genicanthus personatus, but it looks like they are aiming to collect a few more before the expedition to this dive…

Blue Harbor’s incredible rare fish menagerie on captured on video

Every time we see something new from Japan’s Blue Harbor, we want to grab the passport and jump on a plane to check out this place in person. Reef Builders’ own Taka Kamata shared this link with us of some…

Poached Takeuchi angelfish on video still suffering from decompression issues

The Takeuchi angelfish is a species of Genicanthus that can only be found in waters of the Ogasawara Islands. The Ogasawaras are protected in that you can fish and you can collect fish but neither of which are allowed with…