Awesome Fish Spotlight: Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus in nuptial display

Today’s Awesome Fish Spotlight features an opulent member of the wildly popular genus Cirrhilabrus, more affectionally known as the Fairy Wrasses. Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus is a common species with a wide distribution across much of the Western Pacific, from Japan through…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Pseudojuloides kaleidos, in all its beautiful forms

Of all the labrids that enter the trade, none are quite as refreshing and unorthodox as Pseudojuloides. Wrasses are social butterflies that are found in haremic groups. usually of a single male and multiple females. As such, maintaining a species of…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Steinhart’s studly Genicanthus lamarck

Like the insanely beautiful traffic cone coloured male Genicanthus semifasciatus in the Dallas Aquarium, Steinhart in the California Academy of Science has its own studly Genicanthus to boast. G. lamarck is a common species with a rather large distribution in…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Who took a tuka and made it pascalus?

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but the hiatus ends today with another Awesome Fish Spotlight. This time we feature not one, but two species as we draw attention to Pseudanthias pascalus and Pseudanthias tuka. While looking superficially similar and rather…

Venomous Marine Fish: It’s Hard to Define the Effects of Their Stings

People are naturally fascinated by venomous animals and often very curious about the effects their venom might have on people they bite or sting. Any marine aquarium hobbyist who’s kept a lionfish, rabbitfish, saltwater catfish, or other fish species equipped…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Prismatic Tosanoides flavofasciatus

A throwback to our final Osaka review saw us mentioning briefly the incredible prismatic beauty of Tosanoides flavofasciatus. Like Liopropoma aurora, this species, especially this particular specimen is deserving of a full and separate post to really showcase its beauty and…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: Aurora, goddess of dawn and depth

Bridging the gap between our previous Osaka recount and the next is this feature on the one and only Liopropoma aurora. Previously in Dr. Shimokobe’s collection, we caught a glimpse of this species being housed in his deepwater set up.…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: All that glitters is not Golden Angelfish

All that glitters is not gold. That is certainly the case for Centropyge aurantia, the golden angelfish. Despite having both the common and latin name of this fish associated with the precious metal, there is in terms of appearance, very…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: The under appreciated Chaetodon wiebeli

Today’s Awesome Fish Spotlight focuses on yet another butterflyfish, and this time it’s the highly under appreciated Chaetodon wiebeli. Well under appreciated in its range anyway. We’ve featured this species before when we caught sight of one in Bangkok, but…

Awesome Fish Spotlight: What do you call a pig that cannot oink?

A pig that’s not a pig, it’s a babi wrasse! For the record, if you said bacon you’d also be correct. “Babi” is the Malay and Indonesian word for pig, and apart from delicious Balinese cuisine like Babi Guling, it is…