When you picture a quarantine tank for receiving and conditioning marine aquarium fish, images of a scuzzy, bare bones glass tank with salt creep all over probably come to mind first. Indeed, aquarists have treated quarantine tanks as a “necessary…
Will you stop hiding from me! Lonesome Liopropoma
Today’s post is c0-contributed by Mr. Tay, a friend of ReefBuilders and one of my best fish buddies in Singapore. Mr. Tay is known online by his alias “Digiman”, and has an extensive collection of deepwater and unusual fish, many…
Liopropoma olneyi “discovered” thanks to a lucky larval catch
Liopropoma olneyi is a “new” species of the popular deepwater basslets which has actually been making it into the aquarium trade for some time now. If you recall the exciting deepwater collections being undertaken in the manned submersible in Curacao…
Behold Serranus aliceae, the newly described cardinal basslet from Brazil
The newly described Serranus aliceae is a species of dwarf basslet from relatively deep waters of subtropical Brazilian reefs. First discovered living at 30m (100ft), the specimens collected for the description of this crimson red basslet were also collected at 70m…
Introducing the coffee basslet, Acanthoplesiops cappuccino
Apparently, Acanthoplesiops cappuccino didn’t get the memo that Reef Builders already did their round up of the top new reef fish species of 2013. The cool little coffee-themed and coffee-named basslet is a new species from the Red Sea by Anthony…
Plectranthias face-off: Two incredible species, P. fourmanoiri and P. garrupellus
We LOVE Plectranthias! Now repeat it with conviction, and then again while you read this post. Here at ReefBuilders we’re always on the ball with the genus Plectranthias for new discoveries, new species for the trade, you name it. We’ve covered…
Gramma dejongi discovered living in the Cayman Islands
It’s official, Gramma dejongi is no longer a Cuban endemic reef fish and therefore no longer confined to the embargo dropnet of the United States. More importantly, the fact that Gramma dejongi occurs outside of Cuba means it is likely…
Digiman is back with a breathtaking new Liopropoma latifasciatum as well as a charismatic Sailfin Jawfish
Familiarity has made us jaded with the beautiful and charismatic genus – Liopropoma. L. carmabi and L. rubre were once the creme de la creme species that everyone were dying to own, but in recent years they have become more widely…
Lipogramma robinsi brought up from the depths for just the second time
Lipogramma robinsi is so rare it wasn’t until early last year that we saw our first pictures of a living specimen. Thanks to the work of the deep diving Curasub in Curacao, we’ve been fortunate to have a plethora of…
Blue Harbor’s baby Rainfordia is irresistibly adorable
For the longest time the flathead perch, Rainfordia opercularis, existed firmly in the realm of “book fish”, a species that we know exists but which we believed we’d never see outside the pages of a book. Then in 2011 came a…