Certain fishes available in the marine aquarium trade are truly bizarre in their coloration and patterning. Ranked high among them when it comes to both exotic appearance and aquarium adaptability is Rhinecanthus aculeatus, better known as the Picasso triggerfish or…
The Sturdy but Shy Marine Betta
With its dark-brown body covered with a myriad of tiny white to pale-blue dots, the marine betta, a.k.a comet (Calloplesiops altivelis) is truly a dazzling sight to behold. Start out with a healthy specimen, and you’ll find it’s also a…
The Powder Blue Tang: An Iconic Beauty Demanding Exceptional Care
The powder blue tang (Acanthurus leucosternon) is a breathtakingly beautiful, widely recognized (even among non-hobbyists) marine fish that can be a real pain to maintain in aquaria. While it is possible to keep one successfully under ideal conditions, most specimens…
Dig Those Crazy Pajama Cardinalfish!
A hardy, peaceful, wildly patterned species, the pajama cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera) makes a great choice for novice and experienced marine aquarists alike. Owing to its very manageable adult size, it’s a great candidate for modest-sized systems, and like many of…
The Kole Tang: A Commendable Surgeonfish for Medium-Sized Aquariums
Among the so-called bristletooths of the genus Ctenochaetus is one of my favorite tang species and one that I highly recommend to other hobbyists with well-established, medium-sized to moderately large systems—the Kole tang (Ctenochaetus strigosus). Physical traits C. strigosus, which…
Ribbon Eels: Elegantly Exotic but Usually Best Left on the Reef
Why are the most attractive and interesting-looking marine fish always the most difficult to keep alive in aquariums? Okay, maybe this isn’t actually such a truism. After all, there are lots of gorgeous-yet-easy-to-keep fish in the aquarium trade. It just…
Seeing Red: The Colorful, Cantankerous Maroon Clownfish
Many of the clownfishes have a well-deserved reputation for feistiness. But there’s one clown that makes all the others seem like milquetoasts by comparison—the maroon clownfish (Premnas biaculeatus) from the Indo-West Pacific. Though it’s among the hardier and more strikingly…
Tinker’s Butterflyfish: Beautiful, Hardy, and Way Beyond My Wages
Novice marine aquarium hobbyists—especially those making the transition from freshwater to saltwater fishkeeping—commonly experience “sticker shock” when they see the prices of many marine species offered in the trade. After all, when you’re accustomed to spending only a few dollars…
Chalk Bass: A Caribbean Jewel Custom Made for Marine Aquariums
Anyone who has visited Saltwater Smarts on a regular basis knows that Chris has a bizarre fixation on Caribbean species. No livestock—fish or invertebrate—originating outside the Caribbean/tropical Western Atlantic is allowed in his tank. If he could, he’d probably go…
Brownbarred Goby: Sand-Sifting Species Well Suited to Aquariums
Marine aquarists looking for a sand-sifting fish to keep the top layer of their sand bed stirred often run into a dilemma. Many of the species renowned for this behavior, such as the ever-popular and commonly offered yellowheaded sleeper goby…
