Marine aquarists looking for a gorgeous, interesting, nano-friendly fish might entertain the idea of keeping the purple firefish (a.k.a. the purple dartfish, elegant firefish/dartfish, and decorated firefish/dartfish, among various other common names). Given appropriate tankmates and care, this graceful, hardy,…
LiveAquaria makes historic first aquarium offering of the line-spot triggerfish
Xanthichthys lineopunctatus is a triggerfish so rare that it doesn’t even have a real common name, but that hasn’t stopped LiveAquaria from scoring the first ever live specimen for the aquarium trade. LiveAquaria is going with the Fishbase common name…
Exquisite firefish, Nemateleotris exquisita – a bigger yellow version of the purple firefish
The exquisite firefish, Nemateleotris exquisita, joins the small but illustrious group of reef fish which are endowed with equally flattering latin names. Hailing from the western Indian Ocean, the new exquisite firefish looks very similar to the well known purple firefish,…
Awesome Fish Spotlight: The tiger damselfish, Chrysiptera annulata, from the Western Indian Ocean
Sometime this summer we found ourselves floating on the surface of a shallow Indian Ocean near shore reef when we spotted something bright and unexpected – a brilliant black and white damselfish the likes of which we had never seen…
We just can’t get enough of the Cocopeel’s intense blue eyes!
‘Cocopeel’ is our personal shorthand for Cocos Island, Indian Ocean, Lemonpeel Angelfish, Centropyge flavissima. This highly unusual variant of a common aquarium fish hides an evolutionary rift from the standard-issue lemonpeel angelfish which goes back thousands of years, and its tiny,…
The Mauritian Zebra Tang is so much more than a fancy convict
Acanthurus polyzona, aka the Zebra Tang from Mauritius and the Western Indian Ocean has been a book fish that we thought we would never see with our own eyes for so long, we had all but given up ever seeing one in…
The Indian Ocean is producing some really nice tricolor “Koi” Scopas Tangs
We’re not sure exactly what’s stirring up in the waters of the Indian Ocean, but it’s definitely producing some gnarly aberrations of the commonly known scopas tang, Zebrasoma scopas, that we know and love. This little gem shows similar characteristics to…
Stunning Xanthic Regal Angefish collected and filmed
As angelfish go, the good ole regal angelfish, Pygoplites diacanthus, doesn’t come in too many variations; you get the grey chested Pacific Form and the yellow chested Indian Ocean and Red Sea form. Occasionally we come across a slightly scribbled…
The Zebra Tang has come to US and UK aquariums
The Zebra tang, aka Acanthurus polyzona is a very rare “book fish” which we’ve covered before from a distance, but this story is about some good news for aquarists. After about two years of poking, prodding, begging, pleading and insisting,…
Canthigaster tyleri is the clown trigger of tobies
More and more, amazing species of tobies like this Canthigaster tyleri are coming to light giving us more reasons to love the colorful diversity of sharpnose puffers. Tyler’s toby is a deepwater reef fish from the Indian Ocean which clearly…
