Maldivian Koi tang comes with valuable catch information

For every aberrant koi tang we feature here at Reef Builders, we’re bombarded by about six more from around the globe. To the point where we weren’t even going to feature this fish, based just on its looks and high…

Black and white Penguin tang is the latest aberrant Scopas to appear

Reefbuilders is the home of saltwater color morphs and has covered more koi, calico, yellow and piebald Scopas tangs than anyone else. So let us introduce you to our next example of polychromatism in Zebrasoma scopas, the Bicolor.

Echinophyllia bulbosa & E. gallii, Two New Species of Chalice Corals from the Indian Ocean

The diversity of chalice corals in the aquarium hobby is already very high but now we’ve got two new species to add to that lineup. Echninophyllia gallii and E. bulbosa are two new recently described species of chalice corals from the Indian Ocean, the…

Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Rescued in the Maldives

An Olive Ridley sea turtle has some quick thinking humans to thank, after become entangled in a drifting ghost net. The turtle, named Nash by the One&Only Reethi Rah Maldives dive staff, was found trapped in an abandoned net offshore of…

Terelabrus flavocephalus, third candy hogfish finally gets described

Terelabrus flavocephalus is the newest species of hogfish to be described and added to the growing family of the ever popular marine wrasses. This third species of candy hogfish has been known from the Indian Ocean, Maldives to be precise,…

How did this baby whale shark end up in a swimming pool?

This is an intriguing story we had to click on after we saw this baby whale shark swimming in a pool. It seems that the baby whale shark was found off the coast of the Maldives and some people at…

Navigobius cf. dewa collected from the Maldives for the first time

Not too long ago we pointed out that the genus Navigobius could hold two more species apart from the original japanese endemic N dewa. In this article we mentioned that certain individuals of “pink dart gobies” coming out of Japan were…

6 great iPhone applications for identifying and learning about reef fish

If you’re one of the 10 million people who got a shiny new iPhone 6 this weekend, or just happen to have a shiny slab of computing power that fits in your pocket, you should really take advantage of it…

You don’t even have to dive to see stupendous reef scenery

A lot of people think they have to be divers in order to see the beauty of the ocean realm. But in fact, much of the reef life in the tropics is concentrated in the shallows, especially when we’re talking…

Pseudojuloides kaleidos is a rare pencil wrasse from the Maldives

Pseudojuloides kaleidos is a beautiful species that hails from the Indian Ocean, and is seldom collected for the trade but the odd specimens sometimes appears from the Maldives. Like many of its cousins in the pencil wrasse genus (Pseudojuloides), it…