Digiman

Lipropoma Rubre (Atlantic Swissguard Basslet) Price: Around $200 to $300. Care: Same as Carmabi. Where to find: So far Reborn (closed down), Iwarna and LCK have brought in swissguard before. Large size (2") Swissguard from Iwarna shipment

Lipropoma Mowbrayi (Atlantic Cave Basslet) Price: Around $500 to $700. Price fluctuates greatly depending on which region the fish comes from. The fish can also be found at Brazil and the price can go up to as high as $1000 coming from there. Care: Same as Carmabi. Where to find: Same as Carmabi. Mowbrayi from Iwarna shipment

First up will be three popular species of liopropomas from the atlantic. All three stay small below 2" and you can trust them better with your average to larger sized-shrimps. Liopropoma carmabi (Atlantic Candy basslet) Price: around $1000 to $1200 Care: Easy. But at the initial stage should not be housed with overly territorial or boisterous tankmates. Can be kept in nano tank to very big tanks as long as there are ample rock-works for hiding. Where to find: Readily available through Iwarna upon ordering. But i believe other LFS like The Fish Channel will be able to bring the fish in as well. Other information: Regarded as the most beautiful fish of the genus. Carmabi is the most popular and representative of the liopropoma family, everybody knows this fish! Expensive basslet but personally i have kept two before and i can guarantee the fish will be worth your money spent. Carmabi from Iwarna Shipment

Hi all, This will be my second topic of discussion with the fish enthusiasts here in SRC. My favourite genus of fish (belongs to the basslet family) because they are so hard to find, so fascinating and rarely discussed! Not a fish you want and you can get it anytime, they always spring up in surprise and to find one you will need a lot of patience and a lot of luck! As such spotting one at the LFS always raises reefers' eyebrows and they would exclaim, "Eh?! What is this fish ah? V special leh!" If you have kept one before, you know liopropoma is so unlike your typical attention seeking fishes like angels and wrasses! They are full of character and they are always playing hard-to-get with their owners!! Personally i have kept many liopropoma that has been available in Singapore. From the common to the rare and the cheap to the very expensive. To me there are mainly two categories of liopropomas. Those that stay small (below 2") and those that grow big (to 5"). I will be sharing them in two parts. First the cute, small, and more shrimp safe group. Followed by the big, showy and more predatory group. In general liopropoma is a hardy and disease resistant genus. They are cryptic by nature but they adapt to home environment easily and eat all kinds of food readily even pellets. A fish i would highly recommend to reefers of all levels and i am sure if you start keeping one you will be as fascinated as i am towards this group of highly elusive basslets!

Super rare and deepwater Bantam Basslet from Carribbean. Fish at BBOX (Parasphyraenops Incisus) last year Feb.

That will be a better sequence. Blackcap are rarer and more expensive. So if u were to risk losing one it will be the royal gramma than the blackcap.

Last few on the lipogramma sp in its favourite overhang.

Better pics of the plectranthias pelicieri perching on its favourite seafan. U can see how fat the fish is!

Not much of an update. No new additions for quite a while. A few fishes suppose to come in but all did not happen in the end. Here are the four old residents of the nano tank Lipogramma Sp. This fish has now started to eat a greater variety of food like mysis, brine, flakes. It is doing great and remains the most showy fish of the tank. This fish will remain one of the rarest fish in the world for a long time to come. Plectranthias Pelicieri. V greedy fish, super hardy and gorgeous. Eat like a champ since day one. Highly recommended fish for all reefers, easily available through Iwarna for those interested. Johnsoni fairy wrasse alpha male. Biggest and oldest fish. The supply of this fish has trickled down to very small number, in fact in the states now it is even easier to get an earlei fairy wrasse than to obtain a johnsoni. Liopropoma Africanum. One of the rarer basslet you can keep if u prefer something unusual. Second oldest resident in the tank. Very hardy but a bit cryptic. Shy and quite hard to photograph.

I have kept both but not together. From my experience royal gramma is a more dominant and bolder fish than black cap. So if putting them in the same tank would be a problem, the black cap will likely be the suffering party.

Definitely! Your tank is very big. You should give it a try and update us the result. The only tell-tale signs are males are larger in size, and brighter in colours. There is another difference observed by a breeder that the ventral fins on the males are longer and do not have a sharp point while the female RG have shorter that ended in a sharp point. However this observation is not written in any literature and as such may not be fully credible but still it can be an interesting trait to consider while looking for a male royal gramma. Do update here if u or anybody else manage to find a male-female pair and verify if the above observation is true.

Designer clown

Yes the availability of the two holy grails, peppermint and narcosis, has realised the dreams of many hardcore japanese rare fish collectors. More to be be expected in future although the price will likely remain very ex. Hopefully one day a narcosis and or peppermint can also come to our country. Shown here are some narcosis caught along with the peppermint And another claire fairy wrasse caught

Not one but five peppermint angels at BlueHarbor! One of it is surely gg into this tank below!

Beautiful and rare lonchurus jawfish (available thru iwarna)

Weird fishes Anisotremus dovii Gobiesox punctulatus

Rare viviennae Leopard wrasse (South Africa to Madagascar) Rare Tanakai Dottyback

Beautiful rare and expensive pylei pair Aurulentus anthias. One of the anthias that i want to try and is still waiting for it.

New lunatus pair in Japan (S$200 for this pair)

Uncommon fish Belted Sandperch (Carribbean)

According to Fishchannel.com, they will fight in a small tank unless male-female pair. Males and females are differentiated by their size difference with male being mauch bigger. However I have notice LCK keeping a big group in a 3 to 4 ft tank with no issue. And in the wild royal grammas actually live in a big group too. So if your tank is big enough keeping two or more royals should be possible.

SPS

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Rare fishes at Iwarna Yellowback Tubelip Pair!! Anampses Lineatus! Terelabrus Sp.! True bodianus opercularis Healthy and nice size bandits sold

I think you can give it a try. Look at this video of a gramma dejongi kept in a nano tank with a lot of sexy shrimps: So get the smallest royal gramma you can find and provided your sexy shrimps are big enough and keeping the royal gramma well fed you should be able to succeed. Update us on the outcome of your attempt.