Digiman

Leoparda? Or another species of canthigaster?

Smallest liopropoma eukrines.

Rare australia brachiosaurus blenny Townsendi angel (blue x queen angel)

Two beautiful blue spot hybrid lemonpeel.

The fish looks more orangy in actual.

And the interesting thing is the true shepardi from Guam also have this difference. Judging from the pics on the net and kioshi endoh's book, some true shepardi has yellow tail while some has transparent tail. So indeed shepardi may be a hybrid of rusty and flame and how the tail develop in a fish depends on which parent species blood it has more.

Not at all. Pseudoplesiops and Lubbockichthys are two very peaceful and timid genus of dottybacks. However species from these two genus are v hard to find in the trade. The terrors and nightmare are from the pitichromis and pseudochromis genus! And many common species of dottybacks we see in LFS are from these two genus and as such people thought all dottybacks are aggressive but is totally not true. There are many peaceful and some very cryptic dottybacks around but are all rare and as such not well known by general reefers.

I realise something interesting. Rusty angel usually has a clear and translucent tail which can be slightly yellowish but usually transparent. Flame angel on the other hand has an opaque yellow tail. And their hybrids usually develop either a clear tail (more rusty blood) or a yellow tail (more flame blood). As can be seen in lemon's rusty flame it has a yellow tail which means more flame blood, whereas my current rusty flame has a clear tail which means more rusty blood. So the tail can also help to determine if the fish has more flame traits or rusty traits.

Exactly, the genus of angelfish u hate most.

Count on me and lemon to create a rare fish hype. I hope the next shipment of rusty flames come there will be many more reefers to join in our excitement

V nice right? when i saw this piece at CF i instantly fall in love with it as it is has a darker body color and although i keep saying it is more rusty actually it resembles one of my favourite photos of a true shepardi angel from Guam taken by a japanese diver. Here are some true shepardi photos that i saved in my PC but have never posted in the hybrid thread: The above three photos to me are the nicest form of true shepardi angels and that's why i saved them. And i'm v lucky and v glad i got a piece that is quite identical to the photos above. I know most reefers here will prefer the more flame like form of rusty flame rather than a rusty flame like the one i have now. Some reefers have also pmed me to tell me they prefer the flame rusty flame to come in the next shipment. Dun worry, as most rusty flames pics i saw comes in the form of more flame like than rusty like, so the likelihood of getting a flame rusty flame is much much higher.

Here is a short preview of my rusty rusty flame.

last pic in the 1st row is my favourite. It belongs to Copps from the pioneer batch of rusty flames from cebu shipped to US but died already.

Series of spikehead angels!

A new shipment of rusty flame in one Japan LFS: Of the four i like the 3rd one most as it is darker in color and has shorter and fewer stripes.

I dun think i can add another in my tank. In a small tank like mine two will fight to death!

Rusty flame x coral beauty, yes tat's one fish i hope we can see it here one day but very unlikely. Actually I want the multicolor hybrid more! Any multicolor hybrid is instantly a holy grail hybrid. The tigerpyge, rusty flame beauty and multicolor x rusty flame were all from philippines but they all went to US and Japan.

The difference between yours and my current piece is the coloration. Yours is orangy red while mine has more brown in the red. If i have a bigger tank i would have kept two rusty flames, one of each color form.

The masudai died of a viral infection. Brought down to ML but the condition was so serious and the fish could not be saved. One of the most impressive fish i've kept, RIP. On a brighter note, here's some new nano fishes i acquired recently: 1) Lubbockichthys multisquamatus (Thanks lemon for letting me have the fish) 2) Serranus chionaraia (This guy is small, only 1", a very rare size) They are starting to stick together with my pseudoplesiops rosae. I call them the happy "three" friends:

Another failed attempt to take a photo. It is still v shy and hanging under the ledge. Hard to take vid. But here depicts a more accurate color of the fish, which is a dark burnt orange more of that of a rusty than flame colouration.

Yap thanks for letting me have the L.Multisquamatus. But it is an extremely shy dottyback, i once see it one to two times a day and each time only a few seconds even in my v minimal scape and peaceful tankmates. It doesn't even want to come out during feeding. I think it'll take quite some time to be bold enough to swim out for a vid to be taken. U like the HK specimen too? Den just go SL or CF to choose a brighter orange rusty angel and it'll look 99% similar. Here is an example of a v bright orange rusty flame that u'll occasionally see during rusty angels shipment.

There is no more true shepardi in the market now and in the near future there will not be any either. However i'm happy with just my false shepardi or shepardi hybrid whichever u call it, cos even the true shepardi from Guam is as variable and look identical to the false shepardi from cebu. So no big deal with a true shepardi if it comes. I wont fight with lemon, cos to me it's always FCFS, just like how he was earlier den me and waited so long for the shipment, he deserves the nicer specimen and i have no qualms letting him choose wat he likes first and i take the leftover.

I walk to my QT tank in the kitchen many times in the afternoon to check on the fish and everytime i see it i find it more and more beautiful. Not many fishes have been able to excite me to such extent lately and rusty flame is definitely one who can!! For those who think lemon and I are obsessed, yes we are! Tell me a flame angel is redder and nicer yes i know, but a rusty flame is so much more interesting and has a greater story to tell and that is wat excites me after been in this hobby for well over 8 years!

And i'm so wrong to assume the standard of rusty flame has drop. Of the three specimens we received all three are v unique and distinct. I do hope more rusty flames turn up for other reefers here who r interested to keep this fish. Rusty flames patterns are as different as fingerprints and is up to individual which one u prefer. If u are sick of flame angel or rusty angel, try keeping a rusty flame hybrid next time!

I know it is so common elsewhere esp in other asian countries like Japan, HK and Thailand. But sorry i jux cant contain my excitement and happiness for the fish! After craving for it for over 2 years and i suddenly get to see 3 specimens all in one day is too much joy for me. Even now i feel so happy when i think about it...