yikai

a very beautiful emperor (xmas island?) and a cute mesoleucos butterfly. i miss mine!!

deepwater fishes always suffer from decompression/swim bladder problem. it's caused by improper decompression techniques which result in the swim bladder having problems. your basslet is most likely a Liopropoma basslet am i right? They are very prone to decompression problems the deeper the fish, the more likely they suffer. unless the decompression is done properly. rhomboid fairy wrasse is another fish that can have this problem. the swim bladder is an organ filled with air to help the fish keep it's buoyancy. when catching the fish from deepwater and bringing it to the surface, the air inside expands. so it's the diver's job to release the air inside. usually it is done by inserting a needle into the bladder to release the air. if not done properly, the injury of the bladder will result in buoyancy problems. sometimes, there is excess air inside. if that's the case, it can be cured by needling the fish yourself. but if you don't know where the swim bladder is or don't do it properly, you will kill your fish. otherwise it will die slowly and there's usually no cure for this problem.

the hybrid flame angel x coral beauty is HKD 13000 and the aberrant white bar flames are HKD 700

the amazingly rare hybrid flame x coral beauty is not HK's own import. according to my friend in HK, it was obtained from Japan. even after the disaster they can still get all this amazing rare fish! and ship to HK! japan and HK are unbelievable! the aberrant flame angels according to my HK friend, is a joke. she kept one before but the bars eventually returned after a few months. it's probably a xanthic morph that's why. i think only the true barless marquesan flame will not return bars. since it's a geographical variation and not a colour variation. blackburnii according to her is easy to feed but difficult to keep as it's one of the more sensitive butterflies. get infection and body sores easily.

digi - the pictures you posted are extremely gorgeous! all the angels are super rare except the french and grey. the blackburnii is super amazing! can't wait to get mine in april/

thanks stina for trying angels in SPS reefs. Majestic angels are nice and you're not wrong in calling it P. navarchus or E. navarchus. like the blueface angel, it belongs in the genus pomacanthus, but placed in a subgenus (euxiphipops). so the proper scientific nomenclature for this fish would be Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) navarchus. however, Euxiphipops navarchus or Pomacanthus navarchus is also fine. depends on how specific you want to be. but most people do not know about the euxiphipops subgenus so better to stick to Pomacanthus.

Tryssogobius colini pair. sometimes CF will sell. super shy.

a gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous male marjorie fairy wrasse for sale on LADD! this is my favorite fairy wrasse.

terryz that damsel is v uncommon. i wanted it for a long time liao. good job finding it! post a pic from internet to show what it looks like?

candy basslet is 1.2k SGD

ich can host on rocks and corals but very low chances of happening. they usually settle at the bottom of the tank or on sand bed. bro mopiko, triple sulphur tablet? i've not heard of it. do you know the active ingredient in it?

yah AT and other tangs are very prone to whitespots. because they have no scales. tangs are scaleless fishes and have lesser protection against these parasites. thus very easily get white spots.

but for white spots, if you quarantine all your fish, then there will not be any white spots in your tank. so no matter how stressed your fish is, they will not get white spots. because there simply isn't any in the tank to begin with. whitespots are not like bacteria where they are found everywhere. they come in through infected fish. so if your tank is white-spotless, then there will be no whitespots regardless of stress factor and water quality. take this analogy for example. if a person with a virus is given proper health care and good living conditions, chances of not getting overtaken by the virus is very high. but if a person infected with the virus is put through stress like over working, over exertion etc, then the virus will take over and eventually make the person sick. this theory is to support the "dump and hope approach" where living with white spots is possible with good water quality. now take this other scenario. if a person without being infected with the virus is put through stress like over working, etc, he will never ever fall sick. why? because he doesn't have the virus in the first place. sure he could suffer from other ailments but he will never suffer from that particular virus infection. why? because the virus does not simply appear out of nowhere. this is the quarantine theory. if you quarantine all your fishes for white spots, then they will never ever get white spots because the tank has no white spots. and no matter how stress the fish is, they will never get it because white spots does not appear out of no where.

actually bro mopiko, a system free of white spots is possible. if you quarantine everything, there will be no white spots in your tank. all fishes before entering the display tank, if quarantined for 1-2 months, will be parasite free. quarantine means held in a separate tank and medicated, treated before entering display tank. putting fish in betta box or sump tank for observation is not called quarantine. if there's no parasites on the fish, then there's no parasites in the tank. if you quarantine everything, then there will be no white spots in the system. of course some people take to the extreme to quarantine even their corals, but that is not necessary. the above practice is standard is places like the U.S and japan. so there's hardly any problem with white spots. in southeast asia like singapore and thailand, people don't practice quarantine and do what we call the "dump and hope" approach. by putting fish in without quarantine and hope that no outbreak occurs by feeding well and keeping water quality up. different people have different approach to fish keeping. quarantine is not always good because if not done properly, can kill the fish faster than the disease itself. but if done properly, quarantine is the best way to go in disease prevention!

the parasites cause the fish's slime coat and skin to swell and produce these white spots. i have no idea what it is, but it can be removed if you scrape it out. it can also be removed if you catch the fish out of water and place it in a freshwater bath. the white spots go away but the parasites still remain embedded in the skin. what exactly the "white spot" is, i dunno. but it could be a layer of lose slime or skin that turns white in response to a parasite at that particular location, and it can be scraped off. hmm, maybe much like a scab on your skin, in lay man term. sorry i cannot tell you the real answer because i don't know, but above is my "intelligent guess" on why you are able to remove the spots. but not the parasites. remember, they are under the skin.

cleaner shrimps, neon gobies and cleaner wrasses unfortunately do not eat white spots. white spots are microscopic organisms that bury into the fish skin. so it's impossible for the wrasses and shrimps to eat it. the "white spot" you see on the fish is not the actual parasite, but a reaction of the fish's skin. much like the red bump on your skin when a mosquito bites you.

i have never seen or heard of a Black BTA! if there's such a thing that would be awesome. but i don't think so. black is a very rare colour for photosynthetic organisms in nature. even in terrestrial plants, black flowers are very rare but there are some black lilies and orchids. i've seen very very dark red/maroon BTA's though.

yes. exactly. P. cincta does not have the pointed dorsal, while P. borea does. they are very similar in appearance and might even be in the same "complex". i'm not very good with gobies. moreover, Priolepis is not a very well known genus. so the information is difficult to find, but not impossible. the best way is the know the exact location of both cincta and borea, and trace the location in which this specimen come from. if the range does not overlap , then most likely they are in the same complex brought upon by allopatric speciation. hence the strong similarities. if range overlaps, it could be different species brought upon by niche speciation, or just a variation. very interesting right?

I'm not quite sure what's the exact name for this goby. I'm leaning towards Priolepis borea. But it does look like P. cincta too. anyway whatever it is, it's related to the popular "full moon, or white tiger goby or nocturnal goby" (Priolepis nocturna). Same genus. Thanks M3MORPH for bringing this rare little fish in. I hope it does well with my P. nocturna. been awhile since i last saw this. i think reborn brought in some before

yes M3 brought in a gorgeous carmabi and they have another one for sale now. not a rare fish and readily available upon request, but the steep price puts most buyers at bay. but the colours are gorgeous and those who pay for it will enjoy every moment.

the paucifasciatus are not with me now i'm still in china!

banded pipe, dragon face pipefish and bluestripe are some of the easier ones. especially dragonface. they take mysis readily.

liopropoma carmabi for digiman? haha.

btw the roseafascia is gorgeous.