yikai

here's the mitratus butterfly.

but one thing all of these butterflies in the "tinkeri-complex" have in common other than beauty, is hardiness. Rarely will you find butterflies that are so hardy that will literally begin feeding even minutes after shipment. here's some videos of them. the first one is the reigning queen of gorgeousness, the tinker's butterfly. followed by some videos of declivis and mitratus butterfly. Burgess's is not shown here. the last one, C. flavocoronatus, is another gorgeous beauty but unobtainable due to it being found in guam and very rarely in deep waters of Marshall islands.

yah this is a juvenile summore!! and yellow! omg drop dead gorgeous.

look at all these yellow declivis from US and Japan! the yellow form is a subspecies C. declivis (declivis). the black one is C. declivis (wilderi). apparently it's not just a colour variant but geographic variant. the yellow one i think from xmas island and marquesas or something. i cannot remember the exact details. and i lazy to go get the book from my room. i wish christmas islands still belonged to Singapore! so many nice stuff there.

wow! niceee

hopeless with a capital H. don't label fish geek. sounds so nerdy. fish enthusiast better. my 2011 resolution also. must obtain the yellow declivis and sell my black one away. compare these 2. isn't the yellow one 100x more beautiful? unfortunately very rare here in singapore but the yellow one is predominant in the US market.

Dr. Ang. M.D, Acroporacular surgeon. Specialist in selling genuine aquacultured stable frags.

if you want now also can. don't need wait until 2011. but you willing to pay? for me i won't pay anything above $250. don't you find it ridiculous!?!? it's a Cebuan fish but people in Japan and US only paying like less than or equal to 100 US for them. and we have to pay 400-500 for a fish that we are suppose to be getting at like 40-50!? or less!

don't stalk me. i take stalking very badly and i will kill if necessary! LOL. if you want, you can stalk digiman. i don't know everything lah but i can't say the same for digiman i know enough to get me by with some incentives. and i'm very happy to share information especially when people ask me. there's nothing i like more than people asking about fish or corals, because then there's a willingness to learn and it's so fun to spread the info. like thanks to you, there's one extra reefer who is keeping vanderbilt chromis in his tank. and hopefully in the near future, vanderbilt chromises will be so common everywhere and they will not die in vain anymore!

yah.. 2011 new year's resolution. as part of a responsible reefer, it's my job to showcase these under-appreciated fish to make sure that their capture from the sea is not wasted and their lives will be more than just living in cubicles left there to die! and also to stop pampering the suppliers! i vow not to buy a single red sea fish in my adamant protest of the lazy suppliers not wanting to catch ANYTHING ELSE EXCEPT purple tang, sohal tang, golden butterfly, asfur angel and maculosus angel! if you are not sick of these 5 fishes then i am! can't believe the whole red sea which is one of the richest reefs in the world with such amazing diversity and they can only vomit out these boring 5 fishes. pampered pampered PAMPERED!

yes. i think you're the only one in singapore with P. rosae. like how i'm the only one with roseafascia and marginalis. time to raise the bar liao. need to own a few more singapore's first. you and i can go and hunt for more singapore's first. like our pintail fairy, johnsoni, aurantidorsalis, rusty flame, semifasciatus! all within our reach but for some reason they are just not appearing. except for johnsoni which is just too expensive for me.

i've always had a thing for fishes that are beautiful and gorgeous but people always shy away from. i have no idea why. like longnose butterflyfish. so beautiful and reef safe and so hardy! but so many people keep misunderstanding that they are very difficult! they are not! they are one of the easiest butterflies. that day one reefer (if you're reading, you know who you are) sms me and ask if longnose butterfly if reefsafe and that reefer wanted to keep in the reef tank. i was so happy! i immediately replied and say yes reefsafe and easy too! so happy that people are finally trying this gorgeous fish that is always left to die in the shop because of a misconception. marginalis butterfly also. such a gorgeous and unique australian fish but demand and also knowledge of this fish is so low that practically no one want to bring in. i bet no one even know what a marginalis butterfly is until reborn brought in 2 this year and one is in my tank now. hardy as a damsel and so much character. and i literally had to beg persistantly for it! when cedric visited my tank few months ago, he said the marginalis was beautiful and i was so pleased. coming from a hardcore SPS reefer to say something like this about a BUTTERFLY is very encouraging towards the local reefer's mind-set hopefully the misconception can be dispelled one day. i love a reef tank with some character and nothing imparts more of it than a little bit of butterfly or angel magic. and the vanderbilt chromis. you've seen for youself how gorgeous they are but they are not getting enough attention and all left to die in the LFS while ppl are buying green chromis off the shelves like nothing. i hope many of these under-appreciated fishes get their chance to shine one day. i'm hoping by buying them, i get to showcase them via my tank and one day these beauties will be ubiquitous in everyone's tank.

what lousy hint is that! you might as well tell me the whole thing hehehehe. oh mark so you interested in this fish also isit? hahaha.

dunno. lol!

2001? hahha.a

hiding? that's not good. chromis are very active and should be swimming all over your tank by now! but they can be quite sensitive when just arrive so many wait awhile longer. expect some losses. and yes their lineages are very similar thats why all are in the same complex. they most probably originated only from one species but that lone species got split up due to intrinsic forces like current, shifting of plates etc and the one species got split up. each of the new populations slowly evolve to suit their new habitat and then develop into new species, but resembling the original one. that's why they are all found nearby each other but the range seldom overlaps. so in hawaii, cook islands etc, chromis vanderbilti replaces the indonesian/philippine chromis lineata. this is called allopatric speciation or geographical speciation, and it's a big part of evolution but i won't divulge too much boring details that i'm sure will bore everyone to sleep. think about it the "tinkeri-butterfly" complex, the "flameback-complex". all these nearly identical looking fishes are not just coincidence!

the yellow declivis is from a diff subspecies and it's ridiculously beautiful. i only saw once in singapore at CF tank. next time if come again i MUST get it and sell mine away in a heart beat! the americans get the yellow one MORE OFTEN than the black one! so angry. the declivis made famous by glassbox design is also the yellow variant. roseafascia common??? in other parts of the world, yes, very common. especially in the states and japan. but in singapore it's still super rare and i'm the only one who has it now. LCK got 2 and we got both remember? but one die and now i'm left with only one. All those brought in by iwarna long ago i think by now all dead. pelewensis x punctatofasciatus is occasionally available in CF. this is a very common hybrid coz the two species are very very closely related and form hybrids just as easily as forming pure species. the meyeri x ornatissimus on the other hand, is rarer and i haven see before yet.

The first picture is a capnella. Common name is Kenyan tree coral

very nice but the polyps can expand up to 3x larger once settled down.

yup. colour in the wild and tank v diff. look at those in the wild! bright yellow. those in captivity so grey.

yup yup. the 3 chromis in the "vanderbilt complex" all look almost identical and dun care wat they are. but they will never look as yellow and bright as those in the pics. they look grey-er. it's definitely not acares since acares do not have blue lines. it's either lineata or vanderbilt but i also feel it's more vanderbilt looking. i'm only saying it's lineata based on location and not appearance.

i posted this so long ago..

This venustus has a v nice tail.

What juv anthias is this?

Is this a Xanthocephalus x Ephippium hybrid?