yikai

sedentarius and ocellelatus not found in japan. closest is juvenile saddleback but even when tiny tiny tiny juvenile, there will be a large black spot on the dorsal region. so cannot be any of the 3.

actually...... the parameters needed to grow such things need not be too good. contrary to that actually. they grow very well in "dirty" water with dissolved nutrients. in normal tanks they are usually fed with phyto and other planktonic mumbo jumbo that i don't know the names of.

Either it's a wild naturally occuring butterfly, or a released specimen. for saint helen's butterfly cannot be both. since they are not found in japan and no one owns one to date. it's also worth more than throwing it into some bay. it could also be a spotfin. chances are someone could have released it there. but the picture of the un-ID butterfly lacks the spot on the soft dorsal fin and has a transparent tail, whereas spotfin has yellow tail. so it's not both. unlikely to be an aberrant boronessa because they are found in abundant SPS growth, on which they feed exclusively on and i dunno if they extend to japan. so maybe it's a new species or an aberrant something.

if you look really really closely, you can see the eye and face. the photo is very blue. but and body pattern indicates a somewhat triangular shaped fish. maybe a boronessa? but the colour is so weird. could be an extreme aberration.

made me excited for a minute there hehe. rusty x flame hybrids aka false shepardi are very rare. no worries on the wrong ID.

anyway milch, first pic or 2nd pic?

false shepardi? could either be rusty flame hybrid, or rusty angels that look shepardi-ish. cannot be the real rusty flame as they won't come in so many pieces, but i won't dismiss the thought. tomorrow will go check out. i suspect just normal rusty flame angels..

if they grow and spread to such extent, it means that your tank probably have sufficient food for it. but as soon as the feeding stops, a decline in growth will be observed. i also have them in my tank but different colour.

unidentified butterflyfish from sun marina miyazaki in japan. photo by H. tanaka. very blur but does not look like anything i know from japan. closest is spot fin but only from carribean.

to be honest, this is a really rare opportunity to witness copperbands eating LPS. although they usually quite reef safe, the risk is still there. unfortunately i do not have any other advice but to remove it if it bothers you seeing it eat your LPS. copperbands rarely eat corals and their long beaks are more for picking at worms and other crustacean within cracks in rocks. but there are specimens that take corals. sorry to hear! as with almost all butterflies and angels, there is no 100% reef safe (with the exception of some). there are some that are very reccomended for reef tanks but with risk. for coral loving people that cannot take any risk and chances, butterflies and angels are not reccomended. for your aiptasia problem, you may wish to try chemical means or other biological control like peppermint shrimps.

nope. v peaceful.

big one ugly but the juv so so nice!

abarrent blue tangs. both very nice

somali butterfly

ventralis!

Cirrhitops fasciatus An unexpected find at CF. caught my attention because it's initial dull colouration resembles the extremely rare Plectranthias kellogi. Initially reserved it but was afraid i could not collect in time so i updated in the LFS update thread to let others know about it. But got a friend to help me collect it and the colours brightened up so much in the tank. also known as the blood red hawkfish or the red barred hawkfish, this rare import from Hawaii rivals the beauty of most other hawkfishes.

peek a boo

1 green SPS. dunno what it is. cannot capture the green properly. appears brown. and 1 green slimer. so much green.

forget it. the bartletts are too difficult to catch so i'll just leave them as they are.

yah i dunno wat is the pale anthias.

Bodianus perditio Bigbigfish, we were talking about this earlier this afternoon. you are right it's gorgeous! you can find a scene in this video featuring the B. perditio in a cubicle in Vanuatu. juveniles are yellow and adults are red i believe.

BANNED The hawaiian rainbow cleaner wrasse (Labroides phthirophagus) is banned from import by Hawaii. This has been going on for quite awhile now now as there are no more hawaiian rainbow cleaner wrasse being imported. The hawaiian endemic is found only in hawaii and is over-harvested, thus the ban. all cleaner wrasses coming from hawaii shipments are still labelled as rainbow cleaner wrasse, and the scientific name is still labelled as L. phthirophagus. they are labelled wrongly However the wrasses that are imported are not L. phthirophagus but instead, are the red lip cleaner wrasses (L. rubrolabiatus). Occasionally, the normal blue cleaner wrasses are also imported from hawaii and are also mis-labelled as the true rainbow hawaii cleaner. so for those looking for this beautiful cleaner with the worst survival record, sorry but we won't be seeing them anymore. first two pictures are the hawaiian rainbow cleaner. banned, and replaced in shipments with the last picture, the red lip cleaner.