yikai

This video is a testament of simplistic reef keeping, with only the bare essentials and the rest stripped off. No fancy corals, no state of the art corals, but a simple and humble, fuss free tank that play home to a collection of healthy and special fishes. i really love it!

where did you get this info from? that it is seen as a variant. a photo of the two for comparison.

never get tired of seeing it!! amazing

crazy amazing! the yellow on the head is so defined. it looks like a helmet!

Digi, why don't you share with the reefers here in SRC about your new fish? Digiman is now one of a minuscule handful of people in the world to own this fish. and it is none other than C. claire, the rarest fairy in the trade right now.

the chromis shares its tank with various other fish, all also preferring shady tank conditions. one of which is a fairly common Liopropoma. it is also undescribed, but can be found often in philippine shipments. unfortunately this is not an easy fish to keep, and it often suffers from decompression illness. this is my 2nd time trying.

My deepwater style tank is running. here's the fish that i've been waiting for. It's an undescribed chromis that was caught along side peppermint angels in the southern pacific, down in the depths. This chromis is a gift from Rufus Kimura, the legendary diver who caught all the peppermint angels, narcosis as well as claire's fairy wrasse. this gift means the world to me and from Rufus kimura, i am very humbled.

Luiz is back with more gorgeous photos. here are some red sea ones. P. taeniatus, M. striatus and a weird Bicinctus clown

Yes that's why a deepwater style tank should be a more appropriate way of describing. Pressure is not a factor in fish keeping. The swim bladder of a fish is adaptable to different pressures. All deepwater fish will be decompressed to bring it up to the surface by way of needling or slowly bringing up. This allows air to be released from the bladder and not expanding when brought to lower pressure at the surface. Once at the surface, putting it back quickly in deepwater pressured set ups will kill it. Therefore if I wanted to keep it in a pressurized tank, I will not need to decompress it in the first place and maintain the fish at that pressure in the sea al the way to my tank. Lighting and temperature is more important factors for deepwater fish. Dim lights is usually deployed. As for temperature it depends on the fish and location. Temperate and subtropical fish such as Japan and some parts of Australia yes, and these fish must be maintained at 19-22 preferably. Tahiti is a tropical area and Rufus reported the temperature at that depth to be around 25 only, considerably warmer. Most fish can adapt to slightly warmer temp, but not too high. 26 is ok. My kamohara blenny was caught in 22 degree water but can live perfectly fine in 26.

Yes this one is abit thin. Eating fine but the problem is finding small enough food! Mysis is to big and is ignored. Even my tiny tiny otohaime pellets are just nice. I need to buy one size smLler.

Deepwater style should be more appropriate way to describe. It's going to house a fish collected at same depth and area as the peppermint. The scape will be rocks only just like in the wild. Also no lights will be used. Will match exactly the appearance as best i can to allow the fish maximum comfort. Digiman's tank is purely deepwater set up. Rocks, no lights, and deepwater fish. Blue harbor feature many similar style tanks too. It ismostly very boring and drab. Not many reefers will appreciate it. But it allows the fish a habitat to feel safe and display itself. In a 250W MH tank, these deepwater fish will not adapt well.

A 2nd hand 2ft deepwater set up connected to my sump for a special fish coming this Thursday.

so can you get us any of these? the yellow head ecsenius i am unfamiliar. but with ecsenius, a single species can have many variations including color, and stripe/stripeless form. here's a striped purple form of E. frontalis from the red sea. normally it is a hideous brown.

no wonder!

something i want very much. Ecsenius bathi in the last pic, E. bathi is seen with E. dilemma and Helcogramma. beautiful trio!

yes protogynous. can change from female to male. but unlike cirrhilabrus, i don't know if minilabrus has an initial phase male stage. not all wrasses are born female. some wrasses are born females while others are born males that look like females. these are called initial phase males. these female looking males are sub-class and swim together with females, dominated by the alpha male. sometimes they sneak up and co-spawn with the alpha male to snatch females. so when the alpha male is removed or dies, the next most dominant female or IP male will develop and take over. in the case of IP male, no sex change is required. just development and enhancement of colors. for females, a sequential sex change is needed.

peppermints are so well known and over exposed right now. they are blaring like neon signs in every forum, fish talk and magazine. some of the fishes in that magazine are all just as rare, or even rarer and more exciting (to me) than peppermint, with the exception of interrupta and narcosis. i agree, if we removed interrupta and replaced with peppermint.

The year is about to end. only 2 months left. here's BH's 2013 calender. this month's fish is Liopropoma japonicum. only plectranthias garrupellus left till the new calender.

are you a local? manado shipment from singapore or from where you are? all those wrasses are common species but seldom appear in Singapore. only LFS to bring it in consistently is marine life.

out of the 60+ that arrived, only one was male, and it was DOA. this species is very sensitive. They don't ship well, and take a while to adapt. after some die offs, these were the 4 remaining. all females. they are not easy to feed as well. being so small, they only eat tiny food particles. mine are, after 2 weeks, starting to eat small pellets and broken pieces of mysis shrimp.

crazy amount of Flavicauda anthias in the wild. http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-2307089-stock-footage-black-tip-reef-shark-carcharhinus-melanopterus-underwater-in-fiji-islands.html?src=search/fILSzId5U4JvZcHe2-Tp1Q:4:18 here's the male. so beautiful. http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-2307146-stock-footage-black-tip-reef-shark-carcharhinus-melanopterus-underwater-in-fiji-islands.html?src=rel/2307089:1

Pseudochromis ammeri in raja ampat. http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-2533877-stock-footage-raja-dottyback-pseudochromis-sp-swimming-underwater-in-indonesia.html?src=search/-h988pHUNNnsyUqq6WDB3g:1:14

golden angel in the wild video. so cryptic. http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-2280878-stock-footage-golden-angelfish-centropyge-aurantius-swimming-underwater-in-fiji-islands.html?src=search/s2Mm7tC_qwiRqN7Yg3cwgw:1:3

BlueHarbor shipment this week, tentative 7th november at iwarna. Crescent tail fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus lunatus) from japan, Ecsenius oculus (Ocular blenny), and Valenciennea bella (Bella's sandsifter) up for sale. more info on Oculus blenny and bella sandsifter here. http://reefbuilders.com/2013/08/16/rare-fish-alert-ecsenius-oculus/ http://reefbuilders.com/2011/12/13/valenciennea-bella-goby/ Also in this shipment are the very expensive and rare Chromis sp and Cirrhilabrus claire that were caught with peppermint angels in moorea. Japanese rubrolineatus anthias as well. These fish are special order and thus already sold, but if you want to take a look at these legends in person, 7th november is the date.

first one male tonozukai. 2nd one male exquisite, indo-pacific form. beautiful large male tonozukai! from where? also beautiful aurantidorsalis fairy at the bottom. long time since i saw this species.