yikai

iskay also id the butterfly correctly. he pmed me the answer.

the full blue one is super super rare. i think only 1 or 2 have ever been found and sold. but the more blue one, that's more obtainable and i've seen a few times in LFS before.

But none is quite as spectacular as the super rare pure blue potter's angel.

occasionally, potters angel come in with more blue colouration than normal. iwarna's SPS pond has one of these inside which aunty and i have put in. Potter's are difficult fishes and blue ones like these are uncommon, but are not impossible to obtain.

anyway back to topic... Centropyge potteri is the most common angel in Hawaii waters. Most people would think flame angels are the most common but here's an interesting fact. flame angels are very rare in hawaiian waters. people assume flame angels are very common in hawaii because they come in hawaii shipments by the truckloads. the truth is, the flame angels collected from hawaii shipments are from nearby islands like the marshall islands etc, and then transit in hawaii before shipping out to us. true hawaiian flames are blood red and i've posted it somewhere here before. this is the most common dwarf angel in hawaii. the potter's angel.

it's not about asking people to buy. it's about building awareness amongst the already small population here. no one needs to buy the leucozonas. i'm just saying it will be better if people at least know what it is and then can update on the forum and let others know, or appreciate the fish for it's rarity or beauty. no one asking anyone to buy anything. it's the awareness that we're trying to encourage here. increasing demand is difficult for a small country like us because of our very small buying power. but it could be better improved if people know what they want and can ask for it. increasing demand is something i hope to achieve one day but it's not my priority. trying to improve awareness here is something i strive to achieve and i'm very happy when people express interest and ask for advice on certain things. i'm so happy and will gladly explain and help because it makes me happy that our awareness is spreading to other reefers! people like marcovan have asked me about vanderbilt chromis Ming69 have asked me about longnose butterflies in reef tanks. clam chowder have expressed interest in marcellae and tinker butterfly. even meaty LPS lover like lcf425 have tried keeping numerous dwarf angels and want to try keeping tinkeri and is willing to try vanderbilt chromis now. that's what i hope for. just 1-2 years ago no one would know what a marcell's butterfly or a vanderbilt chromis was. but these fishes have been in the trade for many years alerady! so i'm very happy and genuinely feel motivated when people express interest. it means our hybrid thread and posting is working and it's not going in vain.

this is one of my fav file fishes. it's very rare and beautiful but it grows to a huge size! nice. multicolors can be very nice especially if can find a big crowned one.

But yes I agree we need time and im very happy that there are a small handful of very knowledgable people here that show so much interest like Iskay, veliferium, etc. All is not lost. One day we will catch up to our other Asian countries

I hope nobody takes it the wrong way. No body is angry here. I just feel it's such a waste that Singapore is actually a very fortunate country in terms of obtaining fish and coral. We're at the hub of indo pacific and we pay so little for fish. We pay $50 for Naoko fairy, USA pay 200 We pay $25 for leucozonas anthers, they pay close to 4-500 We pay $8 for Cebu pylei wrasse, they pay 80 The list goes on. Almost all fishes we get are way cheaper. I just feel it's waste coz no one Is taking advantage of this. And instead of fueling the hobby, the lack of interest is pshibg the market backwards. Now even the rusty flame and pintail wrasse from Cebu Philippines is unobtainable. Nearby fish we can't get coz no one interested and all send overseas. When I mention butterfly or angel to the mass piblic or even LFS, everyone panic and scream not reef safe! Eat coral! That's very wrong and ive Pinned a thread about it explaining which ones are suitable. We as a country still have alot to learn and it's not about wanting to buy rare fish. It's the appreciation and knowing. So the next tone a 25$ leucozonas anthias arrives, someone will know wat it is and at least update the LFS thread. And not let the poor fish die in the LFS where the LFS had to persuade ppl to buy something that the Americans will gladly pay 300 for

it's not aonly about rare fish and hybrid. many fish are common but rarely seen coz of low demand. so hopefully things will change in the future.

problem with local reefers is such terrible exposure to rare fishes. even with this hybrid thread, no one is making themselves aware of uncommon and rare yet beautiful fishes. the thread sits here collecting dust. we are very lucky to be close to the indo pacific and we're getting tons of super rare fish at very cheap prics. like burgess butterflies for $50, leucozonas anthias for $25, naoko fairy wrasse for $50, and the list goes on and on! but each time these rare beauties come, no one knows what it is and no one bother to know. so the fishes always end up going unoticed and dying. yet many people complain why we have a lousy fish market here. its because low awareness = low demand = low supply. in terms of the advancement in this hobby, we have tons of catching up to do with thailand, japan, hong kong, USA, and most other countries where people take time to research and get to know their stuff and understand the market. so i really hope one day this hybrid thread serves some use to the people in this forum, and help gain better awareness. and not just accumulate hundreds of pages worth of post from digiman, me and terryz. my most precious and most beloved fish that i have shown so much love to just died today for reasons i don't even know of. my marginalis butterfly. i'm devastated. not because it's a rare fish. it's a common fish. but we don't get it here. because our demand for fish is so pathetic that enthusiastic reefers like me have to work so so hard to obtain supposedly common fish like the marginalis butterfly. the whole reason for this hybrid thread is for public awareness and hopefully drive the market a little bit better. so that singapore will see more uncommon fishes one day and be in the same league as our neihbouring asian countries! it's a dream i hope to accomplish and i will accomplish it one day. we try by creating ID- games, but only 3-4 people out of the hundreds of members actually participate. it's baby steps though and it's better than nothing. we create this thread for awareness and i've posted countless of threads on awareness of common unpopular fish, hoping it will stir some excitement. but i guess many people are still uninterested and care more about corals than fish.

ehrenbergi. got it from cf

oh. interesting. but it did not actually eat the flesh of the brain right? just nip at it. probably eating the mucus of the coral. if the coral was injured when you bought it, it will also trigger certian butterflies to go crazy and eat it. anyway a misfortunate event and so sorry that your butterfly experience had turned out for the worst. even though the pyramid is the safest of all butterflies. up for your sale!

yellow pyramid butterfly eating your LPS? this is the first time i've heard of a pyramid butterfly eating LPS. you sure it's actually eating eating and destroying the coral? or just nipping around for food and not destroying the coral. are you feeding it enough? pyramid butterflies, for many years, have been known to be the only group of butterflies that are 100% reef safe because of their strict diet of zooplankton in the wild. i guess there's an exception for everything..

where to find this book?! fishes of tahiti! got my fav smithi butterfly inside!

so nice and fat! i love tinkeri also! hotumatua nowadays so unobtainable! i want my smithi butterfly!

yup. before i fragged it the shape was much nicer. it tabled out like a fan. but it was too big so i fragged it.

This is Paracheilinus angulatus X Paracheilinus lineopunctatus. A super gorgeous hybrid of the angulated or royal flasher wrasse with the line spot flasher wrasse. This hybrid only occurs in parts of the Philippines where both parent species overlap, like in Anilao. I really want to see this beautiful fish in our LFS but chances are slim. The angulated flasher wrasse is only brought in by CF and Iwarna. The line spot flasher wrasse is only brought in by Henry and Ah Beng. the 2 fishes never appear in the same shipment in the same LFS, suggesting that they are collected in different parts of Philippines and this means that no hybrids will come. I still hope to stumble upon it by sheer chance one day.. Note* The last photo shows Paracheilinus bellae. It is a very very rare flasher wrasse from the waters of Marshall Islands and Palau. Don't you think the angulatus x lineopunctatus hybrid resemble very closely in terms of body patterns to the bell's flasher wrasse?? amazing!

Male Anampses chrysocephalus in Hawaii. These are called the psychadelic wrasses or psych-head wrasse because of the colour heads the males have. Females are black with numerous white spots all over the body and head and have a red tail. They are very bad shippers and do not feed or adapt well. Males are very very difficult to keep and very very rarely appear in the trade.

Wild photos of Centropyge fisheri in Hawaiian shallow waters. This particular colour form is very attractive! Fisher's angelfish usually appear in a drab brown but sometimes, bright burnt orange specimens such as this can be found and they do indeed look absolutely stunning! Like Centropyge hotumatua!

a female whitleyi boxfish.

Chaetodon tinkeri in the wild. absolutely beautiful. for some reason, almost all wild pictures of tinker's butterflyfish will show the yellow longnosed butterflyfish (Forcipiger flavissimus) nearby. They share the same niche and probably like hunting the same types of food.

this gorgeous little juvenile damsel will grow into the ugly black and gold hawaiian domino damsel!

a nuptial carpenter's flasher wrasse. even common and humble carpenter's fairy can look so gorgeous when displaying to a gravid female. the male colouration gets so intense!

black footed lion. nice fish, rarely available.