yikai

red? this particular one is a washed out pink! but the red margins quite nice. this isn't a good photo and a good specimen.

digi, here's another rare dottyback you can aim for, albeit not as nice as your P. rosae. Pseudoplesiops typus.

minor imperfections like the tail is not important. what's most important is the dorsal finnage. the solomon island variant is famed for it's super yellow dorsal fin that NO OTHER variant possess. The specimen is good. Law could help you with it. the most important is catching it displaying with erected fins, or flashing. if cannot then nevermind. thanks for the help.

that algae you are talking about is bryopsis. nothign eats it except lettuce nudibranch. just leave it and pull out any you see and it will die off after few months. let me know about the pictures. i need them ASAP but there's no rush. just as soon as possible if you can, and whenever you can. Will send the photo to Dr. tanaka and when he publishes it in his book/CD, the photo will be credited to you and/or whoever who helped you. thanks much.

nice bed! and nice tank

which? male bellus angels are rare but occasionally avaiable. usually come in only 1 or rarely 2 pieces each time. pictillis anthias used to be very common during australia and vanuatu shipment. but difficult to keep.

a quartet of Pictillis anthias from LADD! the males are gorgeous!

very beautiful male bellus angel from LADD

15 gallons is very small. FOWLR usually boasts of big fishes like tangs, angels and butterflies. in a tank size of 15 gallon, you can't keep any tang, butterfly or angel. it's better if you make it into a reef tank and keep small hardy fishes like gobies, clowns, perhaps some dartfishes, chromis etc. all these may sound boring but there are many beautiful and unusual fishes in all the above groups. don't belittle the gobies as they're the largest family of fishes in the marine world and many are beautiful and stay smallish. clowns are kinda boring but there are very rare and expensive ones. if you like them because they are staple and a must have, then ocellaris or perculas will make a good addition. 2 is good. don't belittle the chromises/damsels. many very unusual and interesting chromis/damsel species available in the market and not all are aggressive as many people stereotype them to be. some are peaceful. my personal favourite is the vanderbilt chromis/6 line chromis (Chromis vanderbilti/Chromis lineata), and the rolland's damsel (Chrysiptera rollandi). two beautiful and common fishes. most people only know the blue green chromis, but the two i mentioned above are really pretty. dartfishes there are plenty. you can try Ptereleotris hanae, the Hanae dartfish. or maybe for staple reasons, a firefish.

Check this video out! more than a dozen giant sized solar wrasses that are almost as big as some of the tangs! I'VE NEVER SEEN SOLAR WRASSES WITH SUCH BIG RHOMBOID SHAPED TAILS BEFORE! there's also a lone rubrisquamis (rosy scale) that is also very huge. and check out the large male larmarck's angel that swims to the camera a few times. now i regret passing up on a large male lamarck at ah beng. the black pelvic fins are just sweet!

fuscipinnis maybe will have some interest in the local market. there are many big players here who don't post here and are interested in rare fishes like this. what more with fuscipinnis becoming more widely available and reduction in price, it's more attractive now. sanguineus i hope they come in again. no money to afford but it's gorgeous and i hope to see it's highlighter colour in real life. basabei can just slowly dream forever.

LCK bringing in H. fuscipinnis? Any news on P. basabei and B. sanguineus?

so what is it? it's some kind of tunicate right?

i see. did not realise the tips were like this! hp camera cannot take details properly one. mine also.

Also i have one request for you. My Solomon Filamented flasher did not make it due to some problem with the fish. If you could get a photo of yours in high quality DSLR or Point and shoot photograph, please send me a photo of it. Maybe can ask Law to help you. If you could get a photo of it displaying it will be even better. Till date there's only one photograph (to my knowledge) of a filamented flasher from solomon island flashing, and it's published in Kuiter's wrasse book. The whole body turns red and the lines become blue, but the dorsal fin turn entirely yellow. very beautiful and gorgeous fish. I've been waiting so long for it, but sad it did not make it No fate, but my love for this fish will continue so i'll wait for the next batch (if any ever again). The reason why i asked for a photo from you, is because i'm helping out my friend from Japan, Dr. Hiroyuki Tanaka, wrasse expert, with his personal Flasher and fairy wrasse CD and book. This variant of the filamented flasher is quite rare. so if you could take a good high quality photo and send to me, i'll pass it to him and make sure you're credited to it. Thanks.

very nice tank. here's my opinion on how your tank has progressed so far. firstly, good growth on the millie! it's encrusting nicely from the bottom. beautiful scape. once coraline algae takes over, it will look even better. the exquisite is displaying in it's half excited state. the blue lines are evident, but when it really gets into swing, two bluish saddles will appear on the body along with all the extra blue lines. sorry to hear of your hooded. Australian hoodeds are actually rare, and very much rarer than the Vanuatuan ones. and such large size one also very rare. if you like, i hope you can find one again next time. you'll be surprised. contrary to the hooded wrasse's gentle disposition and frilly demeanor, it's actually quite an aggressive species. beautiful rhomboid. I love rhomboids and have always loved them, but have moved on with this species liao. maybe next time will keep again. So much to learn about this beautiful fish that was once known to only be endemic to nowhere else but the Marshall Islands, but recently they have undergone range extension and have been found in Palau. This is undocumented in literature though, but it's been proven in a documentary with Richard Pyle and Brian Green. Lineatus also very beautiful. When flashing, notice the dorsal and anal fins turn very white and the tail will turn red. Pectoral fins also turn red. Beautiful but large and at times, belligerent species. Colour on the body may fade after awhile also but if male chauvinistic characteristic is expressed often, the colours will hold up very nicely.

very bad photo but it's definitely not a soft coral or LPS, or any other coral for that matter. This is some kind of tunicate/sponge or something of this group i think. just some weird hitchhikers that as you know, can be very difficult to ID... my guess...maybe Ciona intestinalis with the siphons closed?

Paracheilinus angulatus X Paracheilinus lineopunctatus. Any flasher wrasse hybrid with angulatus blood have always been a personal favourite of mine. Why? Angulatus flashers have very beautiful slanted angular dorsal and anal fins, which give them an arrow like look. hybridisise them with other flasher and the hybrids will possess the same finnage with varying degree of angulation, coupled with varying amount of dorsal filaments. totally amazing!

digi, can ID these anthias? 2nd one is Hemianthus vivanus i think.

this rusty flame looks ALOT like the true shepardi!

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yah, i will. i really like them. initially got some aggression from the lone bartlett and royal gramma but after that ok liao. i just found an orange true octo from iwarna. yup orange. same orange as the aussie hammer. the orange octo has been featured on reefbuilders before. thanks bro! glad to see you back.

Thanks to Digiman for this cute little damsel. Chrysiptera rollandi. Rolland's damsel.

nice declivis butterfly. from where?

Iwarna has a rather rare hawkfish. Cirrhitops fasciatus, the blood banded hawkfish.