yikai

i dunno. there are plenty of illegally owned fishes. look at the resplenden dwarf angelfish. almost all of them in someone's tank are illegal. i don't know how chingchai got his, but i'm willing to bet it's illegal too. and not from RCT as they stopped breeding years ago.

yep. abit. female semicinctus is very ugly. plain uniform colour with no markings. the hybrid lamarck x melanospilos is way better. anyway i should be getting the bible of wrasses either late next week or early week after. i'm sure there are plenty of beautiful wrasses inside we've never seen before and possibly some extravagant hybrids. will be posting pictures from the book here.

one more. posted before but since we're on the topic of genicanthus, here's another spectacular and rare hybrid. watanabe x lamarck. hmm.. seems like lamarck is prone to hybridisation in this genus?

semifasciatus looks just as nice!

here you go. lamarck x melanospilos.

the uglier unobtainable cousin in the genicanthus genus. genicanthus spinus. unless you are willing to charter your own expedition trip to pitcairn islands, this fish will remain unobtainable. while you're there, snag me a bunch of chaetodon smithi will ya?

some pictures of the very beautiful genicanthus semicinctus. one of my favourites. last picture is just amazing. 2nd picture shows a female. unfortunately, since it's found in lord howe islands, it is unobtainable since lord howe is a UNESCO world heritage site. the only way u can get it is if it waifs out of the protected zone. interestingly, this is one genicanthus that is not haremic. males and females live alone, and 4-5 may be found in a certain area.

this is a very very famous video of an illegally caught genicanthus takeuchii. this particular specimen is in HK and is suffering from internal problems, as noted by it's very pinched stomach. either that or it's starving. this is a transitioning juvenile-female specimen, and being collected from deepwater, this fish can pose a potential feeding problem.

speaking of melanospilos, here are some of it's hybrids. hybridisation amongst genicanthus are quite rare.

melanospilos only the very big males with very long trailing filaments on the tail nice. the fins have very fine delicate patterns of yellow spots and stripes that is very nice and appreciative.

anyway there is no genicanthus that i don't like. i like personatus the least. especially the females. but the male can be quite nice. followed by melanospilos. looks so common and a caudovittatus would replace it anyday.

NOO!!! semicinctus is VERY NICE. the female is black and white and looks VERY stylish. and the males have a beautiful orangey belly which goes very well with the stripes. one of the nicest.

hahaha LOL.

yah actually got 4 holy grails. takeuchii, semicinctus, spinus and personatus. of all the 4 unobtainables, personatus is considered obtainable. but it's still vvvvv rare and u need ultra deep pockets. so just lump it together with the 3 bah. unobtainable for us

according to the latest news, he will be out of retirement soon. so we can expect collection of cirrhilabrus earlei soon. but as usual, all will go to japan -.-

yes

you can only collect this by snorkeling. diving is prohibited there. so unless the takuechii swims to the surface and let you catch, you won't get it. the other way is to get it illegally. this is the holy grail of genicanthus. but only the juvenile is nice. male is very ugly IMO, and females looks very weird... too many stripes and all too close to each other.

!! shhh!!

prazi kills all internal worms. but it does not cure infections. anyway will have more sources for roseafascia in the future..

takeuchii!!!!!!!!!!!!

tiny daedalma!

Fantastic documentary!!!!!!! Richard pyle, brian greene and john earl totally rocked the deepwater dive. Brian greene is the world famed collector of cirrhilabrus earlei amongsts other deepwater fishes. Capturing the Cirrhilabrus luteovittatus, cirrhilabrus earlei!!!!!!!, male/female genicanthus bellus and a few unknown fish!! watch the rest of the episodes to see them catch the super rare chromis abyssus, basabei butterfly and centropyge abei. the abyssal chromis and the very very rare abei angelfish. gosh what a great show! all in micronesia!

banner fish no. even the schooling bannerfish have been known to nip corals. copperband and longnose are better choice