Reef-A-Palooza

[yikai]

Before i share some of the horrible photos i took and the stories of my stay in L.A and orange county, i would like to thank some really awesome people and friends i've had the chance to meet there.

some of them frequent this forum so if you're reading this, thank you!

thank you to jake adams, who so kindly put up with me for the past 5 days and brought me around everywhere and for making my stay a really wonderful and fun one. none of this would have happened had i not met him in aquarama and started writing for him.

thanks to walt smith and his wife deborah smith, bob fenner, scott fellman, michelle lemech, kate talbot and her husband, joe yaiullo, and a whole other bunch of crazy awesome people which i've had the privilege to meet and get to know!

i will not be posting photos i took with these people here though. this thread is purely for reef-a-palooza and nothing else!

i stayed at the ayres hotel and suites. here's a pic of the patio where you can have breakfast and drinks!

[yikai]

this is a small shot of the event hall in orange county where reef-a-palooza was held. this was during set up day and nothing was in it yet.

it's a large event hall in orange county fair. about slightly bigger than the event space for aquarama.

a small shot of a section and our unfinished booth!

[yikai]

jake and i set up our tiny little 8 gallon nano tank for our main attraction.

small as it may be, the tank featured two extremely special fishes.

two captive bred and raised flame angelfish. they're from a new yet unknown breeder who doesn't wish to be revealed yet! and it's not RCT from hawaii. and that was all we needed. no need for big rare conspicillatus angels, or super showy SPS tanks. we had 2 captive bred dwarf angels! what more do we need!

we also had an acrylic reefbuilder's sign with swanky pink LEDs.

[yikai]

other than that, the entire show was somewhat similar to aquarama.

they had booths from all major brands of equipment. well most anyway. the only difference between reefapalooza(RAP) and aquarama is that RAP is fully marine and they sell coral frags too.

cherry coral was there and the spread of SPS and soft corals are amazing.

i'm sorry i did not take any photos of the boothes and corals for sale. most of the corals were under LED and the photos from my iphone make everything look blue.

but jake adams did some really nice product reviews on reefbuilders so you can read there if you're interested.

and for those asking me to bring back frags, i'm sorry but SPS and LPS are not allowed for international trading unless you have CITES. although they really had the famous american branded corals i'm sure everyone's familiar with.

i did manage to get a xenia umbellata and cespitularia frag but i decided to give it to jake before i left for singapore. too troublesome to bring it back.

[yikai]

most of the reefapalooza bit was kinda boring. so i didn't really take much photos.

besides, i updated some stuff on reefbuilders website while i was there so it's kinda the same.

i really did wanted to see the clipperton angelfish. the one and only one being displayed in the world.

so jake brought me to aquarium of the pacific in long beach.

[yikai]

the first thing you see in AOP is this grotesquely large annularis angelfish.

it's largest i've ever seen and i am not even aware they could grow this big!

we're not talking about 8 inches or 9 inches here. this freaking fish is almost 2 feet long!

the AT and black tang swimming near it gives you a sense of scale. the AT is fully grown at around 6 inches and the black tang, around 7.

the annularis is the size of a small puppy! no kidding.

it's so large that the scrawled markings have grown maze like and the tail is too big so it's crumpled!

[yikai]

they had a really beautiful reef tank too but see, my iphone makes everything look blue and not nice.

[yikai]

my favourite tank display is this really magnificent NPS display.

it has amazing growth and healthy sun corals, sea fans, chili coral and rhyzos.

also it features tons of ventralis anthias, male and females

[yikai]

here's the legendary clipperton angelfish.

crappy photo la. but you can make it out!

[yikai]

and we got to go behind the scenes of the public aquarium in the back room where all the logistics and qt and maintenance happens, away from public eye.

the first thing that caught my eye in their qt room was this absolutely amazing clarion angel.

the photo is NOT photoshopped. believe it nor not, it's this red.

even jake adams, who has a clarion, is amazed by the colour!

[yikai]

ok i managed to find some pics of the corals and booths in RAP.

bad bad photos.

we had over 4k people visiting the event in 2 days!

[yikai]

the 2 days of event was just summarised by the photos above.

before i went back to singapore, jake was really nice and brought me to a place where only the most hardcore of fish nerds will dream of going. well, 2nd only to liveaquaria. QUALITY MARINE.

i freaked out.

this is the HQ, in L.A and the place is about as big as cf. except the entire space is packed with rows and rows and rows of tanks with as many rare fish as you can dream of. CF has alot of wasted space at the front where people can walk and etc.

there is almost no relax space in Quality marine. just rows of fish and business. really hardcore.

i loved it.

[yikai]

here's a tiny shot of the whole area.

it's so big. my phone cannot fit the entire place in one picture.

[yikai]

conspic angelfish.

cute and nice right?

[yikai]

multiply that by 8.

there were plenty!

[yikai]

plenty of australia fishes.

merediths angels

lineatus fairy wrasse

trachinops hula fish

[yikai]

and then i came across something really strange.

remember the guy selling the 10 inch black tang in the pasar malam section?

does this look familiar!?

a black tang surrounded by a sea of copperbands and coradion alivelis butterflies.

it's the same tank as the one he posted in the pasar malam section!

i was surprised to see this scene in quality marine.

no idea why or how?

[yikai]

and for the really hardcore fish fanatics.

here's something to rave about.

a very rare triggerfish.

see who can guess it.

my photo is terrible so i've attached a google image

[yikai]

luzonichthys waitei!

lovely anthias species that we've yet to see

[yikai]

can you make out what's inside these rows of compartments and insane number of containers?

each container contains a helfrichi firefish!

there's at least a few hundred in there!

look at all the containers!

sometimes they're so cheap that they retail for less than 50 usd!

not surprising! look at them!

[yikai]

here are some really cool fishes!

tuxedo damsels

an undescribed species of triggerfish! it's stunning in real life. lousy pic.

mitratus butterfly

hoards of catalina gobies! this is just one tank. but no surprise, these fishes can be caught in locally in some states

queen triggers

johnrandallia butterflyfish

[yikai]

wrought iron butterflies.

oh just for fun!

[yikai]

they also had plenty of white barred maculosus angelfish from taiwan.

captive bred.

[yikai]

i also went to pacific aquafarms and sea dwelling creatures.

but never really take many photos there.

here's some more common stuff. but in outrageous numbers.

there are hundreds of flames and multicolors and seriously, it makes you wonder how freaking many there are in the sea.

mind you this is only in one shop, for one weekend, in one state!

imagine world wide!

i promised not to post any photos of jake and the other people i met there out of privacy, but that's his fingers and his camera taking photos of some really tiny venustus angels. incase anyone's wondering.

[Digiman]

and for the really hardcore fish fanatics.

here's something to rave about.

a very rare triggerfish.

see who can guess it.

my photo is terrible so i've attached a google image

Rinecanthus Lunula for the pic on the left?

The pic on the right shows a rinecanthus cinereus?