OMG! Look at these hybrids and rare fishes!

[yikai]

a trio of Chromis scotti at LADD.

rare and beautiful. a mini version of Chromis abyssus.

[yikai]

Cirrhilabrus parade at LADD. a pair of kwazulu fairy wrasse, a pair of nahackyi's fairy and a luteovittatus fairy, which has been MIA for quite sometime now. marjorie wrasse and of course, earlei fairy and rhomboid.

[Digiman]

Which one would you choose?

[OldTownJoe]

Any idea what anthias this is?

[yikai]

Any idea what anthias this is?

i was just watching this video 10 mins ago!

i have no idea as well. digiman do you know?

[Digiman]

Any idea what anthias this is?

My take: A juvenile Selenanthias Analis

[yikai]

My take: A juvenile Selenanthias Analis

after your suggestion, i agree.

can see the numerous pearl spots on the fins. good job! king of deepwater fish ID

[Digiman]

after your suggestion, i agree.

can see the numerous pearl spots on the fins. good job! king of deepwater fish ID

Lagoon Okinawa described the fish as having eyes slightly bigger than the normal selenanthias analis and as such they labelled it as sp. However they aren't sure if the bigger eyes is due to individual fish difference or if it is a different species. Juvenile Analis is also virtually unknown, so only time will tell if the fish develop into an Analis or something different.

On a side note, according to fishbase, there are only two other species in the same genus selenanthias, Myersti and Barroi, and both have no pics on the net. S.Myersti is found in the south china sea while S.Barroi in coral sea.

[yikai]

misbar bandit

[diki88]

Cool lemonpeel hybrid. Looks almost like a miniature maze.

[yikai]

Cool lemonpeel hybrid. Looks almost like a miniature maze.

0904no3.jpg0904no1.jpg

beautiful scribble face!

[ACCK]

Which one would you choose?

griffis.jpg

Can't beat the bandit

[Digiman]

misbar bandit

Wow!!

Misbar in bandit is very rare.

[dnsfpl]

misbar bandit is indeed wow

[yikai]

Yes misbar bandit is very rare. There's a pic posted by digi of a bandit pair and one is severely misbar. Even rarer than this

[Digiman]

Cook island Scotts. Most beautiful variant of all Scotts!

Rare deepwater moustache jawfish

Beautiful Earlei fairy pair in Japan

Cebu Flabelligobius sp. in Japan. This fish is gettting harder to find.

[OldTownJoe]

Here are a couple of large, colorful jawfish that LiveAquaria and Old Town Aquarium both have received this week. I'm posting these to try and resolve the uncertainty regarding the correct species identification. I'm still waiting to hear back from our supplier regarding the collection locality on these specimens, as that should unequivocally clear this up. O. lonchurus is Atlantic, O. fenmutis is "an eastern Pacific endemic, distributed on the central portion of the Cocos plate." To the best of my knowledge there isn't much (if any) aquarium collecting done in the known range of O. fenmutis, whereas the large Atlantic range of O. lonchurus is a far more likely point of origin, with the species known from the heavily collected Florida waters.

Aside from the locality, there are morphological differences in this specimen and O. fenmutis. The most obvious difference is the truncate caudal fin of O. fenmutis versus the rounded caudal fin seen in these specimens. In fact, the name lonchurus is from the Greek for "lance-shaped tail".

Also note the obvious differences in coloration. The O. fenmutis specimen is the preserved holotype, which the authors describe as: "Preserved the male is very dark, especially in

the head and back, very dark dorsal fin, three bluish lines on the sides that reach the tail and at least twice in the head. Females generally clearer than the male, with blue lines on the sides." The overall darker coloration (fish will usually lighten in preservation) and more vivid blue lines indicate this these new specimens are not O. fenmutis.

I'm hesitant to disagree with a marine biologist when it comes to marine biology, but I'm pretty confident in this identification. Lemon, did Adeljean say why he thought this wasn't O. lonchurus?

What's interesting about O. lonchurus is how little is written about it in the scientific literature. The holotype was described in 1882 from a specimen removed from the stomach of a snapper. Other specimens were subsequently collected with trawls in deep (80m+) water. Apparently our supplier has found a more accessible population somewhere.

[yikai]

Joe yet again you have stunned us with your knowledge. My original post on RB was corrected by adeljean on the ID. He did not mentio much even on email. My knowledge regarding Jawfish are poor, much less two sympatric species such as this. However your points regarding phenotype difference as well as non overlapping isolated range of fenmutis is good reason enough to separate these two. And I agree with you on this. I was not able to see the physical differences until now.

[Digiman]

I'm hesitant to disagree with a marine biologist when it comes to marine biology, but I'm pretty confident in this identification. Lemon, did Adeljean say why he thought this wasn't O. lonchurus?

What's interesting about O. lonchurus is how little is written about it in the scientific literature. The holotype was described in 1882 from a specimen removed from the stomach of a snapper. Other specimens were subsequently collected with trawls in deep (80m+) water. Apparently our supplier has found a more accessible population somewhere.

The ones LADD and you have obtained are Lonchurus and its common name is moustache jawfish and not sailfin jawfish.

Adeljian wasn't saying they are not lonchurus, he was just pointing out the erroneous common name given to lonchurus. It should be moustache jawfish and not sailfin jawfish. Sailfin jawfish is the common name for another species, Fenmutis, which is not yet collected for the hobby. So there is no confusion here in the species identification but rather it is an error made in the use of the common names in the reefbuilder articles that Adeljian was trying to point out. That is why i dislike the use common names when it comes to fishes!

Me too am surprised that lonchurus is so poorly mentioned in literature. I know they are found in deeper water but i want to know exactly how deep they are. Fishbase did not state the depth range of this fish and i am curious are they just deep as in about 100+ ft or are they found very deep like the lipogrammas. They are expensive when it comes to jawfish and i would like to know if their rarity and high price is due to the depth at which they are found in and perhaps requires the use of rebreather to collect?

I have one in my tank now which has been with me for over 6 months. Super hardy jawfish and is one of the most interesting fish to watch in my tank!

[Digiman]

Btw, this is my lonchurus.

Super easy to feed. However now it has a bit of thorn fins as it squabbled with my spanish flag over a new den.

[yikai]

Yes perhaps adeljean meant the misuse of the common name. I may have interpreted it wrongly as well.

It appears the confusion lies in the term mustache and sailfin being miscorrectly labelled to each species. A confusion between the common names, and not the scientific identity.

Mustache Jawfish can also mean the undescribed Ospigtonathus from Indonesia as well.

[Digiman]

3.5cm poliourus angel in HK

[Digiman]

Pseudochromis Luteus

Extremely rare dottyback found in the waters of Japan (Okinawa), Taiwan (Southern coasts) and the philippines (Batanes Islands).

For years Dr Tanaka has been trying to obtain this dottyback in Japan without any success.

Males

Females (Equally amazing!)

[yikai]

Pseudochromis Luteus

Extremely rare dottyback found in the waters of Japan (Okinawa), Taiwan (Southern coasts) and the philippines (Batanes Islands).

For years Dr Tanaka has been trying to obtain this dottyback in Japan without any success.

Males

lutues.jpg

lutues 3.jpg

Females (Equally amazing!)

lutues 2.jpg

luteus 4.jpg

more pics of this amazing dotty!!

the salmon pink males are amazing.

[Digiman]

Osopsaron formosensis

Beautiful nano flathead goby (Max size 5cm) in Japan and Taiwan. However not available in the aquarium trade.