OMG! Look at these hybrids and rare fishes!

[yikai]

i want this. ok digi, get from iwarna!

[Terryz_]

i want this. ok digi, get from iwarna!

Me wan too but they so big size... LOL...

[Terryz_]

Here is the Article and photo on the Little masked angel

Tiny little masked angelfish

[yikai]

Feel like setting up a small deepwater tank. with plenty of drop off reefs and overhangs such as these.

look at the awesome scape! and the Chelmon marginalis pair in the deepwater Australian biotope.

[yikai]

or i feel like setting up a specific regional biotope tank. dont have to be big.

Carribean

- Swissguard basslet

- Royal gramma

- Queen angel

- 4 spot butterfly

- Striatus butterfly

or Red Sea! my personal favourite biotope laden with sinularia and xenia, featuring

- Blue eye anthias

- Paucifasciatus butterfly

- Asfur angel

- Eight line flasher wrasse

- Kluzinger wrasse

- Chocolate dip chromis

or how about Australian biotope?

- Lineatus wrasse

- Marginalis butterfly

- Coradion altivelis

- Australian hooded wrasse

- Laboutei wrasse

- Truncatus butterflyfish

or African biotope!

- Marcell Butterflyfish

- Exquisite wrasse

- Africanus angelfish

- Flameback angelfish

- Radiant wrasse

or a hawaiian biotope featuring exotic livestock from Hawaii and nearby islands

- Flame wrasse

- Fremblii Butterflyfish

- Hawaiian ventralis anthias

- Lemonpeel

- Flame angel

- Multicolour

- Rhomboid Wrasse (From Marshall's Islands)

- Tinkeri butterfly

[yikai]

Something interesting for fish nerds like me to go nuts over.

The Roaops subgenus of Chaetodontidae.

Initially,

Chaetodon (Roaops) flavocornatus was only found in Guam.

C. tinkeri was also only thought to be endemic to Hawaii.

However, C. flavocoronatus and C. tinkeri have been observed to converge in one place. Majuro in Marshall Islands.

Interestingly, C. burgessi and for the first time via one specimen, C. declivis, was ALSO found in Majuro!

The four Roaops Butterflies all with distinct ranges in the Pacific are all converging in one area, Majuro. And even MORE interestingly, all of them are inter-breeding.

So we have a mish-mash of "tinkeri complex" hybrids among the 4 Roaops in Marshall islands. To a fish nerd, this is like, extreme news.

John coppolino and Richard pyle have talked about this before but i've never really paid much attention until now. Randall has published an article about this too.

Somewhere in the Marshall islands, 4 of the 5 Roaops are interbreeding, forming a plethora of hybrids with all forms of intermediates!

Now if only C. mitratus from the Indian ocean were to make it's way there and holy smokes.

[Terryz_]

Something interesting for fish nerds like me to go nuts over.

The Roaops subgenus of Chaetodontidae.

Initially,

Chaetodon (Roaops) flavocornatus was only found in Guam.

C. tinkeri was also only thought to be endemic to Hawaii.

However, C. flavocoronatus and C. tinkeri have been observed to converge in one place. Majuro in Marshall Islands.

Interestingly, C. burgessi and for the first time via one specimen, C. declivis, was ALSO found in Majuro!

The four Roaops Butterflies all with distinct ranges in the Pacific are all converging in one area, Majuro. And even MORE interestingly, all of them are inter-breeding.

So we have a mish-mash of "tinkeri complex" hybrids among the 4 Roaops in Marshall islands. To a fish nerd, this is like, extreme news.

John coppolino and Richard pyle have talked about this before but i've never really paid much attention until now. Randall has published an article about this too.

Somewhere in the Marshall islands, 4 of the 5 Roaops are interbreeding, forming a plethora of hybrids with all forms of intermediates!

Now if only C. mitratus from the Indian ocean were to make it's way there and holy smokes.

Mitratus will not becos the color scheme of the body is not the same.. LOL... Mix liao not nice... LOL... Meaning if the fishes are from marshall island, there are chances there might be hybrids..

[yikai]

Mitratus will not becos the color scheme of the body is not the same.. LOL... Mix liao not nice... LOL... Meaning if the fishes are from marshall island, there are chances there might be hybrids..

what are you talking about!!

They are all already found in the Marshall islands in Majuro. This means that all 4 tinkeri complex species have range extensions outside of their previously thought endemicity.

Also, colour scheme will never determine wether a fish will hybridise or not. If a potter can hybridise with a fisher, a tinker can hybridise with a miliaris, a multicolour can hybridise with a coral beauty, then there should be no reason why a mitratus will not hybridise with any of the other tinkeri complex.

moreover, mitratus is from the same family, same sub genus even! i bet if one person started a population of mitratus in marshall islands, it WILL hybridise with the other 4 species.

if a tinkeri from subgenus roaops can hybridise with a miliaris from genus chaetodon, then a mitratus will hybridise no problem with all other tinkeri complex.

the only question at hand is will it look nice? well, very difficult to say. but i would assume yes. mitratus is a lovely gorgeous fish. and also the resulting hybrid with mitratus and the other tinkeri hybrids will certainly be VERY interesting.

if you notice, declivis, flavocoronatus and tinkeri have very very similar colour forms. they are so similar that i am almost certain that all three are allopatric species that originated from ONE species, that separated it's original population due to intrinsic forces and thus, flavocoronatus, declivis and tinkeri were evolved. all three species are so similar, in fact, that hybrids amongst the three are almost indistinguishable from the parent species. which means that their genes are so so similar that even after hybridisation, the genes are so pure and strong that all resulting hybrids are so un-variable and so predictable. furthur proving my initial hypothesis that all three were result of just ONE fish.

so if any of the above 3 mixed with a mitratus, which is very different in colour and pattern, the hybrid will certainly be very interesting.

[yikai]

The endemicity of tinkeri and flavocoronatus have long been debunked and what more, all 4 of the 5 roaops are found in Majuro, Marshall islands. Am i wrong to assume that tinkeri, flavocoronatus and declivis are allopatric species that were once one species, and that the three 3 arised from allopatric forces? even hybrids amongst the three show little variation which means the genes are extremely similar and pure no? Furthur supporting my initial hypothesis that the allopatricity of the said three species is indeed true? omg i'm such a nerd and i need to know answers!!

[Digiman]

Allopatric species, where did u get this term from? But anyway interesting term for a non-chemist and non-biologist person like me.

Quite possibly the tinker, declivis, burgess and flavo are allopatric, but how to prove they're allopatric?

Like chaetodontoplus personifer and meredithi are not allopatric, but centropyge resplenden and flameback are allopatric?

Anyway hybridization across sub-genus is extremely rare. There is only a handful of occurrences in the marine industry.

[yikai]

Allopatric species, where did u get this term from? But anyway interesting term for a non-chemist and non-biologist person like me.

Quite possibly the tinker, declivis, burgess and flavo are allopatric, but how to prove they're allopatric?

Like chaetodontoplus personifer and meredithi are not allopatric, but centropyge resplenden and flameback are allopatric?

Anyway hybridization across sub-genus is extremely rare. There is only a handful of occurrences in the marine industry.

Allopatric species means very very similar species that originated from only one spcecies (A). but due to intrinsic forces like shift in tides and plates, the original population of fish is divided into different parts of the world, and evolve into B,C, D etc..

one good example is the argi complex. i don't know which of the argi complex is A, but all of them are allopatric. or so i think. i don't know how scientists classify species to be allopatric or not. but my guess would be through DNA analysis.

yes inter-genus hybridisation is very rare. sometimes allopatric species re-unite back together after separation due to again, intrinsic forces. if they can be separated once, they can come back together again. over of course, hundreds and thousands of years.

for all we know, meridith and personifer are indeed allopatric that were once separated, which now reunite. of course all this is just guess work on my part since i'm just an 18 year old student with no resources. so just take what we discuss with a pinch of salt.

the speculation on wether roaops are allopatric, or meridith and personifer, is just my guess work on trying to tie up all the lose ends and close this chapter once and for all on this group of super interesting species. i don't know if i'm right. i could be VERY wrong, or i could be VERY right. no way to know and i don't have contacts with richard pyle and all other big names to ask like john coppolino does.

so i can only guess and read from elsewhere.

[yikai]

ok if you read the link i posted on allopatric species, meridith and personifer could be sympatric. where one species break off into two, but remain in the same population.

or they could be totally different non related fish that coincidentally have the same markings.

so total of 3 scenarios.

[yikai]

anyway...

the lightning maroon clown is mating with another PNG maroon clown but it's not a lightning one.

more info can be found on reef builders.

[Digiman]

ok if you read the link i posted on allopatric species, meridith and personifer could be sympatric. where one species break off into two, but remain in the same population.

or they could be totally different non related fish that coincidentally have the same markings.

so total of 3 scenarios.

Ok getting too difficult for me, i giv up.

anyway...

the lightning maroon clown is mating with another PNG maroon clown but it's not a lightning one.

more info can be found on reef builders.

The female is so big and ugly!

[yikai]

Ok getting too difficult for me, i giv up.

LOL! omg it's so interesting and this kind of things can keep me awake for hours and hours, reading, searching. oh it's like maths to you.

The female is so big and ugly!

agree. hideous. but it's from PNG so i think they hoping that it might have some rare PNG genes or smth.

[Digiman]

Nigropinnata w a special tail:

[Terryz_]

Nigropinnata w a special tail:

Reborn have before.. Uncle say special one... LOL.. But not so obvious...

[yikai]

new species of halichoeres described.

H. hilomeni

female and male.

[yikai]

Another new one,

H. erdmanii

IMO both look very similar to melanurus etc.... boring halichoeres. but hilomeni looks very nice especially the female.

[yikai]

Pair of white cap and the equally rare Alpheus rubromaculatus shrimp!

[yikai]

yet another rusty flame hybrid on DD.

flooding the market now.

[yikai]

and the gorgeous M. geoffroyi from Hawaii.

[Digiman]

yet another rusty flame hybrid on DD.

flooding the market now.

They're flooding the market now but here in singapore we cant even find a single one despite having philippines shipment weekly!!

[yikai]

They're flooding the market now but here in singapore we cant even find a single one despite having philippines shipment weekly!!

yala...but lately all the ones on DD apear to have more rusty blood. the dorsal region so dark.

[lcf425]

and the gorgeous M. geoffroyi from Hawaii.

digi is this the wrasse we saw at rb that day with the multicolor?