Todd Gardner at the Long Island Aquarium has added another first to the long list of species that was first bred at the aquarium. Todd successfully breeds and raised the larvae of the expensive deep water bicolor basslet, Lipogramma klayi.  The stunning fish has been dropping in price over the last few years and can now be bought for under USD1000.This is in large part due to the Curacao Aquarium Submarine being able to catch them in larger numbers than before.  It is however far from a cheap fish and there is no doubt that aquaculture of this fish is a worthwhile goal as more aquarists deserves to get to know this little beauty. Continue reading →

By: Matt Pedersen

Yes you read right.  Matt Pedersen little “doubling down“  trick to get them to spawn that we wrote about here seems to have worked and the lightning maroon clownfish has finally spawned after 2 years of trying. This is very good news for all those who hope to keep these stunning fish one day, myself included.

Matt has been trying to get them to breed for two years now pairing it with a number of other maroon clownfish of both sexes.  Finally it paired with a smaller maroon clownfish and this morning matt could finally report that they had spawned for the first time. (read the full story here.)  It is a bit early to get too excited since it is common for the first spawns to fail and to produce where few fertile eggs but once a clownfish pair start to spawn they usually continue doing so.  Matt should hopefully soon have a number of lightning clowns to breed from and pass on to other successfully breeders so that they can help this clown fish become more available.  This clownfish really deserves to become a common sight in aquariums around the worlds and the chances of that happening greatly increased today.

Until today only two lightning maroon clownfish was ever caught, both in the waters of Papua New Guinea.   Just a few weeks ago a third fish was caught in the same waters that resembles the lightning maroons but with a much less distinct pattern. See the image below. This latest catch was aquired by EcoReef UK

You seldom think about corals catching and eating your otherwise healthy fish but it might be good to know that it does happen. You might want to avoid coral species such as Trachyphyllia and other large polyp stone corals in tanks where you keep fish you really care about. The risk of something like this happening is small but ever present.

The video below shows an open brain coral in the tank of Dmitry Tumanovthat has caught and is consuming an otherwise healthy, living, large azure damsel fish. Dimitry shot this video after having lost several fish that was no where to be found.

Via reefbuilders