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This fish had the most beautiful pink body with green dots and stripes, and this is the best picture I got of it. Sorry again, but if you happen to have seen this fish before in nature then you know what I mean.

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Nice Colors

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

This little, maybe 3 to 4 inches long, coral eating fish came very close to the glass for me, excuse the scratches that you may see, I assume that they don't use a small sponge to clean the glass like we do in our home aquariums.

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Fish

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is another shot of him, what beautiful colors and contrasts his body creates.

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Fish Again

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Now, this is the most intriguing fish for anyone unfamiliar with the dark side, including myself. I am wondering what purpose the nose extension has. If the nose would be a little shorter then this fish would have a very human face.

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Interesting

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is one the many colorful fishies in the reef tank. Maybe Liana can explain us how they manage to maintain this many fish on such a rather small space, I assume there must be a huge water exchange going on at all times.

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Nice Patterns and Colors

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is a close-up of this fish in which he shows us some of his nice teeth. Seems to me like a coral eater, right? I overheard someone mentioning that this tank is a self-maintained eco system, but it seems that there are many coral eating fish in there.

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Close-Up

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is one fish that is shaped like a rocket. I assume he can swim pretty fast and he for sure never stood still to give me a good shot.

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Torpedo Fish ?

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is one of the many fish that have some form of pink in their pattern. This one is maybe 3 inches long and i my opinion just gorgeous.

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Pinky

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

On the other hand, there is an abundance of yellow/blue colored fish in this tank that are just wonderful to look at as well. Like this one:

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Yellow and Blue

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Although I did not get the best shot of this little guy, I had to show him anyway. I find the fishing rod extension of his dorsal fin very interesting and wonder if it has any purpose beyond impressing the other gender.

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Fishing Rod

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is another of the yellow/blue colored fish, seems to me as if this color combination is a very common one. Does anyone know why? I would assume that the blue almost dissapears in the sea and as such only the yellow remains visible for predators. But as such there would be no fish to be seen anymore, just a bunch of lines that easily could be corals. Is that right?

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More Colors and Pattern

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

These little guys are very cute, their basic body coloration is much more purple than the picture shows. And the yellow stripings are a beautiful contrast to it.

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Purple with Yellow

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

This one is a blenny, right? In either case, I like the pink front and the yellow back. Here I wonder why a body would be broken up so sharply into two colors?

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More Colors

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Here is a beautiful fish, probably a little too large for the smaller reef tanks at home. He and his buddies where perusing the tank in a lose formation. Is that an angel of some sort?

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White-Black-Yellow

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

A close-up of this fish's face concludes my little picture tour. As I said in my first post in this thread, I hope I didn't bore you to death and that you had at least some enjoyment looking at these pictures.

In the least case, it gives you an idea on what a non-dark-sider thinks is the beauty of salt water tanks.

Thanks,

Have fun,

Ingo

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Close-Up

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Nice pics . By no means am i a darksider, but i will try and identify some of these-

1- lookdowns? and shark
2+3- shark (not sure which species)
4- lookdown?
5- not sure
6- once again, no clue
7- black spotted puffer?
8+9- boxfish (not sure which species)
10- puffer (once again i dont know what species)
11+12- false percula clown
13- clarkii clown? (possible a damselfish)
14-16- devil or volitan lionfish
17- seahorse (not sure which species)
18- chromis, tangs, and anthias
19- mono argenteus
20- some species of wrasse
21+22- clown triggerfish
23- unicorn tang?
24+25- pacific sailfin tang
26- scissortail dartfish?
27- lyretail anthias?
28- clown surgeonfish
29- lyretail anthias?
30- regal angel
31- no clue
32- some type of anthias?
33+34- schooling bannerfish

Some nice pics there LF, and for the sake of bandwidth, I'm glad all 250 didn't turn out.

I liked your "coral eater with the teeth." That's actually a tang, an algae grazer, which has no interest in corals or most other inverts.

Your goby(bottom dweller, or percher) was an anthias of some sort. I'm not too good with anthias ID cause I never get to see any.

And the grey and yellow "angel" gave me a laugh as well. You probably see these in the brackish section of your lfs. Zach had it right with the mono argentineus or however that's spelled.

I think the cute yellow and blue was a blue whiptail. The fishing pole was a lyretail anthias, and the pink and yellow might be called a bicolor anthias. I think I saw a snapper on the first page, maybe an emperor snapper. It's getting hard for me to remember what's back there now.

They have anything super interesting, like jellies and cool inverts? That's what I like best about aquariums, anybody can get ahold of and keep successfully tangs and corals and whatsits, but they often get ahold of sweet inverts that nobody else has the resource or ability to keep.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Wow, so you did venture into my neck of the woods! You should have given me a heads up, I would have met you there. AMW is becoming my second home, I'm a volunteer and practically end up as a personal tour guide for whoever comes with me. It's really awkward for me actually to see somebody ELSES pictures of those fish who I'm so used to interacting with.

You've got some great shots there. I'm too lazy to read through and see if everything was ID'd, but if something was missed and you're still wondering what it is just repost and I'm sure I could help out.

Looks like you had a great day. Did you visit the penguins? They're my favorites.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Thanks everybody for the input

zachf92 - you sure went through some great lenght in trying to identify all these fishies, I am very impressed.

Matty - here you have it, that's how well I know the dark side, mistaken algae eaters for coral munchers and what not . If they have super interesting inverts is a question for Liana, I am such an amateur that I only looked at the fish. The one I would have liked to get a picture of was in a tank that was too dark for a good shot - a cuddle fish. I did not see any jelly fish though.

Liana - I can imagine that it must be strange to have someone else show pictures from your home turf, in particular if it is a plant nerd who has a rather limited knowledge (at best) of your side of the hobby. Next time I will remember to give you notice of our presence in Riverhead, I take a free tour from an expert any time, in particular a nice one like you. But - be prewarned - the twins (age 6) can be a handful to keep entertained. Unfortunately I did not see the penguins, while I was taking these 250 pictures the wife and children watched the sea lion show and they got so hot out there that soon after it was time to leave . And the trip from and to Montauk took us 2 hours each way, darn traffic.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

So this aquarium is in Montauk, correct? Wish i knew about it when i camped in Montauk just a few days ago

No zachf92,

We stayed in Montauk. The Aquarium is in Riverhead, the town just before the north and the south fork split. We took a nice 2-ferry-trip over Shelter Island, then along the north fork from Greenport to Riverhead. On the way back we took Rt 27 along the south fork.

The only aquarium fish related place I have seen after Riverhead on the south fork was a pet store in East Hampton, but I didn't go there this year.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Enjoyed the pics LF, though I have far less dark side knowledge than you, so no ID help from me.

Hubby will be getting his 1st marine fish soon & it will be either a clown or a yellow tang. Yellow tang is his favourite.

Cheers
TW

WONDERFUL set of pictures!

Now for the guessing game!

After the sharks, the fishes are (some of the IDs below are guesses):

[1] One of the Jacks (Carangidae) - probably Trachinotus kennedyi, because Trachinotus goodei and Trachinotus bailloni have very conspicuous black edges to the extended anterior dorsal tips, which this fish lacks;

[2] Emperor Snapper, Lutjanus sebae, which will evnetually grow to 90 cm;

[3] Bit of a puzzle, but possibly Lates calcarifer, a marine relative of the Nile Perch;

[4] Yellow form of Arothron nigropunctatus;

[5] and [6] Tetrasomus gibbosus, the Hovercraft Fish;

[7] Possibly Canthigaster janthinoptera, a dwarf marine Puffer that reaches 9 cm;

[8] & [9] you know

[10] Closest match I can find is Amphiprion allardi;

[11] Looks like Pterois antennata to me, but it could also be Pterois miles;

[12] Dendrochirus brachypterus;

[13] Nice large Pterois volitans;

[14] Your Sea Horses are possibly Hippocampus ingens;

[15] The big reef features a Zebrasoma veliferum Sailfin Tang bottom left, a Naso vlamingi bottom right, a huge collection of Pseudanthias squamipinnis Fairy Basslets, and several Paracanthurus hepatus Regal Tangs;

[16] These are not Angelfish, they are Monos - Monodactylus argenteus - and are actually euryhaline fishes that will live in fresh water as well as marine water;

[17] Hmm, odd one this - nearest I can find is Halichoeres melanurus. I'm pretty sure it is a Halichoeres species though ...

[18] & [19] Balistoides conspicillum, the Clown Triggerfish;

[20] Naso breviostris, one of the Unicorn Fishes;

[21] & [22] Looks to me like Zebrasoma desjardinii, the "other" Sailfin Tang, which is an algal grazer;

[23] Ptereleotris evides, which is actually called the Rocket Fish in the UK fish trade;

[24] Looks to me as if it could be Mirolabrichthys pascalus - mouth stucture is that of a Mirolabruchthys species, but it's the wrong colour for M. tuka;

[25] Acanthurus lineatus, a LARGE Surgeonfish!

[26] Possibly Pseudanthias rubrozonatus;

[27] Oh I KNOW this one, it's one of my Wish List fishes - the Royal Empress Angelfish, Pygoplites diacanthus!

[28] This is a Pterocaesio species (these are open water pelagic swimmers), but the only two striped one in the Burgess' Mini-Atlas is Pterocaesio digramma, which is the wrong colour and has two conspicuous black blotches on the tips of the tail like a Scissortail Rasbora ... Pterocaesio lativittata is the right colour but only has one yellow stripe ...

[29] This one has me stumped. It's a Fairy Basslet of some sort, but I've never seen one split vertically like this.

[30] & [31] Heniochus acuminatus, the Wimplefish or Pennant Butterfly Fish.

Hope this list is suitably informative ...



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

yeah, it def. is weird seeing other peoples pictures of your own "home turf" as you put it

again, i'm too lazy to read through and read everybodys IDs now, maybe later if i feel bored...

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Yeah, Ingo Altantis Marine World is in my backyard. I could have brought my camera and we could have had us an old fashioned shootout.

The angelfish? pic that has been already ID as an Mono can actually live in fresh, brackish or salt similiar to the Mollie, but probably does better in brackish/saltwater.

Did they still have that hugh lobster (50lbs or something like that)?

The coralife reef setup I think is one of the largest in any aquarium from what I understand.
The blue fish with the yellow area is a Blue tang mostly know as a Hippo tang and is a staple in the marine hobby along with it's cousin the Yellow tang (shown partially hidden in the reef shot by that fish with the big nose. The yellow tangs look awesome in a large school.



My Scapes

I take it that the fish you refer to as a "Hippo Tang" is the fish I labelled above as Paracanthurus hepatus, known among UK aquarists as the Regal Tang. Way back in the 1970s, graham F. Cox in his landmark book on marine aquarium keeping describled this fish as 'the bluest thing on Earth', and when you see a particularly fine specimen, it's not difficult to understand why!

Given a decent sized aquarium, it's also more likely to be sociable with its own species than members of the Genus Acanthurus, though to keep more than one Regal Tang in an aqurium still requires a lot of space. Given that the species is a fast swimmer and active to begin with, a 90 gallon (in the US) setup is one I would consider a minimum recommendation for one individual, while three or four calls for at least a 180, and preferably some way larger than this.

I've seen multiple Regal Tangs in public aquaria, but in these cases the size of aquarium has been of the order of 2,000 UK gallons, which is getting on for 2,400 US gallons, a size of setup that is probably beyond the reach of mny here!

While it is possible to have multiple specimens of this spceies and the Yellow Tang, Zebrasoma flavescens, in the same aquarium, space permitting (see for example David Saxby's monster aquarium, with eighteen Yellow Tangs in it!), it is unlikely that the same is possible with members of the Genus Acanthurus, despite the fact that some can be seen shoaling in the wild. Remember that in the wild, the water volume available to the fishes is several cubic kilometres, and replicating this in an aquarium involves truly colossal cost, not to mention civil engineering on a scale more normally associated with the construction of a large hydroelectric dam! In the confines of an aquarium, Acanthurus species will exhibit stong territoriality with conspecifics, frequently with lethal consequences, and in the case of Acanthurus sohal, even unrelated fishes may be attacked by a large specimen, because for some reason this spceies develops "irrational hatreds" of aquarium occupants that were formerly accepted peacefully, a behaviour noted by Graham F. Cox in his 1970s book. He owned one of these fishes, which lived peacefully for several years in a large aquarium, then for no apparent reason exterminated an adult Platax teira batfish and a large adult Pomacanthus annularis Angelfish. The characteristic 'slash wounds' inflicted by the surgeonfish's 'scalpel' blades were all over the dead specimens. However, since Acanthurus sohal is a 40 cm fish when adult, it will need huge quarters just by itself, and more space still if attempts to keep it with other large and aggressive fishes are made. This is a candidate for a 'big fish' marine aquarium of huge proportions including hardcore bruisers such as Queen Triggers and the smaller Groupers, with aquarium dimensions to match these robust and chunky fishes!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I take it that the fish you refer to as a "Hippo Tang" is the fish I labelled above as Paracanthurus hepatus, known among UK aquarists as the Regal Tang.

Yes, and I couldn't agree more with the space and behavioral issues you mentioned.

BTW - Here's a pic of the lobster I mentioned that they have or had at the Riverhead Aquarium. This pic was taken about 5 years ago.



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My Scapes

WOW ... that is the M1 Abrams of lobsters!

You say that creature weighs 50 lbs?

Must be getting on for a metre in length ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

it's not the biggest ever or anything, but "the" reef tank's main display is in fact 20,000 gallons, which makes it currently one of the top, i think 4/5 biggest tanks in North America.

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

terranova,
Yeah I knew it was one of the biggest if not the biggest.
Actually coming from Planted Aquaria one of my favorite tanks there was this south american display. Is it still there. Sorry darksiders, but it is or was an exhibit at Atlantis Marine World



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My Scapes

Update on the Pterocaseio species ...

Still don't have an exact ID for it, but ... Reefkeeping magazine online have a nice article covering the Family Caesionidae (known as the Fusiliers) to which this fish belongs. Here is the article which should provide some interesting reading for the darksiders, as it's a Family of fishes you don't often see


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

tetratech,

I actually split the pictures into freshwater and saltwater sections, whereby the first group is displayed in the general freshwater forum. And there you will find two shots from the tank that you display above, although your picture looks nicer.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

ohhh the famous red bellied piranhas

my aunt got married at AMW, and my parents table was right in front of that display.

i've been on top of that whole rack of tanks before, with the anenome reef, the african cichlids, the lionfish, and the seaweed/starfish, i forget if anything else is in that "rack"

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

I hope that you don't mind if I tag on some more pictures from another aquarium visit. This one is a small aquarium in New Jersey in Point Pleasant Beach called Jenkinson's Beach Aquarium.

I have been there with the wife and kids last weekend, and that means as usual that I had to hurry through the exhibition and couldn't take notes on the fish that I took the shots of.

As such, you are encouraged to guess again

Let's start the show with this guy:

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Grumpy

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Next, I guess this is some form of Puffer Fish, although - what do I know

He was in a larger tank with mostly larger fish.

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Puffer?

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

In the same tank was this fish, rather on the small side, I would guess he was maybe 4 to 5 inches long. I like his distinct blue and white markings:

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Little One

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I am in love with seahorses, but taking good pictures of them does not seem to be my fortune (at least not when I am rushed, ).

Here is a yellow one. If it would be an Apisto then I would assume it is a female ready to mate:

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Seahorse

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Now this was one of the most intriguing fish that I have seen there. Not only does it remind me visually of a penguin, it also swam like one. The fins were flapping exactly like a penguin.

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Penguin?

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club