philter4
New member
I have been in the industry for a very long time (32 years) at all levels from a pet store employee to an owner, a importer/distributor to most recently a collector, all the while no matter what I was doing I have been all around the world and have dove and collected fish for my own aquariums. I have been to the HI and seen the Waikiki Aquarium with all of it's rare natives and imports, once at a wholesaler in Los Angeles in 1987 I saw young leafy and weedy sea dragons for sale for $450 each. I have been to the Clarion Islands and collected Clarion angels and scyth butterflies when it was not a big deal way back when no one cared if it was an aquarium fish. I have been to distributors and seen fish like wrought iron butterfly fish, have collected deep water liopropoma species in FL and the Caribbean. While living in San Diego a megamouth shark was trapped alive in a harbor only a few hours away from me so my wife and I drove up to see it.
Still aside from the magamouth shark with all that I have done the rarest fish I have seen (I actually collected both species) are black bar drums and bantam basslets. Both species are very deep water fish, the blackbar drum is usually found below 600 ft but at certain times of the year very young juvenile blackbar drums are found around 150 to 180 ft. and I have collected 5 individuals over the years. I don't have a photo of them because I didn't have a digital camera back then, but a friend has some video of the one I kept (the others went to different public aquariums).
Bantam basslets are probably not too rare in deep water but are not very attractive and don't usually come to within diving limits. Here is the photo of one of the ones I kept, I sent it to Paul Humann so maybe in the next edition of Caribbean Reef Fishes there will be a photo of the adult (there is a juvenile photographed in the current addition)
Still aside from the magamouth shark with all that I have done the rarest fish I have seen (I actually collected both species) are black bar drums and bantam basslets. Both species are very deep water fish, the blackbar drum is usually found below 600 ft but at certain times of the year very young juvenile blackbar drums are found around 150 to 180 ft. and I have collected 5 individuals over the years. I don't have a photo of them because I didn't have a digital camera back then, but a friend has some video of the one I kept (the others went to different public aquariums).
Bantam basslets are probably not too rare in deep water but are not very attractive and don't usually come to within diving limits. Here is the photo of one of the ones I kept, I sent it to Paul Humann so maybe in the next edition of Caribbean Reef Fishes there will be a photo of the adult (there is a juvenile photographed in the current addition)
