<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12781465#post12781465 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaneyapanda
Well, I'm pretty sure its not a vanderloosi.
You could rest assured Jeremy that it is not a C. vanderloosi. There is a reason the holotype of this fish was not collected until 2003! Rob Vanderloos owns and operates a dive charter in Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea (the easternmost part of "mainland" Papua New Guinea) and discovered this fish after searching remote parts of the province that major boat charters don't hit. The fish has only been found in a 100 square mile area there in cool waters... far from any sort of collection... so vanderloosi have never entered the trade... Milne Bay is thousands of miles also from the range of the other two similar species dimidiatus and melanosoma.
Confusion came a while ago when specimens started popping up from the Phillipines that had a head like true vanderloosi, but a an almost all yellow to all yellow tail (which vanderloosi doesn't ever have in any stage). In addition to LargeAngels specimen many others have come, including this one from another RCer...
People started calling them vanderloosi without realizing how isolated and rare true vanderloosi are... again thousands of miles from the Phillipines and far away from humans... much less collectors and exporters... much less at the low price they were getting them for... sort of similar to the whole "Hey I have a Centropyge nahackyi!" people who have a dark multicolor and think that the collector just happened to mistake it for a multicolor... when in reality we know that true nahackyi are isolated to one small island... Anyway, I had dinner with Gerry Allen, who described vanderloosi, and showed him some of these pictures, before I knew they were from the Phillipines, and right away he recognized them as a new fish he's been chasing from the Phillipines that he was going to look at... until it was described he was calling it Chaetodontoplus cf. melanosoma.
Anyway, Gerry tends to much more of a "splitter" rather than a "grouper" in the world of ichthyology, meaning he tends to name more color variants species whereas some other ichthyologists may group them into one species... by the way... here's a shot of an adult true C. vanderloosi... notice the black tail... as juveniles and subadults it is more yellow, but ALWAYS with at least a black band going through the entire tail, which the Phillipines specimens lack...
Anyway, there is probably .01% of us who care that much in depth about vanderloosi... but there it is!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12796450#post12796450 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by deepdiver1
by the way, John, its me Rob! How you doing nowadays?
Robie! I hope all is well with the family... We're expecting our second (but first girl!) in August. It looks like the drop of bandits this year is a great one! People are seeing them smaller and shallower than usual... even at recreational depths! Be careful with the depths you hit on air you nut!
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12797602#post12797602 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crvz
Probably not the most rare, but I've not often seen one. I picked up a Ctenochaetus cyanocheilus the other day. Not real sure what the common name is, as they're nore really all that common.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12811475#post12811475 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fittiger
IMO, it's Ctenochaetus cyanocheilus....wish they stayed that nice yellow blue color.
I agree that that guy is probably cyanocheilus... nice fish! Don't worry about the common name... common names are for wives and retailers! It is unfortunate that most of these Ctenochaetus get blander with age... but still nice nonetheless and well suited to captivity unlike some other surgeonfish genera...
Copps