The collection of these Prognathodes guyanensis in South Florida was a bit of a fluke. The documentation of this species in the US is pretty scant. This species is normally found very deep in Florida (>400 feet), similar to that of Prognathodes basabei in Hawaii. One major difference is that the collection of any marine species in Florida using a rebreather is now illegal, unlike Hawaii. So... what's the story on these guyanensis?
I received a voicemail from one of my deepwater diving buddies in Florida... these guys dive to ~250 feet on air (yes, nuts, but in relative safety compared to their 3rd world counterparts). They had collected Bank's butterflies many times at this location... which they had on that day too... but there were two that had a "second stripe" he said in the voicemail... I chuckled realizing it was most likely P. guyanensis... and a photo later confirmed it. This was exciting in that they were collected between 200 and 250 feet... unheard of. I know a couple of divers I respect very much that had seen this fish in Florida in the past... but MUCH deeper... one is Eric Pederson (the namesake of Pederson's cleaner shrimp), and the other was Eric Reichardt (angelfish nerds will appreciate him as the collector of the only known rock beauty- blue angel hybrid ever). Eric was killed in 2001 by a shark while diving his rebreather... the story can be found here...
http://www.cdnn.info/industry/i020409/i020409.html... No article will tell you (and fish nerds will appreciate) that that day he was on the hunt for a very rare Liopropoma he had seen at that wreck and he gave his life for it.
I wanted these to stay in the states, and they did... obviously many of the fish they collect deep go to Asia... Both went to a prominent LFS here in the US, and I received one of these special fish from them for my coldwater system (which continues to do well to this day). A subsequent collection found two (or three? can't remember) more and one other very special fish that both Erics had known about apparently but I had never seen photos... a Prognathodes aya/ P. guyanensis hybrid! From their accounts this hybrid was not that rare where guyanensis were encountered (similar to the "townsendi" hybridization between Holacanthus ciliaris and H. bermudensis). This round of fish went to Kevin at the DD
. Props to Kevin (yet again).
I was just in Florida last week and met up with a few buddies (including Eric Pederson), and by all accounts this recent coldest winter on record in Florida killed an innumerable number of inshore reef fish and inverts... but perhaps one positive aspect of this natural occurrence was that it brought just a few of this very seldomly seen butterfly to the American market... the specimen now in the DD I believe is the last one available... and even if more were caught in the future justifiably they would go to Asia... where they're paying three times the amount for the Pacific cousin Prognathodes basabei at the wholesale level! So if you ever want a P. guyanensis and live in the US this is your chance...
I first saw this species in a Japanese tank (surprise surprise)... the specimen resides in the office tank of Koji Wada of Blue Harbor... and while this specimen lives on the young man who collected it does not... the fish was collected by Heath Laetari, another fish nut like us... Heath gave his life at just 28 years old diving... so remember that anyone reading this paragraph (like it or not you're a fish nerd) shares a passion with many of the people that collect our fishies, and regardless of the ultimate retail price of some of these deepwater fish the collectors do not do it for the money... but rather the passion... the same passion we all share... the passion that causes us to keep on keeping on when we have a tank disaster... the passion that binds us all together (or most of us) despite our difference in opinions... the passion that causes us to frequent the Reef Fishes forum on RC!
I think the more important question is....who cares?
I would rather see threads that discuss fish issues, or different fish acquisitions rather than what LA still has left for sale.
I really wish the moderators would stop threads like this. And the sneak peak DD threads have to go to.
To me the question is... who cares about yellow fish?
I would rather see threads that discuss blue fish, or maybe purple fish rather than yellow fish.
I really wish the moderators would stop threads on yellow fish. And the threads on any orange fish have to go to.
Copps
PS- I updated the second line of my sig so it appears in and does not disrupt future threads.
