A week from today, the two Roa excelsa or Brown Barred butterflies touched down in Japan at Mr. Koji Wada’s Blue Harbor store. These were the first ever Roa excelsa to be collected, a significant feat considering many groups consider the ocean has been “already explored”. With this shipment to Blue Harbor came an incredible line [...]
A week from today, the two Roa excelsa or Brown Barred butterflies touched down in Japan at Mr. Koji Wada’s Blue Harbor store. These were the first ever Roa excelsa to be collected, a significant feat considering many groups consider the ocean has been “already explored”. With this shipment to Blue Harbor came an incredible line up of deep water Hawaiian endemics including another rare Chaetodon, Prognathodes basabei.
It is unfortunate. The Roa excelsa pair have not handled the stress as well as we had all hoped. One brown barred butterfly has passed, and the second specimen was in rough shape a couple days after arriving to Japan. Both fish showed signs of bacterial infections. The lone survivor exhibits sores on each side of its body. It is unfortunate, but the entire undertaking is impressive–again this is the first time the fish has been kept in captivity. As such there is still much to learn. We applaud Rufus Kimura for their collection and to Mr. Wada for his bravery in purchasing a fish that was previously only known from dead specimens trawled up from the deep.
Sidenote: Worth highlighting is Prognathodes basabei which has just recently been collected in Hawaii. Upon their first collection and shipment in years, they suffered some stress problems. However, on this shipment they arrived in good shape and doing well.
When some aquarists read such stories of rare fish a typical response is, if it’s rare it shouldn’t be collected in the first place. Keep in mind rare is a human word used to describe the frequency that we incur an item. Rare to us is most often not rare in the ocean. We have logistical and oxygen related restrictions on where ocean life can be discovered, collected, etc. These fish in particular are rare because of their depth (450ft) and are being collected in a sustainable manner by a single individual.
More times than not, I would argue that true deepwater fish like these are more sustainable (in ecological terms) to the hobby than bread and butter staples that are often collected with more damaging methods. These deep water fish are collected responsibly and the economic transaction benefits the diver who is in fact taking the most risk, while still supporting LFS–provided their consumer base can support such pricey specimens.
Additionally, the collection of such fishes is significant given the limited funding of ichthyology and marine related sciences. Numerous aquarists and divers have contributed greatly to the field of ichthyology.
With the recent collection of these 400ft+ deep Chaetodon species I am tempted to pick up a chiller…
