Brotulina fusca or possible Ogilbia cayorum       2/8/15
Hi Bob! I hope all is well for you! I have recently obtained what I believe to be a pair of these, they were sold to me as Yellow Brotulid.
The pictures seem closer to the Ogilbia to me, and I can see how these would be easily confused. When I saw them on the "for order" list I did some research and decided to give them a try. I was most drawn to the fact that they are livebearers, and as the ghost knife was always one of my favorite freshwater charges, the fin structure appeals to me. It also
seems they used to be a relative rarity in the trade, however I also see Live Aquaria has an offering presently. I have placed them in a 5.5 gallon QT tank that has a few coral skeletons, and a piece of live rock from one of my other systems.
<Do make sure this small tank is completely covered. This fish is a jumper!>
I am doing daily water changes to keep water quality top notch, and am planning to add them to a 30 gallon tied into a multi tank system in 3 or 4 weeks unless I see something in QT that causes me to reset the clock. I am quite surprised at how little information is available on the net, and I only found two mentions of them on WWM. I did determine they can be secretive and hard to feed in active tanks. I am growing concerned as I have not been able to see them eat, or observe any evidence of them eating (droppings, missing food that was added, etc.) I am going on two weeks now, and both 2 1/2" specimens are active, show good coloring, and do not have sunken stomachs. I have tried frozen mysids, Cyclop-eeze, and my stand by New Life Spectrum pellets to no avail. I did note there were, and still are, amphipods scurrying about on the piece of live rock. Last night I fired up my brine shrimp hatchery thinking I would try offering them some live food.
<Good idea>
Before I took that step I though I would solicit your opinion if that were a logical next step, or if I am giving in too easily. I want to avoid a situation where I am trying to reverse them beginning to waste away. Any information or a place to do more reading is much appreciated. As always thank you for your efforts in the hobby and for providing this great resource!
Matt Bowers
<I too would try the live Artemia. Bob Fenner>

Pempheris PIX      2/12/14
Summat screwy w/ MS... Here are my best for six species of Pempherids... NSUL is Lembeh, RA Raja Ampat, KEYL Key Largo, FL... RS Red Sea, SIP Sipadan, Malaysia. Dang! Am trying BillyG's svc. again.
BobF<Parapriacanthus guentheri RS 08 (1).JPG><Pempheris adustaRS.tif><Pempheris mangula  SIP.JPG><Pempheris schomburgki KEYL (1).jpg><Pempheris sp. NSUL.jpg><Pempheris vanicolensis RA.JPG>
Re: Pempheris PIX      2/12/14
Bob:
<Hey Dr. R!>
Thanks for sending photos of Pempherids to Ben and me.  The first is a great photo of Parapriacanthus.  I will pass it on to Randy Mooi of Canada. Same for the third photo from Key Largo; he's doing the Atlantic Pempheris.  I'll pass your third photo on to Dr. Mark Erdmann who often collects and photographs fishes at Raja Ampat; he just speared a new Pempheris from there.  Have you seen his 3-volume Reef Fishes of the East Indies coauthored with Jerry Allen?
<Yes... did buy a set early on; breezed through... Dying to get out to W. Irian Jaya>
The fourth fish from the Red Sea is blowing my mind. I am just finishing a book on all the fishes of the Red Sea to 200 m with Russian and German colleagues, and we have never seen that fish.   Close to P. oualensis, which does not have yellow pectorals and has a large black spot at the pectoral-fin base.  And finally the true P. vanicolensis from Sipadan (I enjoyed great diving there).
<Ahh!>
Aloha, Jack
<A hu'i hou my friend. BobF> 
Re: Bob's Pempheris PIX      2/12/14
Bob- Thanks for letting us see them- the Red Sea fish looks like P. schwenkii; the Lembeh and Raja Ampat fish are vanicolensis; the Sipadan fish is very interesting- Jack will have to venture a guess on ID on that one. I note the silvery line in the very front of the dorsal fin I have not seen on any other photo..
<Ah yes; I will not vouch for any of my (tentative always) IDs Ben... and know naught re Pempherids... they're not ornamentals (petfish) as far as I'm aware>
Since the species are not conforming to categories they have been in before, did you have other shots of those species?
<Oh yes; I do... other than my P. adusta... which I just checked lest I have more to send on per Jack's last corr.>
Jack and I (and others) are wrestling with many new species according to the DNA. Trying to fit characters to lineages. Ben
<Cladistics... A hoot once again! Cheers, BobF>
Re: Bob's Pempheris PIX      2/12/14
We avoid any conclusions on evolutionary questions with DNA.. we use it just to highlight who is different from whom. The cladistics stuff is a mess of controversy! The relative position of lineages in the trees can change from day to day- but different is different. We call our ID approach simply "bar-coding".
Ben
Re: Bob's Pempheris PIX/DNA      2/12/14
We avoid any conclusions on evolutionary questions with DNA.. we use it just to highlight who is different from whom. The cladistics stuff is a mess of controversy! The relative position of lineages in the trees can change from day to day- but different is different. We call our ID approach simply “bar-coding”. Ben
<I see... I think/believe... as an old timey reader/follower of the days of morphological studies/principles alone, am glad to see more data/fuel on zee fire. B>

Pygmy Sweepers, gen.  -- 07/17/09
Dear WetWebMedia Crew:
I saw a rather distinct school of fish at work (my work, not the fishes') the other day. They are apparently called "pygmy sweepers." After looking up the name on the Internet, I found they are also called "golden sweepers"
or "Parapriacanthus ransonneti." Unfortunately, I have not found any other information. Have you heard of them? Do they make good aquarium fish?
Much thanks,
Diane
<The Pygmy Sweeper is Parapriacanthus ransonneti. If all else fails, Fishbase usually comes up trumps! In this case, did a search for "Sweeper", and found the beastie, spelled Pigmy to be sure, but that's life. You'll
find info there re: size, diet, social behaviour.
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=5803
They aren't normally kept as aquarium fish; they're gregarious, nocturnal, feed mostly on zooplankton, and don't adapt well to small tanks despite their "pygmy" size. If you have a very large aquarium with big caves,
strong water current, and the ability to offer them suitably small foods, a school of at least 6, ideally 10 or more specimens might be worth a flutter. There's a little about them in the (big) Axelrod Marine Atlas.
Cheers, Neale>
Re: Pygmy Sweepers   7/18//09
Dear Neale:
Thank you very much for the quick reply. By the way, don't worry about the fish; they will live in a public aquarium's large, live coral exhibit, so they will have plenty of room and plankton.
Sincerely,
Diane
<Hi Diane. Glad to have helped; sounds as if these fish are going to a lovely home! Good luck with them. Cheers, Neale.>

Wow, now this is trippy! MBARI, Barreleye, deepwater fish  2/26/09 http://www.mbari.org/news/news_releases/2009/barreleye/barreleye.html  <Neat fish, good spiel. BobF>