Earlier today we wrote up a brief sneak peak of the upcoming second episode of Fish Tank Kings, where the crew from Living Color Aquariums travels to Curacao for a little deep sea fish collecting above a submarine. Little did we know that we’d be getting an exlusive peak at an insanely rare deepwater basslet, which currently resides at the Florida Aquarium. AquaNerd contributor, Steven Bitter, happens to work at the aquarium and he sent us this footage of the banded basslet, Lipogramma evides. The aquarium is the feature of tomorrow’s episode of Fish Tank Kings, so Steven’s timing couldn’t have been any better.
If the embedded video still shows as private, please follow this link: Lipogramma evides builds a burrow in aquarium decor
The thing that amazed Steven and the rest of the gang at the Florida Aquarium was the basslet’s jawfish-like behavior. The L. evides basslet can be seen gathering up large rocks, which we’re told are used to build a burrow or cave-like structure. As can be seen in the video, the fish is clearing glancing over the large rubble material, selecting the one it wants, and carries it up into water column and into a secluded spot in the rocks.
UPDATE: The video has been made public. We’ve also been told that this fish was collected via submersible by Dutch Shrier, the founder of the Curacao Sea Aquarium. To make the aquaruim even more drool worthy, it turns out that there are actually two L. evides and they’ve paired up in the same burrow!
