Aracana ornata

[Derek Skillings]

has anybody kept this or Aracana aurita. i am looking for a nice boxfish and just wondering if anybody has had any experience with these two. Also do they all look as good as the one on
themarinecenter

http://www.themarinecenter.com/boxfishornatemale.htm

thanks

[Omega_rains]

That's an awesome looking fish, pretty pricey though. :eek2:

[Derek Skillings]

extemely expensive, because themarinecenter knows what it has and how rare it is. I have a lot of friends in the collection industry so i can usually get stuff way cheaper. Especially if they do not know exactly what they have.

[FMarini]

HI:
Yes they are rare, but more importantly they are austrailian and cold water to boot. The LFS I frequent bought a pair of these and were selling them for $600/pr. The problem is they had them in a regular aquarium, regular tropical temp and these fish perished w/in one week.
There is a nice article on rare fish from Austrialia written by Scott michaels in Aquarium Fish magazine sometime late last yr. Scott writes about how cool and dificult these fish are, and makes a series of comments on where/how they are collected.
If you really are considering one, just call randy at marine center, he know alot about the fish he gets and wil be able to answer specific questions.

Believe me everyone in the fish trade know what these fish are, becuz they have to go specifically to austialia to collect it and there aren't too many fish in this world that look like this. Don't expect most people to be that dumb when collecting unique looking fish. I thought the same about rhineopia. I was like yeah people would never know what these fish look like, and i could get one cheap. Wrong.
frank

[Derek Skillings]

that is good to know that they are cold water. now i know that i probably won't get one or a pair.

"I was like yeah people would never know what these fish look like, and i could get one cheap. Wrong."

i know most of the time people know what things are, but occasionally i will stumble upon a great deal. not often but occasionally. some of the less knowledgable divers will just send anything not knowing they have rare specimens sometimes. One of my suppliers is a good enough friend that he would give it to me for the cheap price he got it at. nice for me. but i know what you mean, collectors are getting a lot more knowledgable these days. which is good, but is also bad for us if you know what i mean :)