Scotter Blenny (Synchiropus ocellatus), also known as Occellated Dragonlet. A species that is entirely absent from public collections in the UK, so was a nice surprise.
Pet shops are often a fantastic way of obtaining lots of new species in a relatively short space of time, they are often signed well and even better, admission is free!
They can also have real treasures as I found out after photographing Ranifordia and Oreni tilefish at an aquatic shop near Manchester.
Indeed. I saw my first frogfish at this particular shop a while ago, and as I am finally going to start taking care of fish again after an eight month hiatus, it seemed like a good time to return and see what other rarities I can spot. They also hold countless species of hermit crab (sadly, I couldn't get any good photos), which I scarcely see in zoos, so surely some of them are rarities.
We will have to disagree regarding signage, however, as these blennies, for example, were signed as Yellow Seahorse, and there were several other flaws throughout. Pet shops also often display animals in less than adequate conditions, although some tanks are really nice. I suppose they are only intended to be temporary, however, so it isn't too bad.
Shops are also great for inverts too as ones like cleaner shrimps can improve the health of the fish by removing parasites and are vital for health of larger inhabitants.
I think with the signage it depends on the facility especially if it isn't a place that just specialises in aquatics. Staff knowledge also can vary greatly so querying the species you have seen can sometimes be a bit of a challenge and I have spent many times looking for the species I have seen on websites and in books.
A good point, which probably explains the presence of unsigned shrimps in nearly every saltwater tank within the shop. The hermit crabs, however, were in their own tanks - with many species in small, identical tanks stacked on top of one another. While it was interesting to compare the different species, it did feel like they were treating it more like a gallery than an aquarium at times.
This place was exclusively aquatics (barring a few poison dart frogs, which are pets of the owner as opposed to part of the shop), so that doesn't really explain it. My best theory is that, since the animals are for sale, they rotate regularly. Perhaps that the blenny tank held Yellow Seahorses at one point, and I don't remember blennies on my last visit - perhaps they are a recent arrival, and the signage is yet to have been updated.
Mortality in fish can sometimes be high and also the seahorses could easily have been sold between your visits and as you said, the signage not updated. I visited the same aquatics shop 8 months apart and between those visits I saw over 250 species and many of them were different but there were also some of the same individuals as well as empty tanks with signage of the last inhabitants.
@Prochilodus246 ehh, I'm not convinced that cleaner shrimps really benefit captive fishes all that much. Captive fishes are unlikely to have a high parasite load, not enough to sustain a cleaner shrimp (except in the very largest tanks) without additional feeding. Cleaner wrasses can actually stress other fish out in smaller tanks due to the constant unwanted attention, and I wonder if the same could occur with cleaner shrimps. I used to keep cleaner shrimps myself, and not once did I observe them to clean fish. This is not to say you shouldn't keep cleaner shrimps, they're fun and reef-safe additions to a predator-free tank, but the health benefits to the other fish are probably not significant.
