We’ve arrived at our third installation of our Osaka recount and if you’re still following, then thank you, and we hope you’ve enjoyedparts 1and2。We visited one of our favourite aquarist in Osaka, and we’ve featured his fish and his collection here a few times before but never in its entirety as a single post. We’ve showed snippets这里andtherebut this time we’re dedicating a whole story towards Dr. Shimokobe and his wonderfully illustrious treasure of deepwater fish.
Shimokobe博士白天是一名全天候的全科医生，晚上是深水鱼类鉴赏家。Shimokobe博士及其不谦虚的组合是日本在深水鱼类收藏家中最重要的权威之一，这对宣传并不陌生。如果您是浏览日本目录和杂志的常规窗户购物者，那么您会知道这个男人的特色是多么广泛。
作为Koji Wada的客户，他的许多鱼过去已经经过Blueharbor。我们已经去过这个地方两次，每次都会感到惊讶。当您认识到该坦克中的每条鱼并知道它的来源时，它出现在哪些杂志版本中，以及多少次，您知道自己要么疯狂，要么需要一些认真的治疗。有些人可能会说要去外面，在草地上玩耍并获得生命，但我推迟了。
Dr. Shimokobe lives just along the outskirts of Osaka, in Nara Prefecture. At less than an hour’s drive away from BlueHarbor, it’s a convenient and easily accessed location for Koji to tend to maintenance needs or just to pay a visit. His collection is not in a house, but instead in his clinic. Everyday so many people visit him for consults and check ups, blissfully unaware of what treasures lie just in front of them. If I lived in Nara, believe me I may eat dirt just to get a stomachache as an excuse to see this man daily. An apple a day as they say, but i’ll be having none of those.
There are five distinct set ups each housing their own set of occupants. It’s surprising really, how something so superficially simple on the outside is actually done with pinpoint precision and finesse. Every one of the tank set ups are carefully catered to their occupants. The custom built tanks and equipment are novel and were from Koji Wada, but because of sensitivity regarding the replication of such models, we decided against taking photos.
A picture paints a thousand words, but since we don’t have those, then maybe a thousand words would well….look like a thousand words. I’ll try to describe it in person. The majority of the photos you see here belong to the first and main set up. A long tank divided into three portions, the first and last are cubed while the centre remains a long rectangle. A rough estimate would put the whole thing at fifteen feet in length probably.
Each panel of glass is not only incredibly thick, but double panelled with a layer of air sandwiched between each pane. Think of it as a tank within a tank, for lack of better phrasing. The thickness of the glass and the insulation between it helps prevent fogging, and allows Dr. Shimokobe to reduce his temperature way down to low 60s F. Since many of his fish are exclusively deep water, this is a necessary criterion.
油底壳十分干净和简单,uncluttered. The sump system is the heart and soul of any aquarium, and personally i’ve always preferred a clean, spacious and well maintained sump. I wish I could practice what I preach though, because mine looks like baby poop. Each piece of piping is wrapped in insulated foam to prevent condensation again, and the doors of the cabinets are also layered with foam to prevent heat loss. You could keep a polar bear in this tank and it’ll probably request for a parka.
While this tank is split into three, with each ends forming a cube, there really is nothing different in selection of fish or the way they’re housed. Essentially if he were to remove the panels, nothing will change much. Perhaps a few fishes didn’t get along and so this called for separation.
Every species in here is deepwater, or at least moderately deep. Some like this ridiculous亚伯拉氏菌and thatGonioplectrus hispanusreally well and truly set the standards for the species. Especially the golden basslet. I don’t think there’s any other like this with the sheer size, coloration and health. You may remember this exact piece from two years ago, in August of 2012. We visited Dr. Shimokobe for the first time and during that trip, thisL. aberrans游泳和required needlingto relieve itself of the build up of air in its swim bladder. Fast forward to today and this is the same fish, kicking DCS in its butt and looking like an absolute king.
The iconic and comical Dr. Seuss Fish (Belonoperca pylei) makes an appearance not once, but twice here. Really, if you have the set up and the cash, why stop at one? Why even stop at two? Look at this thing. The pink foil and cherry spots connected to that big cartoony head? This is one of the most charming and beautiful species of the deep and it’s unbelievable how the other species in this genus,B. chabanaudilooks practically like the satanic anti-christ version of this fun chap.
B. pyleiis pretty predatory, and like the other species it should not be kept with tiny little bait fish. Other than that it’s pretty chill, and the two we saw just spent most of their time cruising around looking like god’s gift to fish kind. Which they do *btw*, they can do whatever they want because they worked it, and they owned it. The pink foil is really magnificent in person.
This tank is also home to a pair ofPseudanthias mica。P.云母is Indonesian in distribution and was recently split fromP. leucozonus, which is now found in Japan. All Indonesian caughtP. leucozonusin the past should therefore now be amended toP.云母。不幸的是，鱼的颜色不太好，在上方的雄性中，几乎没有明显的颜色。
喜欢Yuma Yasuda, Dr. Shimokobe also has anO. katayamai。This specimen is many years in age and painfully shy. I didn’t get a photo on my previous trip but i’m glad it showed up this time round, even if it was just for a second. This bruiser isn’t as ornately coloured and patterned as the younger one in Mr. Yasuda’s place, but by no means is it boring. The sheer size, grace and appearance commands attention in a manner most undivided.
But of all the deepwater fish, as amazing as they all are, none made more of an impact than this.Liopropoma Aurora这是我这次旅行的亮点，也是我上次访问时没有看到的鱼。这是我第一次亲自见到这个物种，我的上帝确实让我屏息了。
We’ll feature an entire post dedicated to this individual with a video as well, so we won’t dwell too much into this fish as of yet. But what we will say is that it, like many larger烯烃是元素并不是完全无所畏惧all shy.
这些打哈欠的照片实际上是向其他坦克伴侣展示的。像许多巴斯特人一样，他们通过张开嘴看起来令人生畏地表达了自己的主张。小珊瑚礁类型之间的行为差异真的很奇怪烯烃and these larger ones, and in our follow up post highlighting this species on its own you can see its bold nature in a video.
The genusBodianusis represented by three species in this aquarium, all of them are rare in the trade. The Hawaiian endemicB. sanguineusmakes an appearance, but seem rather pedestrian beside the other two. An undescribed Southern PacificBodianus. sp“ Kimura”也存在，但并没有拍出非常好的照片。不用担心，我们将在下一个装置中更多地谈论这条鱼。
The starBodianus在这个设置中，必须是永远美丽的Bodianus masudai。We did get pictures of this, and it was an absolute delight to photograph.B. masudaiis one of the most beautiful in its subgenusTrochocopus, but gets to a rather large size. Fully grown specimens are also rather tall and stout as compared to other members in this complex. Deepwater and very rare,B. masudai主要在日本和相关的半岛上发现，尽管它也薄弱地延伸到台湾，珊瑚海和名人。
Not unlike other species in the genus,B. masudai具有与成年人完全不同的少年色素。少年是均匀的木炭，带有黄色的线条，但会迅速发展成成年人著名的视网膜燃烧的樱桃红色。对比的色调总是让我想起MacDonalds，但实际上，我宁愿遏制我的饥饿感，而不是McNuggets。
The sectioned cube at the far right of this immense set up features only anthias species, of which only one allowed me for photos. I apologise for this. You have to understand, it’s incredibly difficult to photograph these fish in the conditions that are presented. Because all the aquariums are unlit, the interior is very dim and the glass basically acts like a mirror. Reflection is very prominent, and turning on any supplemental lightings will scare the fish into hiding. To make things more challenging, there is not much space to manoeuvre a 105mm lens for photography. There are many species I would love to show you in photo, but perhaps another trip in the future would be curative.
This section is home to a ridiculously beautiful pair ofAnthias Anthias,Pseudanthias rubrolineatus而且这个超级美丽Pronotogrammus martinicensis。P. martinicensisis not an uncommon import from deepwater Curacao, and is actually quite a staple from Dynasty Marine. However most specimens enter the trade as small juveniles and they are vastly different from the one above. Juveniles are very drab, and smaller specimens are noted for the possession of a vertical brown blotch. It is only in the terminal phase like the one above that they develop a more colourful body that is decorated in metallic gold striations.
对于这个深水设置的外观以及部分的工作方式，Digiman去年拍摄的这段视频很好地证明了这一点。请注意，并非所有的鱼都已更新。在视频中，Liopropoma Aurorais not present as it was a new addition, and theTosanoides您会看到在水箱中游泳已移至一个单独的系统。
看看您是否可以计算我们没有拍照的其中有多少种不同的物种。
There are also two other coral set ups in the main room, just beside the main deepwater tank. Coral wise, the tank is dominated only byMontiporaspecies, which is actually pretty unique. A “genus only tank”, that’s a first! Nothing really exciting in the fish department here sans a spectacularly healthyApolemichthys kingiin world class condition. This fish is a small specimen, just barely 4 inches in length and is an absolute pig.
We took many photos of this fish, which we will include later on in the gallery at the end of this post for a more complete viewing. The tiger angelfish shares its home with aCirrhilabrus cf. lanceolatus,Centropyge coliniandCentropyge aurantia。
In the back room, two main systems come into play. A smaller reef tank houses a wild caught Ascension Island pioneerCentropyge resplendens, which we have already showcased这里in the past. A second more elaborate system of connected tanks hold a myriad of deepwater fish, but because it is so crammed and tightly spaced it was impossible for me to get any photos.中央拷贝性麻醉,Genicanthus personatus,Pseudanthias calloura,Tosanoides filamentosus和一个未描述的Plectranthiaslive here.
But the star of this set up has to be thisTosana niwae。We cannot get any photos with our macro lens because of the space restrictions, but this horribly low qualityiPhonepotato video of it should give you a clue what it looks like. It’s still in quarantine, so it’s currently living in a bare tank with a PVC pipe.
Couldn’t see anything in the video? Yeah we don’t blame you. Here’s a photo of a wildT. niwae看起来就像Shimokobe博士家中的那个一样。这是一个奇特的物种。在这个单型属中T. niwaeis elongated with trailing ventral fins and threaded filaments on the caudal lobes. Juveniles and females are striped while terminal males possess a red blotch on their body.
T. niwaeis not a reef fish in the strictest sense, and is found swimming in very open silty habitats, much like that in Lembeh Straits. It’s often found in association withNavigobiusandPtereleotris, where it shares the same preference for silty bottoms. It’s deep water and its preference for such a habitat makes it extremely challenging to catch.Tosana niwaeis very agile and quick on the fin, and because of the lack of any landmarks to corner the fish in, many of them are collected only at night when the fish is asleep by shining a torch at them. This is another fish i’ve never seen in person so this was just as exciting for me asLiopropoma Aurora。
我们在上面提供了一个画廊，显示了我们拍摄的所有鱼类以及未包括在帖子中的鱼类。同样，请随时浏览您的观看乐趣。
Once again we’d like to extend a warm and sincere thank you to Koji Wada and Dr. Shimokobe for the warm hospitality, and for allowing me to come back for a second time. I hope in future to return again and hopefully get some photos of the fishes that i’ve missed this time round.
As promised, we’ll featureLiopropoma Aurorain its entirety in the following post, and then finally keep watching this page for the final part 4 of our Osaka recount. Happy reefing!
