Mystery Gramma (12/03/2003)
Hey Bob, <You got Steve Allen tonight.>
I'm relatively new to marine fish, only having my tank for about 6 months. I recently bought a royal Gramma which I'm starting to think is not actually a royal Gramma but a Lipogramma klayi. <Could be> It doesn't have the black spot on the dorsal or the line running through the eye, could this be a female royal Gramma <coloration is the same male/female for Gramma loreto> or a completely different species? <Hard to say without a picture. L. klayi is a deepwater fish seldom seen in the trade. It does sometimes appear in a shipment of G. loreto. I searched all over the web and could not find a picture. It does seem that it eats pretty much the same foods, so should be OK. Could you actually have a Pseudochromis paccagnellae? Check picture here: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pseudoch.htm  You may also want to post your quandary on WetWebFotos forum to see if anyone there has experience with L. Klayi.>
Thanks, Steven <You're welcome. Steve Allen>