Dwarf angelfishes ( Centropyge ) in captivity

Afther seeing "only" 2 species by visiting 2 major dutch collections, I had more luck today at a fish-shop ;). No less then 7 different species of Dwarf angelfishes were on sale :
- Centropyge agri - Cherubfish ( see Centropyge agri - Cherubfish | ZooChat )
- Centropyge bicolor - Bicolor angelfish
- Centropyge eibli - Black-tailed angelfish
- Centropyge fischeri - Orange angelfish ( see Centropyge fischeri - Orange angelfish | ZooChat )
- Centropyge loriculus - Flame angelfish ( see Centropyge loriculus - Flame angelfish | ZooChat )
- Centropyge tibicen - Keyhole angelfish ( see Centropyge tibicen - Keyhole angelfish | ZooChat )
- Centropyge vrolikii - Pearlscale angelfish
 
Visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore today. Signs indicated four species were kept, but (in part due to how crowded it was) I only managed to see one of them, the cherubfish.

Cherubfish Centropyge agri
Coral beauty angelfish Centropyge bispinosa
Flame angelfish Centropyge loriculus
Russet angelfish Centropyge potteri
 
jayjds2 said:
Visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore today. Signs indicated four species were kept, but (in part due to how crowded it was) I only managed to see one of them, the cherubfish.

Cherubfish Centropyge agri
Coral beauty angelfish Centropyge bispinosa
Flame angelfish Centropyge loriculus
Russet angelfish Centropyge potteri
Click to expand...
A photo that @vogelcommando just posted in the gallery reminded me of a species that I also saw today but didn't correctly identify. The aquarium also keeps:
Bicolor angelfish Centropyge bicolor
 
I know here in the US in the aquarium hobby alone we have Centropyge multicolor, Centropyge bispinosa, Centropyge bicolor, Centropyge loricula, Centropyge flavissima, Centropyge acanthops, Centropyge eibli, and Centropyge potteri on a regular basis with Centropyge ferrugatus also popping up every now and again.
 
JBZvolunteer said:
I know here in the US in the aquarium hobby alone we have Centropyge multicolor, Centropyge bispinosa, Centropyge bicolor, Centropyge loricula, Centropyge flavissima, Centropyge acanthops, Centropyge eibli, and Centropyge potteri on a regular basis with Centropyge ferrugatus also popping up every now and again.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much for this information JBZvolunteer ! Most of these species are also quite common in European ( both public and privat ) collections exept Centropyge multicolor and even more Centropyge ferrugatus, which are ( as far as I know ) very rare in Europe. From Centropyge ferrugatus there are for example no pictures in the Gallery, so if you come across one ( or more ) please try to make some pictures and load them up in the Gallery :).
 
Some species are polyp feeders and ergo difficult to sustain. Most seem to either consume the wax/slime/mucus secreted by cnidarians else savage only unhealthy/stressed colonies. This is why the species are unevenly displayed; faculative coral eaters are easy, dietary specialists are hard.

I suspect most species will not damage healthy colonies - coral polyp predation probably evolved from cleaning parasites from corals, leading to high tolerance of coral toxins, and to purposeful ingestion of stressed then healthy coral tissues. (This is based on butterflyfishes.)
 
Visited today ( for the first time ) the Brussels Aquarium in Belgium and looked of course for the Dwarf angelfishes kept at this Aquarium.
There were signs for 3 species :
Centropyge agri ( see Signs | ZooChat )
Centropyge bispinosa ( see Sign Two-spined angelfish - Centropyge bispinosa | ZooChat )
and Centropyge bicolor ( see Bicolor angelfish - Centropyge bicolor | ZooChat )
I was however only able to find one of these species in one of the aquariums ( the C. bicolor - see Bicolor angelfish - Centropyge bicolor | ZooChat ) but because the signage in the rest of the Aquarium was very well up-to-date ( not always the case at other aquariums ! ) I think it's well possible that the other 2 species were also in the aquariums they were signed at but had found some good hidding-places.
Would be nice if other ZooChatters visiting this collection can have a look for it :) !
 
Before visiting the Aquarium in Brussel, I first visited the Natural History Museum in Brussel and althrough I knew there were some living animals ( next to the huge amount of dead ones ) I hadn't expected to find a large marine-aquarium with a Dwarf angelfish in it ! Evenso, it was there and the single Dwarf angelfish kept at the museum is a Flame angelfish - Centropyge luriculus ( see Flame angelfish - Centropyge loriculus | ZooChat ).
 
Visited yesterday Het Arsenaal in Vlissingen - the Netherlands and payed special attention to the Dwarf angelfishes kept at this Aquarium. Was able to discover 3 species and found signs of 2 species.
-Two-spined angelfish - Centropyge bispinosa : 2 specimens living together in one of the aquariums and they had a sign ( and some extra information ).
-Flame angelfish - Centropyge loriculus : a single specimen which was not signed ( see Flame angelfish - Centropyge loriculus | ZooChat )
-Black-tailed - Centropyge eibli - a single specimen without a sign on the aquarium ( see Black-tailed angelfish - Centropyge eibli | ZooChat )
From a 4th species there was a sign ( and some extra information ) but the animal(s ?) were not there:
Bicolor angelfish - Centropyge bicolor ( see Sign Bicolor angelfish - Centropyge bicolor | ZooChat ).
 
SeaLife Scheveningen - the Netherlands, visited yesterday. Nice collection with many species and also several Angelfish-species but only one species ( and specimen ) of the Dwarf angelfish ( Centropyge ). From a second species I found the sign but not the fish.
Seen : Blacktail angelfish ( Centropyge eibli ) ( see Blacktail angelfish - Centropyge eibli | ZooChat )
Signed but not seen : Coral beauty angelfish ( Centropyge bispinosa ) ( see Sign Coral beauty angelfish - Centropyge bispinosa | ZooChat )
 
Found on the Facebook-side of a befriended ZooChatter a nice picture of the Japanese dwarf angel ( Centropyge interuptus ). It was taken at the Tokyo Sea Life Park a few months ago.
Hope this ZooChatter will upload this picture also in our Gallery because sofar only a single picture of this ( beautifull ) species can be found there :).
 
Devilfish provided new information on Facebook about a species which was not kept anymore in Europe but which he now saw at the Palma Aquarium in Spain : the Yellowfin dwarfangel - Centropyge flavipectoralis. He also uploaded a nice photo of it on Facebook and I hope he will also put it in our Gallery because there it still is not represented.... ;).
 
vogelcommando said:
Devilfish provided new information on Facebook about a species which was not kept anymore in Europe but which he now saw at the Palma Aquarium in Spain : the Yellowfin dwarfangel - Centropyge flavipectoralis. He also uploaded a nice photo of it on Facebook and I hope he will also put it in our Gallery because there it still is not represented.... ;).
Click to expand...

Devilfish was so friendly to upload his Facebook photo of the Yellowfin dwarfangel also in our Gallery so we now have one more species :)..... thank you devilfish !

Photo see : Yellowfin angelfish, March 2018 | ZooChat
 
Very odd. The description under the video suggests that this is a hybrid between Centropyge multispinnis and C. bispinosa, but neither of those are yellow. It looks a lot more like a C. heraldi, but that's not naturally found anywhere near the collection site off Sri Lanka.
 
devilfish said:
Very odd. The description under the video suggests that this is a hybrid between Centropyge multispinnis and C. bispinosa, but neither of those are yellow. It looks a lot more like a C. heraldi, but that's not naturally found anywhere near the collection site off Sri Lanka.
Click to expand...

Quite right, it looks nothing like those two species. I also noticed a faint red/orange line between the eyes, which neither of those species has. Why they think it's a hybrid I don't know.

And if it is a hybrid, that doesn't mean it's a new species. But the person who has "named" it is the CEO of the company, a fish exporter. There is nothing I could find online for this species except the Aquatic Nurseries web site and the above video of a rather stressed looking fish. So I guess he just named it, without doing any research or taxonomic studies, or even publishing it. He just took a video and named it in the text at the end. And then sold the holotype to some collector!

:p

Hix
 
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