copps
Premium Member
Well, I recently at long last received some fish that would cause Spencer Tinker to roll over in his grave! The Roa subgenus of Chaetodon includes some incredible species of deepwater butterflies that adapt well to captivity and feed like no other butterflies... their preference for deepwater allows them to be voracious opportunstic feeders that are the complete opposite of some of the shallow water dainty obligate corallivores that sometimes feed on the polyps of just one species of coral... these guys will eat a napkin dipped in mysis shrimp juice and feed so fast they appear to be in a video being fast-forwarded...
The three species of note here are Chaetodon tinkeri, C. flavocoronatus, and C. burgessi... The Tinker's butterfly was long thought to be a Hawaiian endemic, named after the great Spencer Tinker, second director of the Waikiki Aquarium... Chaetodon flavocoronatus was long thought to be only found in Guam, and C. burgessi has for a long time had a large range... In recent years the range of the first two has expanded as deepwater exploration has expanded to isolated island chains... Also, specimens in EVERY combination of these species have been found in certain areas where ranges overlap like the ones I have shown below...
These are... interestingly, not hybrids in the sense of being born from one parent of each species, but rather a result of genetic input from multiple species through generations in certain isolated areas, with the "hybrids" being sexually viable... This is similar to the lemonpeel/ halfblack angel hybrids we see in the hobby, where there is every combination between the two species...
I've known about these for years, but read about them in scientific articles and occassionally saw them in the Japanese market... Brian Greene, a deepwater collector used to offer them, but he now lives in Yap and no longer offers these... at long last I tracked these down from the Marshall Islands, collected in isolated areas where full C. burgessi, C. tinkeri, and even full C. flavocoronatus have been found according to the collector... but for the most part they a mix of all and freely interbreed...
The first specimen I received a few weeks ago... overjoyed and excited... this specimen is a pretty even mix between C. burgessi and C. tinkeri/C. flavocoronatus... the eyeband is a mix between the two species... half yellow and half brown... and it has the second headband of burgessi, with the yellow dorsal of tinkeri/flavocoronatus and faint spots on the body between the two... I use tinkeri and flavocoronatus interchangably because they are so similar, with flavocoronatus having the second yellow band being the difference... as you'll see from another specimen below the input from flavo could be seen when the dark bar of burgess doesn't mask it... although the burgess bar is very faintly visible... what a cool specimen! I've seen photos of the other ones... but this specimen is quite extraordinary!
Anyway, here is the first specimen...
Here he is being introduced after a few weeks of QT into my large fish only, being welcomed by my full Hawaiian C. tinkeri... the cool thing is they're both tiny... around 2 inches... but mixing Roa that are not a true pair can sometimes be tough... he was welcomed by getting hammered by the Tinker's... but after lights out... the next morning they were out and about together... here's a couple of introduction pics...
Just yesterday I received a true pair, that told me even more about these fish... it is obvious that there are many intermediate hybrids... and it's even cooler how they will all pair together... the most exciting part is the yellow area on the second band of one of the specimens... conclusive evidence of input from flavocoronatus... I've been in touch with good old Jack Randall to confirm what's going on... and I quoting what Rich Oyle wrote me also confirms it... speaking of these... Rich said "there were individuals that looked like pure tinkeri, some that looked like pure flavocoronatus, some that looked like pure burgessi, and representatives of almost every intermediate form in-between these three "species"." He later went on to say as he usually does... there's a PhD thesis in there!
Anyway, here are shots of the pair... first with one of each individual...
The three species of note here are Chaetodon tinkeri, C. flavocoronatus, and C. burgessi... The Tinker's butterfly was long thought to be a Hawaiian endemic, named after the great Spencer Tinker, second director of the Waikiki Aquarium... Chaetodon flavocoronatus was long thought to be only found in Guam, and C. burgessi has for a long time had a large range... In recent years the range of the first two has expanded as deepwater exploration has expanded to isolated island chains... Also, specimens in EVERY combination of these species have been found in certain areas where ranges overlap like the ones I have shown below...
These are... interestingly, not hybrids in the sense of being born from one parent of each species, but rather a result of genetic input from multiple species through generations in certain isolated areas, with the "hybrids" being sexually viable... This is similar to the lemonpeel/ halfblack angel hybrids we see in the hobby, where there is every combination between the two species...
I've known about these for years, but read about them in scientific articles and occassionally saw them in the Japanese market... Brian Greene, a deepwater collector used to offer them, but he now lives in Yap and no longer offers these... at long last I tracked these down from the Marshall Islands, collected in isolated areas where full C. burgessi, C. tinkeri, and even full C. flavocoronatus have been found according to the collector... but for the most part they a mix of all and freely interbreed...
The first specimen I received a few weeks ago... overjoyed and excited... this specimen is a pretty even mix between C. burgessi and C. tinkeri/C. flavocoronatus... the eyeband is a mix between the two species... half yellow and half brown... and it has the second headband of burgessi, with the yellow dorsal of tinkeri/flavocoronatus and faint spots on the body between the two... I use tinkeri and flavocoronatus interchangably because they are so similar, with flavocoronatus having the second yellow band being the difference... as you'll see from another specimen below the input from flavo could be seen when the dark bar of burgess doesn't mask it... although the burgess bar is very faintly visible... what a cool specimen! I've seen photos of the other ones... but this specimen is quite extraordinary!
Anyway, here is the first specimen...
Here he is being introduced after a few weeks of QT into my large fish only, being welcomed by my full Hawaiian C. tinkeri... the cool thing is they're both tiny... around 2 inches... but mixing Roa that are not a true pair can sometimes be tough... he was welcomed by getting hammered by the Tinker's... but after lights out... the next morning they were out and about together... here's a couple of introduction pics...
Just yesterday I received a true pair, that told me even more about these fish... it is obvious that there are many intermediate hybrids... and it's even cooler how they will all pair together... the most exciting part is the yellow area on the second band of one of the specimens... conclusive evidence of input from flavocoronatus... I've been in touch with good old Jack Randall to confirm what's going on... and I quoting what Rich Oyle wrote me also confirms it... speaking of these... Rich said "there were individuals that looked like pure tinkeri, some that looked like pure flavocoronatus, some that looked like pure burgessi, and representatives of almost every intermediate form in-between these three "species"." He later went on to say as he usually does... there's a PhD thesis in there!
Anyway, here are shots of the pair... first with one of each individual...
Very nice specimens John.
