Hawaiian Flame Angelfish

Just as an update...

I did break off a piece of live rock for the QT. I think that was a smart move with this fish. It needs to be trained to eat prepared food. It won't eat flake or pellets (although I might have to pick up some smaller pellets since I am out of the new life spectrum which is really small). Frozen mysis it eats a little of. I likes the Cyclopeeze, but doesn't actively go after it when I feed. The rock has had half of the algae eaten off already. I ordered some brine shrimp eggs that will be here tomorrow. Since the eggs are new, I imagine I should have some baby brine to feed on Saturday.

The fish is active when it doesn't see me, and has nice coloring. It is not losing weight thanks to the cyclopeeze and rock. I have many weeks left to get it to start on prepared food, so I am not worried. Well, if it doesn't like the baby brine then I might worry :D
 
Here is the pic as promised (I don't know if it is quite this red in person, but definitely close)

DSC_1431-1.jpg

Great looking fish -- should be proud.


For those asking about the difference, here is mine -- non Hawaiian -- can see the orangeish hue to the mid body.

Flame-1.jpg
 
Considering they are sequential hermaphrodites (protogynous ... changes from female to male), I would say mine is an indeterminate sex right now since it is so small. I don't believe they can revert back like Rusty angelfish can. As a protogynous species, males are usually larger than females. But good luck figuring it out that way. The males seem to have more blue on the soft dorsal and anal, but it is also regionally true of the Hawaiian that they have less blue in that location. The one thing that you might be able to use to distinguish a male and female is that the male have a more pointed soft dorsal and anal fins instead of rounded. But it is still hard to tell.

Okay, marine biology lesson over...
I would venture to guess that Todd's is a male based on the picture. Like I said, mine is probably not one or the other yet.

Todd, that is a beautiful fish. Mine does have some orange that didn't show up in the picture, but there is less. I think it will lose more of this as it ages (not positive on that).

On another note, I am happy to report on the feeding endeavor. Even though it was somewhat interested in the live baby brine shrimp I fed it, prepared foods were still a miss. Then I was able to get it to eat some New Life Spectrum Small Fish food (this has helped me with other fish in the past). After a couple of days, it was really going for it and even ate a very small bit of flake. I am happy to report that it is now eating flake (and other prepared foods) with almost the vigor as you would expect from an aquarium fish. Not bad for 10 days of QT (and counting).
 
Considering they are sequential hermaphrodites (protogynous ... changes from female to male), I would say mine is an indeterminate sex right now since it is so small. I don't believe they can revert back like Rusty angelfish can. As a protogynous species, males are usually larger than females. But good luck figuring it out that way. The males seem to have more blue on the soft dorsal and anal, but it is also regionally true of the Hawaiian that they have less blue in that location. The one thing that you might be able to use to distinguish a male and female is that the male have a more pointed soft dorsal and anal fins instead of rounded. But it is still hard to tell.

Okay, marine biology lesson over...
I would venture to guess that Todd's is a male based on the picture. Like I said, mine is probably not one or the other yet.

Todd, that is a beautiful fish. Mine does have some orange that didn't show up in the picture, but there is less. I think it will lose more of this as it ages (not positive on that).

On another note, I am happy to report on the feeding endeavor. Even though it was somewhat interested in the live baby brine shrimp I fed it, prepared foods were still a miss. Then I was able to get it to eat some New Life Spectrum Small Fish food (this has helped me with other fish in the past). After a couple of days, it was really going for it and even ate a very small bit of flake. I am happy to report that it is now eating flake (and other prepared foods) with almost the vigor as you would expect from an aquarium fish. Not bad for 10 days of QT (and counting).
Pretty fishy :D
Todd's is clearly a male. Yours has some female characteristics, but the bars are a bit dark. What is the length from nose to end of tail?
 

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