The true Hawaiian flame angel is indeed a very rare sight in this industry... but many people don't know it... including many people in the industry... and there's a reason... Most all of the flame angels in the past have gone through Hawaiian wholesalers, received from both Christmas Island and the Marshall Islands in HUGE numbers... wholesalers in LA or in other parts of the US would receive them from Hawaii and place them on their stocklists... many would put something like "flame angel: origin- Hawaii"... and as flames are found in Hawaii, many people for years erroneously thought these were true Hawaiian flames...
Anyone who has dived in Hawaii knows that of the five species found in the Main Hawaiian Islands there is only one that is common... Centropyge potteri. Flames naturally have a very low population density in Hawaii... I've confirmed this with old time divers that have dived Hawaii for decades, so this has nothing to do with collection. The population density on Oahu is especially low, where alot of collection is done. More can be seen on the Kona Coast of the Big Island. Fortunately, the population densities of this very unique Centropyge (red is rare in angels) are very high at other locales...
The Hawaiian "race" of flame angels is blood red... with little to no orange or yellow throughout... and while there is no ugly flame angel, the Hawaiian ones are quite stunning! I can post pics tonight... I've owned singles through the years and for the past six months or so I've been working on a trio that has now settled in to my large frag system and are ready to be put on display. Interestingly, in a recent scientific paper the Hawaiian race was studied... this color variety is only found elsewhere at Johnston Island about 750 miles southwest of Hawaii... interestingly, the other more common color variant is also found at Johnston, but not in Hawaii. The two "races" were studied at Johnston, and it was concluded that the two different color morphs have resulted from sexual selection, and the two do not interbreed for the most part at Johnston... AMAZING!:spin3:
Oh, and John Dawe is hard core! He does ALL Hawaii fish... and is one of just three people to have attended every MACNA... we were roomies a few years back in Pittsburgh!:beer:
