copps
Premium Member
Well guys, it's been a while since I've posted, but a lot has gone on and I'm behind on sharing it with you guys! The birth of our daughter a month ago has set me back... 
Anyway, after returning from an excellent MACNA trip, I'm invigorated to share some of my new fishies...
This past spring I finally got a new 292 gallon set up in our kitchen... of course angels would be added to this, among other fish... this tank will be fish only. In the system now for a few months are two Pomacanthus imperator from Christmas Island in the central Pacific Ocean, also known as Kiritimati. While Kiritimati may sound like an exotic Polynesian name, it's actually the local word for Christmas in the language Gilbertese. The "ti" is pronounced like an "s", so essentially Kiritimati is pronounced like Christmas. Another neat note about Christmas is that it is the first populated place to experience the New Year, being just west of the International Dateline. I always find it strange when I return from my yearly trips to Guam in Micronesia on a flight to Hawaii. The flight leaves Guam on say a Saturday, and I get to Hawaii on a Friday! It makes filling out my work timecard fun! Anyway, while the island has only a few thousand people, they are well known for their aquarium fish exports... if you own a flame angel there is a good chance it came from there and if you own a black tang it DID come from there (or at least through there from another one of the Line Islands)... This island is also known for some of the nicest emperor angels in the world... which commonly have deep orange tails compared with the yellows and pale yellows we see from other locations. Of course not all Christmas Island emperors are orange tailed, and orange tailed emperors are found throughout the world, but for some reason we see these from this location most frequently...
With that said there is NO ugly emperor angel, but for an angel nut it is always exciting to see something different, especially when that difference makes the fish more visually appealing, even to my wife. Emperor angels are more widely distributed than any other angelfish species. They range from the Central Pacific to the place where a friend caught these two fish together...
Angel nuts will recognize that other fish as Apolemichthys kingi... collected in Durban South Africa. It's amazing the tropical fish species that range to the Indian Ocean side of South Africa, not too far from the chilly waters that harbor such a high population of Carcharodon carcharias (Hint: Jaws). I have even confirmed with Jack Randall that emperors have waifed to the Hawaiian Islands, which was documented in the 1930s, long before the aquarium industry had these fish traveling through Hawaii. Also with a wide range are coral beauties (Centropyge bispinosa) and Centropyge fisheri (if you go by the recent scientific paper that found the African C. acanthops and Hawaiian C. fisheri, and all relatives in between, to be the same species essentially and genetically identical... just color morphs!).
Anyway, it's well known that the Centropyge and Genicanthus genera are sequential protogynous hermaphrodites (female to male hermaphrodites), and it's generally theorized and believed that the other genera are, although not proven. I keep many of my greater than 25 angels in pairs and harems, and have grown two Pomacanthus chrysurus together for a few years, but I'm excited to see the outcome of this. The best part is that the two are getting along. The fish were well settled into captivity by themselves before I added them together to the system. There is little aggression, although it's clear the adult fish is boss and the juvie gets pushed around a bit, but nothing you wouldn't see in the wild. It is the same behavior I've seen before pairs and harems have formed in my Centropyge.With luck, eventually I'll get a true pair out of the two fish. I'm also interested to see if the smaller fish goes through color transformation normally, or if it is retarded by the presence of an adult.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention something, and excuse me as always for being verbose! I'll shutup now and include some pics...
Here is the adult... about 6-7 inches... relatively small as far as Christmas Island adults go that are imported...
And the juvenile in the four and a half inch range now... just beginning to start the change to adulthood, with what looks like the makings of an orange tail!
And lastly the two together...
Copps
Anyway, after returning from an excellent MACNA trip, I'm invigorated to share some of my new fishies...This past spring I finally got a new 292 gallon set up in our kitchen... of course angels would be added to this, among other fish... this tank will be fish only. In the system now for a few months are two Pomacanthus imperator from Christmas Island in the central Pacific Ocean, also known as Kiritimati. While Kiritimati may sound like an exotic Polynesian name, it's actually the local word for Christmas in the language Gilbertese. The "ti" is pronounced like an "s", so essentially Kiritimati is pronounced like Christmas. Another neat note about Christmas is that it is the first populated place to experience the New Year, being just west of the International Dateline. I always find it strange when I return from my yearly trips to Guam in Micronesia on a flight to Hawaii. The flight leaves Guam on say a Saturday, and I get to Hawaii on a Friday! It makes filling out my work timecard fun! Anyway, while the island has only a few thousand people, they are well known for their aquarium fish exports... if you own a flame angel there is a good chance it came from there and if you own a black tang it DID come from there (or at least through there from another one of the Line Islands)... This island is also known for some of the nicest emperor angels in the world... which commonly have deep orange tails compared with the yellows and pale yellows we see from other locations. Of course not all Christmas Island emperors are orange tailed, and orange tailed emperors are found throughout the world, but for some reason we see these from this location most frequently...
With that said there is NO ugly emperor angel, but for an angel nut it is always exciting to see something different, especially when that difference makes the fish more visually appealing, even to my wife. Emperor angels are more widely distributed than any other angelfish species. They range from the Central Pacific to the place where a friend caught these two fish together...
Angel nuts will recognize that other fish as Apolemichthys kingi... collected in Durban South Africa. It's amazing the tropical fish species that range to the Indian Ocean side of South Africa, not too far from the chilly waters that harbor such a high population of Carcharodon carcharias (Hint: Jaws). I have even confirmed with Jack Randall that emperors have waifed to the Hawaiian Islands, which was documented in the 1930s, long before the aquarium industry had these fish traveling through Hawaii. Also with a wide range are coral beauties (Centropyge bispinosa) and Centropyge fisheri (if you go by the recent scientific paper that found the African C. acanthops and Hawaiian C. fisheri, and all relatives in between, to be the same species essentially and genetically identical... just color morphs!).
Anyway, it's well known that the Centropyge and Genicanthus genera are sequential protogynous hermaphrodites (female to male hermaphrodites), and it's generally theorized and believed that the other genera are, although not proven. I keep many of my greater than 25 angels in pairs and harems, and have grown two Pomacanthus chrysurus together for a few years, but I'm excited to see the outcome of this. The best part is that the two are getting along. The fish were well settled into captivity by themselves before I added them together to the system. There is little aggression, although it's clear the adult fish is boss and the juvie gets pushed around a bit, but nothing you wouldn't see in the wild. It is the same behavior I've seen before pairs and harems have formed in my Centropyge.With luck, eventually I'll get a true pair out of the two fish. I'm also interested to see if the smaller fish goes through color transformation normally, or if it is retarded by the presence of an adult.
Anyway, I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention something, and excuse me as always for being verbose!
I'll shutup now and include some pics...Here is the adult... about 6-7 inches... relatively small as far as Christmas Island adults go that are imported...
And the juvenile in the four and a half inch range now... just beginning to start the change to adulthood, with what looks like the makings of an orange tail!
And lastly the two together...
Copps
I've been in touch with both collectors and the owner of the kingi in Kiyoshi Endoh's book... I of course love the Hawaiian bandits and know alot about them in the wild, and as I'm communicating with these South Africans more the kingi not only appear similar, but have similar habits and collection issues in the wild...
