The makings of a pair? My attempt with two Christmas Island Pomacanthus imperator
- Thread starter copps
- Start date
John,
Incredible pics. Your diving thread is enviable. Do you have any tips on how to mix the Emperor and Queen? Everything I have read says they need a much bigger tank than I plan on building (96 or 108 x 30 x 30) to coexist.
Have you tested any of you angels with corals?
alton
Well-known member
When I started reading your post a while back I knew I wanted to get back with taking care of angel fish, and less corals. I have posted an old picture of my 200 gallon tank before I sold it and went with more delicate corals in my 300DD. In the next few months I will start going back to Angelfish replacing delicate corals with hardier/angelfish friendly corals. Keep up with the post I love to read and view.
copps
Premium Member
No, whatever you do I would start with two specimens added together to the display (or the smaller specimen added a few days before, after being QTed separately. Whether you do both juvies or a juvie and small adult, be sure the fish are of two different sizes
If I listened to everything I read as a kid growing up I'd be doing 5% of what I'm doing... angels can't go in reefs... angels can't be kept together... in regards to testing my angels with corals YES! Most of the over forty angels I have are in reef tanks... I've kept all seven genera in with sps. In 2009 at the Atlantic City MACNA I gave a presentation titled "Angelfish in Reef Aquaria" and I'm currently working on a print article on the subject. You could see many of these angels in this article...
http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/76-tank-of-the-month
YES! This pair continues to spawn after all these years! It's been seven years now since they gave birth to the first and only captively spawned and raised Colin's angels when Frank at RCT did them... I've grown to love this very unique species... here's a recent spawning shot of them...
And an older shot of them... male to the right... this is when I had them in a separate system as I feared they were delicate... now for years they've been in my big reef and male Colin's dominates my multifasciata pair!
That is my plan... whether it be in two years or when my six year old son goes to college... when I do it I'll do it right... 8' x 6' x 30" or so...
Copps
velvetelvis
Active member
Love your Townsend's and queen angels. Having grown up in FL and spent some family vacations in the Keys (one a collecting trip for our SW tank), I have a soft spot for them. One of my favorite childhood memories is of helping my mom and dad (which pretty much meant keeping my sister out of the way while they worked) catch an exquisite 1" juvenile queen angelfish in knee-deep water at Marathon Key. I miss collecting sometimes...so much fun!
copps
Premium Member
No experience in all my years with bluefaces... just their two Euxiphipops subgenus cousins... what size display?
In shore queens are not nearly as common as off shore ones... what a nice memory! I wanted to target queens and so we went seven miles off shore... the majority were queens... with a few blues... and we got one Townsend... here's a shot of the large Townsend next to a full queen for comparison...
There is nothing better than diving with someone who not only shares your passion, but KNOWS the place they dive and the organisms they dive with so well... Eric has been diving the Keys since the early 80s nearly seven days a week and has many organisms he's discovered named after him... it's such a pleasure... we scored many fish despite it really being the wrong time of year. I get tired of diving on dive charters where many of the "divemasters" who have been diving the same places for decades know less about things than many novice marine aquarists! Then you have the guys that show off their expensive BCD of reg or things along those lines... one particular memory I have was one of my trips to Guam in Micronesia when I dived on a charter just after a major bleaching event! 100% of the Acros were bleached but still alive... showing pastel colors as a result of still having pigments but having dumped their zooxanthellae... I was so depressed... and I watched these guys high fiving eachother showing their underwater photos and commenting they had never seen such colors!:angryfire:
Colin's have a very wide distribution but are generally deep, hard to collect, and hard to adapt... and they do not garner that high of a price... so they are not targeted very often... not really a season for them... mine came from Fiji... the species was discovered by Pat Colin in the 70s on the same expedition in the Cocos-Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean that discovered Centropyge joculator... Pat also discovered the most recently discovered angelfish species Centropyge abei on his manned submersible in Palau...
Copps
scchase
Premium Member
I have 2 adult bluefaces I have been contemplating trying to pair for several months now. The established one is around 4-5" and completed its transition about a year ago the one I want to introduce is in the 7-8" range. Now I just need to partition the tank and see how things go. Plenty of room in a 375 at least I hope.
copps
Premium Member
Which ones? I have over 50 angels...:spin2:
The emp pair is doing great... some very interesting interactions between them... I'll do an update with pics soon... lots cool going on in my fish only... got my two clarions living together... the larger male is a deeper orange than the female... most of my angels I've had for years, but some new additions this year are a nice maze ("Chaetodontoplus chrysocephalus")... not a valid species in my opinion... making it an even cooler fish... one of those whacky Fijian "heraldi" with the extra black... true Centropyge shepardi pair from Guam at last... thought I was going to have to wait until I travel to Guam in the winter... also received four hybrid resplendens from Frank at RCT, along with filling out my harem of captive bred Centropyge argi... too much going on! I did not have much work travel this year, but in the next 6 to 8 months I'll be diving Japan, the Marianas Islands, Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall's, and Hawaii... and hopefully collecting some fish along the way.
Will update with pics soon...
Copps
For anyone going I'll be at MACNA in Dallas this weekend... all pleasure this time and no speaking... got a suite at the hotel with a couple local buddies... talking fish and :beer: the whole weekend!
Ambition
New member
John, all I can say is that I drool over your collection of angels. After college, I plan to start making some head way in a decent angel collection (maybe not rare, but more so keeping pairs and harems of various angels). If I had a big enough tank now, I would be trying to get some large angel pairs, but don't have the budget now. I'll stay content with my C. deborae, if I can get the fish to eat, and some other dwarf angels.
Looking forward to seeing some picture updates from you!
Looking forward to seeing some picture updates from you!
copps
Premium Member
Hey Kyle, many thanks! I did not make the beauty of angels... Mother Nature did... thank her... I'm just the keeper of the fish! I know exactly where you are at in life... I just turned 35 and am not too far removed from college. I grew up in the hobby... I've had my "Pomacanthid passion" since I was a young child. And while I grew up in an average middle class home, I was relatively poor for years when it came to what I could buy for the hobby... Around 25 years ago I marveled at the $1500 to $2000 conspics... the $1000 asfur angels... the $300 to $400 clarions even... I kept more of the commons as you mention... but I studied all of the Pomacanthids... growing up this way builds character... it makes me appreciate the collection I've built so much more... it motivated me to work hard. I never acquire a fish because it's "rare"... I acquire fish because they excite me... whether it be my pair of Liopropoma carmabi... or the Liopropoma rubre pair that cost me 10% of the carmabi... they excite me... there are plenty of relatively inexpensive fish options that should excite you... just like your C. deborae! One thing that bugs me are people with money to spend that enter the hobby and go around and ask for things that are "rare", simply for the fact that they are rare... I always say that if you have to ask if something is rare, you don't deserve it!
After being in the hobby this long to me it is a small price to pay for some of the rare fish that I have... as it brings me the same giddy excitement I got as a teenager with my first juvenile majestic or blue angel... so for now, acquire the wonderful Pomacanthid options you can for now, and dream big in other aquariums and Pomacanthids... and one day you will be able to fulfill those dreams hopefully! Copps
copps
Premium Member
Updated shots as promised from yesterday... my Christmas Island emperor pair... now nearly five years together!
The female pestering the male... there is quite a bit of interaction between them...
My lemonpeel pair spawning last night. The male (to the left) is one of just twelve captive bred specimens ever... and now over ten years old. The female to the right is quite gravid as you could tell. Her apparent eye shadow is input from Centropyge vrolikii...
While I've added plenty to my reefs this year, this is the only new fish to the fish only... a beautiful maze angel from Taiwan, known to some as Chaetodontoplus chrysocephalus, but to me it's a naturally occurring hybrid... either way, a beautiful specimen!
More coming...
The female pestering the male... there is quite a bit of interaction between them...
My lemonpeel pair spawning last night. The male (to the left) is one of just twelve captive bred specimens ever... and now over ten years old. The female to the right is quite gravid as you could tell. Her apparent eye shadow is input from Centropyge vrolikii...
While I've added plenty to my reefs this year, this is the only new fish to the fish only... a beautiful maze angel from Taiwan, known to some as Chaetodontoplus chrysocephalus, but to me it's a naturally occurring hybrid... either way, a beautiful specimen!
More coming...
copps
Premium Member
A split screen showing my rare white variant Pomacanthus maculosus. The shot in the top left was when I got this specimen four years ago when it was about half the size of my car key. The main shot is from last night all grown up!
One of the queen angels I caught last year with Eric Pedersen below about seven miles west of Key West, paired with a Townsend's above.
Earlier this year I muscled my two clarions together... and they've settled in well. The male is to the right, which I got nearly five years ago now from that first collection. He's noticably more of a darker orange than the female.
A shot of the male's face...
And the chubby female...
Copps
One of the queen angels I caught last year with Eric Pedersen below about seven miles west of Key West, paired with a Townsend's above.
Earlier this year I muscled my two clarions together... and they've settled in well. The male is to the right, which I got nearly five years ago now from that first collection. He's noticably more of a darker orange than the female.
A shot of the male's face...
And the chubby female...
Copps
copps
Premium Member
A couple more fish I caught in March of last year... my used-to-be juvie French...
And not-so-tiny-anymore rock beauty I caught... already developing the filament on the caudal fin...
My Pomacanthus zonipectus... also grown from a tiny juvie... one of the two Pomacanthids found in the country I lived in for a few years where I met my wife and travel back to about once a year to year and a half... Ecuador.
Perhaps my favorite angelfish species... one of four regals I own... this guy I got tiny from Marshall Islands a few years ago... man do they grow slow!
And not-so-tiny-anymore rock beauty I caught... already developing the filament on the caudal fin...
My Pomacanthus zonipectus... also grown from a tiny juvie... one of the two Pomacanthids found in the country I lived in for a few years where I met my wife and travel back to about once a year to year and a half... Ecuador.
Perhaps my favorite angelfish species... one of four regals I own... this guy I got tiny from Marshall Islands a few years ago... man do they grow slow!
