What rare angel is the least owned?

[copps]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7261572#post7261572 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by H.Tanaka
Oh, not so many !
But I try to show ALL the photos (including not so rare ones) here one by one.

Here is a new comer to the genus Centropyge, a possible new species from Rowley Shoals. Photo courtesy by Rudie Kuiter.
It has been regarded as a varian of C. eiblii, but seemingly different in having a broad black area on posterior part of body. It looks like also C. vrolikii but has dark bands on anterior part. Some cases have orange bands there. At present it is known only from Rowley Shoals.
Now it is examined by some ichthyologists.

Dr. Tanaka, are you aware that a specimen of this fish is pictured in Scott Michael's Reef Fishes Volume 3 on page 251? It is listed as Centropyge cf. vrolikii, meaning at that time it was an unconfirmed variant of the half-black angel... whatever the taxonomic designation, it's an awesome fish! What other Centropyge species are found at Rowley Shoals?

Also, page 233 of the same book has a couple of photos of C. vrolikii/ C. eibli hybrids... notably different but interesting nonetheless...

 

[H.Tanaka]

copps,

In Rowley Shoals are Angelfish species shown below as far as Centropyge is concerned;
bicolor, bispinosa, and eiblii (this fish).

In the nearby Scott Reef/ Seringapatam Reefs;
bicolor, bispinosa, flavicauda, nox, tibicen, and vrolikii
(after Allen & Russell, 1986).

Then I suspected that the fish seems a hybrid between eiblii x vrolikii; the latter seems scarce in Rowley Shoals, but it is not found there at all.

 

[marinebetta]

Dr Tanaka, I was browsing the blue harbor website and it seems like they are selling what looks like RCT bred juvenile C. debelius :eek1: . I can't read japanese and babelfish doesn't seem to work on their site.....but they sure don't look like interruptus to me! Can you confirm this?

 

[NexDog]

Where on their site do you see these fish? Whole thing is in frames so one URL is for all. Right click and select show only this frame and paste in the URL here.

Hiroyuki directed me to a young adult Regal Angel today (9cm). My family and I met up with him and his sons on Saturday and he gave me copies of two of his book. Extremely kind and knowledgeable guy.

 

[Maximus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7282044#post7282044 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by marinebetta
Dr Tanaka, I was browsing the blue harbor website and it seems like they are selling what looks like RCT bred juvenile C. debelius :eek1: . I can't read japanese and babelfish doesn't seem to work on their site.....but they sure don't look like interruptus to me! Can you confirm this? [/QUOTE

Woa!! My suspicions were true!! At WMC, Mike Paletta, Sanjay, and a few others were talking about a rumor about RCT breeding debelius angels. Hot Damn!!

 

[Maximus]

OMG! Could this be them?
http://www.blueharbor.co.jp/bbs2/img-box/img20060301210656.jpg

 

[Julio]

How much are they goign for?

 

[copps]

Group order anyone?

 

[Julio]

How can they ge their hand on Genicanthus Personatus? arent' they protected?

 

[copps]

The species itself is not protected, but rather the waters where it is most common and available at shallower depths... It has been recorded and collected many times on Oahu, although I'm unaware of where most are collected that go to Japan...

 

[michindi]

im up for a group order..lol

 

[H.Tanaka]

Hi, all.

One of the pages of 'Blue Harbor' web was shown (with many fishes) but please note, these fishes were once there (these several to ten years, and its a collection).

They dealed in Centropyge debelius (adult) some time ago, and also recently showed a photo of juveniles (bred in Hawaii) but this time they do not sell any juvenile, for RCT (Oahu) has succeeded with only several specimens; maybe they start to sell soon.

The Tiger Angel is the same with that I showed, and also the Blue Potter's too. The latter was sold at Blue Harbor and someone bought it but soon handed it to another firend and finally now at 'Earth' in Kyoto. Four years ago I photographed these two.

 

[Julio]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7283986#post7283986 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by copps
The species itself is not protected, but rather the waters where it is most common and available at shallower depths... It has been recorded and collected many times on Oahu, although I'm unaware of where most are collected that go to Japan...

Hey John,
How shallow are these guys know to venture?

 

[copps]

In the northwest Hawaiian Islands (not Kauai ) they are found at much shallower depths of around 30 feet where in places they are common... In the main Hawaiian Islands they're very rare at scuba depths, but there are numerous accounts of them from dive operators...

I'm sure the full-time Hawaii guys could elaborate more on their occurance in the main islands... many of the collectors there have their little secret places for collecting rarities...

 

[BGreene]

Genicanthus personatus can be found in the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI), from Hawaii to Kauai, but is quite deep. I have seen them as shallow as 6m at Midway in the NWHI. In the MHI they are usually found closer to 100m, like the one illustrated.

-Brian

 

[H.Tanaka]

Hi Brian,

How deep ! How does it look in the depth ? Just a plain white or bluish hue ?

 

[nbd13]

Wow Brain, nice specimen! Do you have any pics of the males?

Did you get my mutiple emails? I sent about 3-4 of them.

Dr. Tanaka- any word on the picture of the Centropyge abei?

thanks

Nick

 

[H.Tanaka]

nbd,

Centropyge abei is a simply colored but attractive. I roughly explained as follows,

cream body, whitish ventrally, upper 1/3 of body and head dark brown to black, a white vertical band behind head, caudal fin white, other fins yellow.

It is provisionally included in the the genus Centropyge.

Allen, Young & Colin. 2006 state that it is closest to Centropyge, but it has some similarities between Apolemichthys and Chaetodontoplus. Rich Pyle is now studying it and there is a possibility that a new genus will be born.

I will get the copy of aqua soon that features color photos.

 

[nbd13]

Dr. Tanaka- The Centropyge abei sounds really nice.

I look foward to the pictures

thanks

Nick

 

[Tremelle]

After reading this thread, I guess I am a rare angelfish collector. I have a Blueline, Chrysurus, Golden, and Multicolor in my tank. I guess I better up my homeowners insurance.