Yellowfin Pygmy vs Coral Beauty

[ReefWaters]

I purchased (what I thought was) a coral beauty in February. The LFS said it was a coral beauty. In fact, it was probably sold to them as a coral beauty. So no blame there.

The fish is a beautiful deep purple with yellow pectoral fins and neon blue tips on all of her other fins. Her orange markings on the sides are similar to a coral beauty but much less dominant. She is almost all purple unless you get a very close look at her. She is beautiful and I like her coloring better than a coral beauty.

Here is the info I found at wetwebmedia.com regarding Centropyge flavipectoralis, the Yellowfin Pygmy Angel.

Centropyge flavipectoralis Randall & Klausewitz 1977, the Moonbeam or Yellowfin Pygmy Angel (2), is a good fish for medium aggressive fish-only set-ups. At first glance the Yellowfin is easily mistaken for a darkened Coral Beauty, with bright yellow pectoral fins. Sri Lanka and Maldives, Indian Ocean.

Anyway....
I was wondering if anyone has experience with these fish. Im afraid mine might be nipping at some corals. A brain specifically.

 

[ACBlinky]

Interesting! I recently bought a coral beauty, the LFS manager said 'I've never seen one come in like this', referring to the fish's slightly unusual, darker colour. Mine is much more purple than most coral beauties I've seen, with just a hint of orange, and bright yellow pectoral fins. I wonder if we've got the same type of fish, and whether or not it's a different species? I know some angels' colours vary by region, and there are several colour variations of Potter's as well as 'green' coral beauties, so ours might just be a slightly different pattern but still CBs.

Here are two pics of my fish, sorry they're not the best. Is this what yours looks like?

Fishbase.org describes C. flavipectoralis as: "Dark brown to black with hardly visible black vertical stripes on middle side and bluish spots. Pectoral fins golden brown; dorsal, caudal, and anal fins dark brown with bluish hue and blue margins." Which doesn't at all match what I've got, but then again a Google search for these fish brings up some pictures that look more like my fish. I'll definitely do some research!

As for the nipping, brains and clams are said to be favourites of ALL Centropyge angels, no matter what type of dwarf angel you've got the potential for nipping, particularly when it comes to nice fleshy LPS corals, is there.

 

[Peter Schmiedel]

I would change the store if they can not dsitinguish these fish! This is not difficult and with a every store should have a book to cross check!

Anyway, with Centropyge in a reeftank there is no such think as a clearly reef safe species. All is depending on the individum itself, the tank set up and the feeding habit of the care take. On species might be a modell citizen in my tanks but nipping and killing all corals in another. Personally I am convinced that keeping them in pairs or groups will reduce the risk of nipping etc.

 

[ACBlinky]

Peter, if they're easy to distinguish can you clarify - is mine a CB or yellowfin? Maybe that will help ReefWaters, and I'm certainly curious!

 

[Angel*Fish]

Open Brain = Angel fish food in many cases, but often these fish won't touch your other corals. But if they love brains, they will also go for similar corals like the owl's eye/cat's eye, etc.

HTH

And FWIW your fish looks like a CB to me. I love that magenta under the mouth. Actually yours looks just like mine! They don't always have the pink color.

Edit: Oops it looks like I was talking about the wrong fish.

 

[ReefWaters]

ACBlinky, there is definitely a discrepancy between the Fishbase description and the WetWebMedia description. I wonder which one is right?

Our fish could be clones.

If we go with the WetWeb description, I would say we have Centropyge flavipectoralis (Yellowfin). If you look at the picture of Centropyge bispinosa (Coral Beauty), those fish have purple pectoral fins. Our fish definitely have yellow pectoral fins.

The Fishbase description, if correct, sounds like a completely different fish.

 

[ACBlinky]

Hmm... clones, eh? This is really interesting to me! I've been doing some searching, and keep finding different results, but any pics I see of coral beauties they just don't have these bright yellow fins. I posted my pics and asked about this on nano-reef.com, someone directed me to This German site with a picture. They said that mine looks like a CB and that yellow fins are much closer to black, which matches fishbase.org's description.

I wonder if ours might just be a regional variation of the CB, or possibly this is a colouration exhibited by dominant males or something like that?

 

[FishMaster1000]

Maybe it's just an extremely nice coral beauty! Your LFS was right in describing it as a CB beautiful fish!