I know, I’ve been on a bit of a rare fish kick lately… but some exciting and rare fish have been popping up all over the map. Just recently a true Chaetodontoplus personifer made it’s way to BBOX Aquarium in Japan. BBOX is a highly respected fish store throughout Asia and gets in some amazing [...]
I know, I’ve been on a bit of a rare fish kick lately… but some exciting and rare fish have been popping up all over the map. Just recently a true Chaetodontoplus personifer made it’s way to BBOX Aquarium in Japan. BBOX is a highly respected fish store throughout Asia and gets in some amazing specimens like this one.
Chaetodontoplus meredithi is often incorrectly identified and has become synonymous with Chaetodontoplus personifer. However they are two distinct species. The distinguishing mark between the two is the solid yellow tail on Meredithi and the Yellow with Black banded tail on Personifer. Personifers are extremely rare, found only in the waters of North West Australia.
EDIT: As fellow fish nut John Coppolino pointed out the fish below are both C. personifer, despite the second photo clearly showing a solid yellow tail. The black band in true Personifers develops as they mature and grow past 4″. Via Copps on RC:
The major distinguishing characteristic is the tail, but the kicker is that small specimens of both species have an all yellow tail, and are identical in every way. These two species are obviously of common origin, but have speciated enough to be separate species according to most ichthyologists… The reason for this is the Gulf of Carpentaria… that large bay you could see in North Australia… The bay is quite turbid and neither species now inhabit it. C. personifer is found to the West of the Gulf and C. meredithi to the East of the Gulf… In the past one species probably inhabited the entire range from the Indian Ocean side to the Pacific side of Australia, much like C. duboulayi does. Separation equals speciation, and it’s probably only been a couple million years or less… Another difference between the species is that C. personifer grow about four inches larger than C. meredithi.
Big thanks to John for the clarification. Here are the two that BBOX received, priced at just shy of $400.
Chaetodontoplus personifer with Black Band
Chaetodontoplus personifer, smaller without black band.
If you come across a “Personifer” for sale, double check the tail. If there is no black band, at +4″ odds are that it is a Meredithi or Meredith’s Angelfish. If collection increases of C. personifer as John has hinted to…we may be seeing some of these in the states in the near future.
The rare fish kick will continue to next week. Some exciting hybrids have just been collected, that are too good to not write about.
