Lately there has been talk regarding the few Hybrid Roaops Butterflyfish that have been collected. I was fortunate enough to receive the little one shown below. Of the few that have been collected, this specimen shows the most yellow in the crown, hinting at flavocoronatus blood.

The Roaops subgenus includes C. tinkeri, C. declivis, C. burgessi, C. mitratus, and C. flavocoronatus. For more information and photos of these unique fish please see this post: Tinkeri Hybrids. There are only a handful of aquarists that own these Hybrids, and their collection numbers will never be great… That’s not to say you won’t see one or two available in the future…

These hybrids are new to the trade, but I was recently informed that they were first noticed over 10 years ago. From Richard Pyle:

“We first became aware of this “hybrid” complex back in the 1990′s….  There were individuals that looked like pure tinkeri, some that looked like pure flavocoronatus, some that looked like pure burgessi, and representatives of almost every intermediate form in-between these three “species”…it seems there is a mish-mash population of all forms and all intermediates.”

Jack Randall has stated that these hybids involving burgessi, tinkeri, and flavocornatus are well known. In 2005 the ichthyology journal Aqua, featured a piece titled  Ninety-one new records of fishes in the Marshall Islands. From it Randall et. al writes:

In general, aquarists in the US shy away from butterflies and these unique Roaops have not made that large of a splash among collectors here. So be it, but I find them strikingly beautiful! I hope this additional information on these unique hybrids proves useful for the few Chaetodont lovers reading. 

Related Posts

1. Tinkeri Hybrid goes in minutes on Diver’s Den
2. Rare Fish | Tinkeri Hybrids – Chaetodon tinkeri, flavocoronatus, and burgessi
3. Diversity of Form | Chaetodon declivis, The Marquesan Butterfly
4. Mixing Butterflyfish is Never Easy, Glassbox Banks on New Fish
5. Mike and Brandon Photograph the Glassbox