Pygoplites diacanthus - T.B.

Pygoplites diacanthus, commonly known as the Regal angelfish, is a medium-sized angelfish. This is one of the most popular angelfishes and with good reason. As juveniles they’re a beautiful golden-orange with white vertical bars and a bright blue edge around the fins and a large spot in the dorsal fin. As they grow older, they become even more colourful. They get more and more blue, especially in the dorsal and anal fin as well as on the face and ending of the white vertical bars. Currently three different regional variants are differentiated. The Red Sea variant is known for an orange-yellow colour and intensely coloured belly and reddish-orange stripes in the anal fin. The Indian variant is more yellow and doesn’t have the colourful anal fin. The Pacific variant is yellow and gets a grey-white belly when mature.

Like all other angelfish it's hermaphroditic and the most dominant fish will turn into a male when there is no other male around. The fact that these angels are so colourful and don’t grow as large as most other angelfishes, make it a popular choice among hobbyists. But although they do seem to be more reef safe than most other angelfishes, they are certainly not reef safe! They do love sponges and tunicates and will nip other corals as well, so make sure to keep this in mind before buying this species. Keeping them well fed seems to reduce the risk so make sure to feed them a proper varied diet of algae and meaty foods to make them really happy, but do keep in mind that they may sooner or later start nipping/eating (all sorts of) corals. Not a fish for the average tank, and most angelfish lovers would probably set up a fish-only with this fish as star of the show to do it justice, or you need to accept the damage it can do to corals!

This fish is Tank Bred and will adapt to your aquarium easier compared to wild caught specimens as mentioned before!