Gold Crown Butterflyfish variant shows up in Japan
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Following up on the story we posted several days ago regarding the gold crown butterflyfish, Chaetodon (Roaps) flavocoronatus, as we expected at least one of these specimens has shown up for sale in Japan. However, in contrast to the nearly perfect gold crown pictured in our previous post, the 9cm specimen pictured above definitely seem to indicate this fish is more of a cross between Roaps declivis and Roaps burgessi. In contrast to a full blooded ‘Flavo’ which only has a crown that extends down to the upper margin of the gill cover, the Kiribati gold crown butterflyfish variant has a crown which extends well past the lower margin of the gill cover, almost down to the base of the pectoral fin, very much like Roaps burgessi. The possibility that these gold crown butterflyfish are a hybrid of burgess and declivis butterflyfish is a more plausible origin for these fish as the collection was more than slightly outside the recorded range for Roaps flavocoronatus. So are these fish localized Flavo variants or a hybrid of other Roaps species? let us know what you think in the comments.
A variant or not, that is one awesome fish.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Chaetodon (Roaps) declivis has been recorded from Kiribati so I am leaning strongly towards this fish being a hybrid og declivis and burgessi. It looks so similar to flacocoronatus that it makes you wonder if Flavo as a species was formed through hybridization. Remember, the fish above is only 3″, I bet he’ll get even more spectacular and yellow with age and size.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Great lookin’ fish there…
July 15th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
I bet this Roaps hybrid is the same fish that has been reported as flavocoronatus from this region but it looks a lot more like a hybrid like you said. hope o see some in the states eventually.
July 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm