In the late 90s, the personifer angelfish from Australia was split up into two species: the Classic ‘personifer’ angelfish from East Australia was named Chaetodontoplus meridithi and the angelfish from West Australia was given the nominal species name of C. personifer. The former species still goes by the name of Personifer Angelfish and sometimes also the Queensland Yellowtail Angelfish whereas the latter species which is quasi-never imported into the trade is now referred to as the True Personifer Angelfish. The two species are very, very similar and they are distinguished by an all yellow tail in C. meridithi and a black bar through the tail of the true personifer angelfish. Rare fish seeker Joe Russo of Russo’s Reef pulled some strings to get some of the uber rare true personifer angelfish to come to the US from West Australia and with these three specimens, Americans will get a much overdue and rare look at a species which is all but absent in the USA. Only a handful of these true personifer angels are available and we expect these to sell for twice to triple the price of the much more widely available C. meridithi. more pics after the break.
This set of four C. personifer images nearly doubles the number of original images of this rare and little known West Australian endemic species. You’ll notice the black band through the tail of all of these specimens and a duller coloration to the face which will hopefully eventually turn as brilliant as the male C. meridithi inset to the right.Although the full coloration potential of these fish may not be reached for quite some time, The yellow edged tail fin of a full male personifer angelfish will be quite a contrast to the solid yellow tail of yellow tail angels. Huge thanks to Joe Russo for sharing these rare pictures with us.
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