Superstar deepwater reef fish collector Rufus Kimura and Co. have successfully captured a tiny little masked angelfish juvenile, Genicanthus personatus. Right as we were retiring for last night we heard whisperings that a juvenile Genicanthus personatus had been caught at 250 feet depth near Oahu and this morning we awoke to discover a phone quality video of the little masked one swimming around excitedly in a collection bucket. The image above is a screenshot of the black-faced white personatus angelfish checking out what appears to be a quarter, an American twenty five cent piece.
This juvenile personatus angelfish is a very exciting capture because this is precisely the kind of specimen that is best suited to decompression from extreme depth and also more likely to adapt well to captivity and eating prepared foods. Thsi thumb sized masked angelfish is guaranteed to be destined for Japan where it will be traded for a royal sum of cash, and likely treated like a demi god of a fish. Congratulations to Rufus on this very exciting capture of a tiny masked angelfish specimen; now he just needs to find the motherlode so that some of them actually make it to the mainland.
