Pictures and videos of Genicanthus personatus in the wild cements its holy grail angelfish status

One of the most exciting pictures out there. Only around midway atoll can you observe Genicanthus personatus swimming with Centropyge interrupta. The tail shot of Bodianus sanguineus on the bottom right is an extra bonus. Picture by Greg McFall.

I like looking at rare fish pictures as much as the next guy, but if there’s anything that excites me more, it’s the thrill of finding pictures of rare fish in the wild. Featured this time are a slew of awesome pictures of the affirmable and holy grail Genicanthus personatus. Keep reading for more pictures and videos.

A male and female Genicanthus personatus. Like all other members of the genus, Genicanthus angels are sexually dichromatic and sexes are easy to tell apart from coloration. Picture by Robert K. Whitton.

There’s not much to say that hasn’t already been mentioned about these really rare angelfish. Although in the past two years we’ve been seeing more numbers of them appearing in the trade than before due to adventurous deepwater collectors. That being said, those in captivity right now can probably be counted with the fingers on both hands.

One of the best pictures of a full grown male G. personatus in the wild. Picture by Luiz Rocha

Here’s a short video of them in the wild. The pearly white contrasted with black in females and orange in males makes the masked angelfish one of the most striking angelfish around.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QVVWlUIlbY[/youtube]

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KaiTheFishGuy

Kai is a systematic ichthyologist at The Australian Museum, Sydney. His research interests combine the use of cutting-edge next generation sequencing techniques with traditional methods of morphology to better understand the evolutionary history of coral reef fishes. He is a legacy ReefBuilders contributor, having previously written close to give hundred articles under his pseudonym LemonTYK.