Another day and we have another hybrid angelfish to report. This particular specimen is a cross between swallowtail angelfish, Genicanthus lamarcki and G. melanospilos. Currently this hybrid swallowtail angelfish is of muted appearance, a nothing more than a curiosity to the diehard angelfish fans.
But what you see is not what you get with this particular angelfish hybrid. The females of both species in focus are particularly pale at this stage of their life but when it comes to the males, Lookout! The male blackspot angelfish Genicanthus melanospilos might as well be called the zebra angelfish as it develops beautiful vertical black bars and a wild flowing lyretail.
The supermale, fully developed version of the other half of this fish the Lamarck’s angelfish, G. lamarckii, develops the same beautiful finnage, a large size with a brilliant white body coloration and four pronounced horizontal lines. It’s anybody’s guess what the vertical bars and horizontal lines of the parent species will blend like when this fish is full grown.
Perhaps the hybrid will develop a checker pattern, a criss cross hatching or maybe a spotted appearance like this other specimen we wrote on years back. What matters most now is that this hybrid swallowtail angelfish is in the good hands of frequent contributor Jimmy Ma and it’s very likely that we’ll get a full report of this fish’s development and color change as it grows and matures.
