For a fish that lives in the Central Pacific Ocean, we never thought we’d see the finest example of a goldflake angelfish in South Africa of all places. But sure enough, while in Johannesburg we dipped into one of the region’s best aquarium stores, Dorry Pets in Gauteng, and encountered what might be the most beautiful Apolemichthys xanthopunctatus we’ve ever seen in an aquarium.
Dorry Pets has a lot going for it with tons of dry goods, great livestock, friendly staff and a freshwater plant section to make any Nature Aquarium fan drool. But of all the things we saw there. their alpha fish was clearly this here brilliant goldflake angelfish, who is clearly the king of a fabulous reef aquarium.
This particularly fine specimen of a goldflake angelfish has a lot of neat features going for it; a ton of blue on the face and aorund the mouth, the black fins are as midnight as they could be with the metallic blue edge contrasting really well. The most prominent quality of this goldflake is the bright yellow body marking which instead of being discrete spots on a greyish background are arranged into small stripes, bunching up into interesting markings and vermiculations around the face.
We know it seems like we’re always saying this, but we and our host Yuri van Deventer agreed that this particular goldflake angelfish must have some degree of hybridization in its recent past. Flagfin angelfish frequently hybridize with goldflake angelfish and juvenile flagfins sometimes show a light tiger striping which could account for the exceptional appearance of Dorry Pets’ studly goldflake angelfish.
It’s that, or the staff at Dorry Pets simply took such great care of their pet goldflake angelfish that it resulted in such a fine aquarium fish. We see plenty of goldflake angelfish every year but this is one angel that we just had to share with you guys so enjoy.
