The blueline and conspicuous angelfish are two of our favorite Chaetodontoplus species and now we might get to see what these two fish will look like in one fish. At MACNA 2017 Poma Labs made a huge splash with their expansive catalog of captive bred angelfish, most notably the captive bred Conspic.
Not present but detailed in their species catalog brochure is a hybrid cross of the conspicuous angelfish with the blueline angelfish. The blueline angelfish have natural range well outside of the distribution of conspicuous angelfish, but in the artificial environment of Poma Labs breeding facility, these species have now had the chance to cross fertilize creating the first man made hybrids of these related species.
The image above was composed by Joe Rowlett imagining what might be possible if the color and pattern of a conspic and a blueline angelfish were perfectly preserved. Alas, while Pomacanthus hybrids do generate some wild and crazy color and pattern combinations, this hasn’t really seemed to be the case for Chaetodontoplus.
The closest examples we can compare the Poma Labs crosses to are the very few and rare naturally occurring hybrids of Conspics and false personifer angelfish that occasionally turn up in Australia. These conspic x personifers look muddy in color when young but do eventually turn out to be pretty unique looking angelfish.
The development of the captive bred conspic blueline hybrid is going to be a surprise to everyone. It could turn out to be a conspic with thin blue lines, or more like a blueline with yellow face and the subtle features and accents of the conspic. Whatever the case, growing up one of these new man made hybrid angelfish crosses is the ultimate fishkeeping experience as it will be a surprise to the world as to the appearance these fish eventually develop.
