Pomacanthus zonipectus is a large species of marine angelfish which has a unique and beautiful juvenile pattern. A handful of these recently turned up as larvae in the culture vats of Bali Aquarich representing the first captive bred cortez angelfish from the aquarium world.
These boldly patterned and colorful young cortez angelfish are a deep black with bold yellow stripes and a brilliant blue outline. As colorful as these baby cortez angels are now, they will develop even more colors and patterns as they get larger and older.
At an intermediate size the yellow stripes become more narrow but they then are paired up with a series of blue lines that glow metallic in the right lighting. Furthermore, the specimens of captive bred cortez angels from Bali Aquarich show some additional striping which we expect will develop into an unusual adolescent P/ zonipectus as they get older.
Cortez angels are not the flashiest of the large marine angelfish but their large size and hardy nature makes them a great fish for the largest aquariums. While they don’t naturally co-occur, it would be very fun to see Bali Aquarich cross the cortez angel with an annularis angel, which they’ve previously bred, and hybridized with emperor angels, but for now we look forward to seeing how this purebred cortez angelfish develops as it grows older and larger.
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