Solid Orange Coral Beauty Angelfish are a sort of ‘known’ rarity but that doesn’t make them any less spectacular when they do arise. This latest all orange Centropyge bispinosa comes to us from the Philippines via RVS Fishworld and it’s a good look at what this fish looks like when it’s freshly collected, an important detail with this kind of fickle aberration.
The majority of our aberrant, xanthic and otherwise spectacular pygmy angelfish hybrids used to come predominantly from Vanuatu. Centropyge specimens like the blackspot pygmy angelfish, leopard multibar, and yes, orange coral beauties used to knock our socks off in a regular cadence but the supply of fish like these has been drastically reduced since the last fish collector stopped operating there.
The Coral beauty is widespread and common across its expansive geographic range so it makes some sense that this is the aberrant pygmy angelfish which shows up the most often. Some of these oddball Coral Beauties are tangible genetic mutations with a fixed appearance but the orange coral beauty definitely has a mixed track record of reverting back, at least in part, to mostly normal coloration.
We don’t understand well what causes the orange coloration in some of the super orange coral beauties, and at least half of them revert to completely normal coloration in a short time. It could be due to exposure from UV lighting that stimulates melanin or black pigment to form, or see the specimens we see have masculine features, presuming they are male there’s some speculation that the color is from a stimulus by breeding coloration like we see in passer angelfish sometimes.
However since this specimen doesn’t have long fins like we see in males, and hasn’t yet shown any sign of darkening, the chances are good – so far – that this specimen might retain its mange orange dressing. Only time will tell if RVS Fishworld’s newest exciting angelfish collection will retain the glowing orange color, but its owners shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out because when they do revert, the color begins to change almost immediately.
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