The vevet angelfish of the Chaetodontoplus genus are some of the most interesting, and most unique in the Pomacanthidae. However wild collected velvet angelfish have a very hard time adapting to aquarium foods and conditions but thankfully, velvet angelfish are among some of the most often captive bred. Bali Aquarich has been a champion of Chaetodontoplus breeding and they’ve recently had an exciting new breakthrough. Mr Su scored another new fish, with this hybrid of Maze and Black velvet Angelfish, Chaetodontoplus cephalareticulatus x Chaetodontoplus melanosoma.
The thing with this hybrid cross is that they’re all different with some keeping the blue color face from the Maze, and some more grey-blue like the Black Velvet. The big lingering question mark is going to be the lines across the body with any number of outcomes possible, we could end up with some very unique patterns. There will probably be a selection of very special ones such as blue Chinese character that could catch the attention of very affluent fish keepers. That’s why Mr Su is not yet releasing them, as he wants to see their final coloration before selecting and selling them one by one, mainly on the Asian market.
I personally loved the dark back body, yellow tail and blue face of some of them and just wish they could stay like that. Therefore I can’t wait to come back in a few weeks, and see what will come out of this batch of fish because it looks like they will be all different.