The interruptus angelfish is one of the most unique and interesting of all Centropyge but they are very rare in the saltwater aquarium world. Hailing from the northwest Pacific Ocean most of the few specimens collected from the wild are from the southeast coast of Japan but it can also be infrequently encountered further east to outlying islands of Izu, Bonin and occasionally Midway.
Thankfully you won’t have to go that far to get your hands on Centropyge interruptus as the species is being captive bred in healthy quantities in Japan as we reported just a few months ago. To our delight we found out that a sizable number of these captive bred interruptus angelfish made their way to one of the largest marine life importer in the United States, SDC-ERI.
These juvenile captive bred interruptus were born between Aug and Oct of 2021 making them roughly six months old and they have already grown to a size of two to two and a half inches long and are thriving on pellets, frozen brine shrimp and a variety of prepared foods. You’ll need to keep up with good generous feedings if you want this Japanese giant-pygmy angelfish to reach a size of six inches or more, making it by far the largest member of the Centropyge genus.
We’ve lusted after small juvenile interruptus angelfish for years, admiring their shining golden yellow face and tail which is peppered by blue spotted spangles which changes as the fish matures. As C. interruptus matures the females become more blue overall with small blue spots on the face while the facial spots of males become larger, creating almost a mask of intense blue scribbles and lines on the face.
We don’t know how many fish SDC-ERI brought in but a powerful magnitude 7.3 earthquake just hit Japan a few hours ago and we have no idea of the damage and whether this will affect future imports. At present we see that the fish are available to pre-order from Among the Reef for a princely sum of $2500 and they will come fully conditioned and quarantined.
