RVS Fishworld has shown off a Tangerine “super xanthic” Coral Beauty that it just sold to a well-known fish collector. For many of us, a Coral Beauty was our first introduction to dwarf angels, their purple coloration complimenting the yellows and blues of surgeonfish while being small enough to live comfortably in a 70-gallon tank. They are widely available, good value even, although we don’t know any hardcore reefers who still maintain or covet them in their common form. When a rarity like this pops up, however, the modest Centropyge bispinosa reminds us all how its naturally occurring variations can knock it out of the park.
“The Tangerine Coral Beauty was collected in Zambales province in the Philipines,” Barnett Shutman of RVS Fishworld told Reef Builders. “It was collected around 150 feet deep.” The last all-orange Coral Beauty was collected back in 2019, again by RVS, and over the years we have covered every aberration from blue, to golden, koi, and even hybrids. We did do a double take at this glowing bispinosa after recent conversations with exporters confirmed to us that C.loricula, the Flame Angel, is far more widespread and occurring far further east across the pacific than previously thought. But we’re pretty certain it’s pure Beauty.
Admire it up close and this fish really is as orange as burning embers, and the guy who bought it, Richard Wong from Hong Kong, will get to enjoy it next to the exquisite Centropyge venusta x multifasciata hybrid he brought last year.
