The Coral Beauty is often a Reefer’s first introduction to marine angelfishes. They are relatively hardy, easy to keep, cheap, and widely available, but this can also work against them when more seasoned reefers prefer something, well, a bit rarer.
This featured Coral Beauty however wouldn’t look out of place in a collector’s tank, and will no doubt appeal to the highest echelons of the trade and hobby, as well as to newbies. And unlike some Coral Beauty aberrations, this one really is beautiful.
The fish was caught by RVS Fishworld, a Philippines-based saltwater fish supplier that is no stranger to tracking down and collecting Coral Beauty color morphs. The Philippines and RVS have produced dozens of interesting Centropyge bispinosa over the years, from blue ones to blotched ones, even solid Tangerine. But this fish is one of the loveliest.
RVS is calling it “inverse,” but when we compare it to a standard Coral Beauty the pattern isn’t so much reversed, as lacking most of the velvety purple coloration on the top two-thirds of the fish’s body and fins, revealing far more orange, magenta and tropical pink from underneath. It’s eye-catching.
The question is if the fish’s pattern will change, and just like aberrant Zebrasoma species surgeonfish, this Centropyge’s current pattern may just be transitory. There is also one small caveat – we have only seen one side of the fish. Although we have seen left and right-pointing photos, they look like one image that’s been flipped.
This fish would be way out of our price range, though if were in a position to buy we would want to see both sides beforehand.
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