Japanese Masked Swallowtail Angelfish
This fish hails from the waters located in the western pacific malaysia fiji japan and new caledonia.
Japanese masked swallowtail angelfish. We are going to explore into genicanthus species with this series and we will talk about genicanthus semifasciatus also known as japanese masked swallowtail angelfish on this episode. The swallowtail angelfish is one of the few angelfish to exhibit dramatic sexual dimorphism. The japanese swallowtail angelfish is a true beauty to behold.
These can be hard fish to find especially males. The female is yellow dorsally and light blue ventrally. Males are gorgeous with irregular vertical bars on the upper body mask like yellow markings on the head and face which extend into a stripe on the mid body and yellow spots on the dorsal and tail fins.
Very few fish show sexual dimorphism out of those few the japanese swallowtail angel genicanthus melanospilos is one of them. Females feature a snow white body with a bright yellow splash on its back and a black stripe on the top and bottom of the. Masked swallowtail angelfish like others of the genus.
We drove 4 hrs north to plant city florida to talk to chris meckley of aci aquaculture to learn little bit more about this amazing fish. Females will change sex to male so if you really want a male you can add two to three three females and the dominant one will change over to male. The masked swallowtail angelfish is often known as the japanese angelfish and resides within the northwest pacific ocean from southern japan to the philippines.
In this article we re going to take a look at another interesting variety of saltwater angelfish the swallowtail angelfish genicanthus semifasciatus or masked swallowtail angelfish as it s sometimes called. Swallowtail angelfish genicanthus melanospilos with a highly flared tail the swallowtail angelfish is also referred to as the blackspot angelfish blackspot lyretail angelfish and spotbreast angelfish. Males feature a silver white body with black vertical stripes across its body up to is head with yellow and blue markings on its forked tail.
And while they do not have the striking markings and coloration of the males females have a subtle beauty of their own.