I did see the common name "swallowtail angel" linked on a couple sights with the genicanthus melanospilos species. Not that it's a huge point, but just sayin'. One reason I dislike common names with those fish I don't see in almost every LFS.
dude looks like a lady
- Thread starter salty420
- Start date
yes these are the black spot angels (most commonly seen and referred to as swallowtails)... what do you think about the color change niko?
that's really interesting, especially since you had thought they were a pair. Are they still getting along okay?
And how is your Midas doing? I haven't been on much lately, so I'm behind.
they get along just fine.
the midas is not doing so well, or at least im not doing so well because the poor little guy is still imprisoned by the clowns (see my reef log) :wall:
Angel fish all start out as a female, and the larger of the fish in these groups become males. The markings are odd in that they are fading somewhat, which does tend to make me lean towards female which is going through diamorphism..Pay attention to the tails of both your fish...
Male
Female
Male
Female
that's my confusion niko... it seems like it's changing from a male to a female. the smaller one is definitely a female, looks identical to the bottom pic you posted. my "male" looked just like the top pic only with the black stripes along in his very long speckled tail until just recently (her tail is not long like his). now it seems to be loosing the striping in the body. she is about 4 inches he is about 7-8. his tail had the black stripes when i got him. i thought he hadn't fully lost them from his change from a female. could there be a different reason for the loss of striping in his body?
Well, they dont change back, once they have changed sex, so, i think we should be looking at other factors....Is the fish under any stress? has the diet changed in the tank? has there been any new inhabitants?
nope no stress at all. everything going great in the tank as far as i can tell, temps been a little high, about 80 degrees. i did come back from a 12 day vacation to my orange back fairy wrasse dead and eaten by my green brittle star. i don't think the star killed it so i don't know why the fish died. my guess is because something always dies when someone else is taking care of your fish! otherwise the tank looks great (updated pics in my reef progress thread in sig) everything is thriving. the fish mostly eat prime reef flake food and rod's reef frozen food so the diet should be fine..? i've tried putting seaweed on a clip for the angels but they haven't tried it.
here is a closer picture of his tail, sorry it's not great...
i miss his nice dark stripes and worry something is wrong though he eats great and acts just fine...
here is a closer picture of his tail, sorry it's not great...
i miss his nice dark stripes and worry something is wrong though he eats great and acts just fine...
I dont see this as anything wrong with the angel...I think it may be time to watch and wait...see how the coloration turns out....
as long as he's not loosing coloration because of a problem im ok with it, not particularly happy, but ok with it...
