Rock beauty Angelfish – Holacanthus tricolor
Species name: Holacanthus tricolor
Common names: Rock beauty Angelfish
Family: Pomacanthidae (Angelfishes)
Order: Perciformes (perch-likes)
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fishes)
Maximum length: 13.7 in
Minimum tank size: 100 gallons
Hardiness: Moderate to difficult.
Aggressiveness: Semi-aggressive. Cannot be kept with other Angelfish.
Reef Compatibility: May nip at corals
Distribution: Western Atlantic: Georgia (USA), Bermuda, and northern Gulf of Mexico to Santa Catarina, Brazil
Diet: Omnivore. Feeds on sponges, tunicates, zoantharians and algae. It’s diet should be supplement it with opened clams, mussels, oysters, algae based food, sea food preparations, marine algae, Spirulina and sponge. Sponges are very important, without this in their diets they will slowly starve to death.
Additional information:
In the wild, Rock Beauty Angels are found in the Western Atlantic where it frequent coral reefs, rubble reefs, or shallow rock jetty areas at depth of 10 to 115 feet.
The head and front half portion of the body and the caudal fin are a bright yellow. The anterior part of the body, the dorsal fin and the front of the anal fin are black.
Young specimens are completely yellow with a black spot and are always female. They have the capacity to change into males when they get older.
Rock Beauty Angelfish is a beautiful but demanding aquarium fish because of its dietary requirement of sponges. Easily half are lost within a month of capture in the wild.
The ideal aquarium should have a fair amount of live rock as they mostly pick on small food off the live rock. It allow the fish to carry out its natural browsing behavior in captivity. Growing macro-algae in the main tank is a good idea. Plenty of cave to hide and room to swim is also important. Water temperature should be between 72 and 78F, specific gravity at 1.020 to1.025 and pH at 8.1 to 8.4.
It is a territorial species and should not be combined with aggressive fish and other angelfish (including members of its own species).
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Article written by www.aquariumslife.com
References: FishBase
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