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Black Angelfish
Information resourced and
researched from
"Tropical Marine Aquaria"
by Graham.F.Cox.
Published by Treasure Press
© The Hamlyn Publishing Group
This species and the very similar French Angelfish below are restricted to the Caribbean area and in common with other sea aquarium fishes from this area, appear to be more than usually prone to Lymphocystis disease. This may be because American shippers of coral fishes tend to house all fishes of the same species together. That is to say that a large shipper will have one tank full of Rock Beauties, another full of Queen Angels, and so on. This inevitably results in a certain amount of intraspecific aggression and in consequence many epidemal cells become ruptured, thus permitting the ingress of Lymphocystis viruses which are responsible for the characteristic creamy to pinkish-white cysts.
When juvenile, both the Black Angelfish and the French Angelfish are extremely similar, both being black with four vertical bars down the sides. However, the stripes of the Black Angelfish are white, whereas those on the French Angelfish are yellow. When adult, P. arcuatus becomes a pewter grey colour with black dots on every scale. In a good specimen filaments extend on the dorsal and anal fins almost to the posterior edge of the caudal fin.
