Hybrid angelfish are more common on coral reefs than you think!
Channel: ReefMan
Date: 2020-08-23

Hybrid angelfish always command a huge price in the reef tank hobby. It turns out though - they're far from uncommon in the wild. Pygmy angelfish interbreed and create hybrids more often than any other group of fish that we know about - even the Butterflyfish which held the record previously. 48% of marine angelfish can create hybrids! Even such common fish in our tanks like the Flame Angelfish (Centropyge loricula) creates hybrids - in the paper it's shown with Centropyge ferrugata (the Rusty Angelfish). Even deepwater fish like Centropyge venusta (the Purplemask Angelfish) create hybrids with other deep water angelfish. 

You're able to visually distinguish these hybrids from species fish - so keep an eye out for an interesting specimen when you're looking at a tank of fish - there very well could be a hybrid in there! Captive breeding of Pygmy Angelfish is also gaining traction, but I would caution against creating hybrids ourselves. Though it's not uncommon in the wild, captive breeding is still so rare that keeping the species distinct is important. We don't need designer angelfish like we have done with Clownfish - at least not yet! 

Check out the paper, it's open access and a really interesting read if you're into fish, ecology, parapatry/sympatry and that sort of thing. Also, check out @FishGuyKai on Twitter - he's an amazing macro photographer and worth a follow for sure. 

2020 Angels in disguise: sympatric hybridization in the marine angelfishes is widespread and occurs between deeply divergent lineages 
Tea Yi-Kai, Hobbs Jean-Paul A., Vitelli Federico, DiBattista Joseph D., Ho Simon Y. W. and Lo Nathan 
Proc. R. Soc. B.28720201459
http://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1459

KaiTheFishGuy on Twitter
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Yi-Kai Tea's Website
https://www.yikaitea.com/

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