Personifer angels, experience, info?

[Kahuna Tuna]

I am thinking of adding a personifer angel to my 180 gallon system and was wondering if anyone had kept them. I say personifer but I am actually more interested in the meredith's angelfish, Chaetodontoplus meredithi. This species is often refered to as the personifer angel in the trade but its close relative Chaetodontoplus personifer is the true personifer angel. They were actually considered to be the same species until 1990, so close are these fish in shape, color, and anatomy. From what I gather even most wholesalers either dont know or cant tell the differences in these two species and confusion abounds as to which fish you are actually buying when you buy a "personifer" angel. If anybody has any info or experiences on these species it would be most appreciated. TIA

[Kahuna Tuna]

Bump. Anybody?

[Kahuna Tuna]

Last bump, nobody? :( *sniff*

[Avi]

I've been waiting to see if someone responds to this post. I can't help out with an arcane issue like this but maybe you ought to post in the Reef Fishes Forum under Marine Fish Forums and you'd have better luck there.

[Jeffie]

We have a large male Meredithi in a 450 gallon FO. He is about 10-12 inches .He is absolutely stunning. He has been with us for about 2 1/2 years. Eats everything from mysis, krill, formula cubes, shrimp, nori etc.etc. He is housed with a large mac angel, large blonde naso, vlamingi tang, klunzinger wrasse, greenbird wrasse, 2- virgate rabbitfish, clown tang, gold puffer and a assassi trigger. He is an awesome display animal. I can try and post some pics later if you would like to see him.

[Avi]

I sure would and I'm just here for the ride.

[Kahuna Tuna]

I would love to see the pics, sounds like you have a very nice setup there Jeffie. I tried the reef fishes forum with no luck, i guess not too many people keep this fish. I have been keeping marine fish for a very long time and I've never seen a personifer in the flesh, which is kind of strange since I see them online all the time. Thanks for the info.

[i2ik]

I also would like to see a picture of your personifer angel!!! :)

I am planning on getting one from my LFS which is a small one for my 140G tank... if it ever grow to big for my cube, might bring it into my 180G tank.

I saw it once at the same LFS and its a very nice fish!!!

Havent seen a juvenile if its still as nice...

[witchdoctor]

I used to have an actual personifer, c. personifer, in a FOWLR back when we lived in Baltimore 6 years ago. When we moved up here to Boston, we knew we would not have as much room, so I gave it to a friend (whose tank unfortunately crashed about a year later when his pump failed). Really sad, it was a spectacular fish, the deep black of its body always got comments from even non-marine folks.

I would not be surprised that many do not know the difference, as they are extremely similar species. The juvenile of both resembe the adult c. meredithi. It did have the black tail bar, which if I recall correctly, was essentially the only distinguishing feature from the c. meredithi.

I was able to get it to eat fairly quickly, starting out with a couple of sponges that I sacrificed to get it going (initially, it didn't show any interest in mysis, formula 1/2, or anything else). After a couple of days, I added in some formula 1 and 2, and eventually it would eat the standard diet I fed to all of the fish (though it definitely would feast on any sponges that I put in the tank).

[i2ik]

Thank you witchdoctor,

was it a adult one you had? How many inch was it? I believe when it get an adult, his face will change a bit having some yellow spot in the face. I will make sure to get a sponge as well if i get the fish so i will get more time to make him it :)

[witchdoctor]

It was an adult, about 5-6 inches long when I got it. It did have yellow spots on a blue face. I've not actually seen a juvenile of the species, so I don't know about coloration changes of the face. I have read that the juvenile c. personifer has a solid yellow tail, and develops the black tail as it matures. Mine had a mostly black tail, just a stripe of yellow at the base, and black and yellow feathering at the end.

[i2ik]

Nice! Do you have a picture of it? :) What was his other buddies in the tank?