Herald's Yellow Angel Care Guide
Centropyge heraldi is a solid yellow Pacific dwarf angelfish that grazes filamentous algae on outer reef slopes.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Centropyge heraldi, Herald's angelfish, is a dwarf angel of the family Pomacanthidae described by Woods and Schultz in 1953. It has a yellowish-orange body, sometimes with a darker olive patch near the eye. It reaches about 12 cm total length.
Taxonomy
- Family: Pomacanthidae
- Genus: Centropyge
- Scientific name: Centropyge heraldi
Habitat
Found in the western and central Pacific from southern Japan and Taiwan east to the Tuamotu Islands and south to Australia. It occurs on steep outer reef slopes and occasionally lagoon reefs at depths of about 5-90 m. FishBase records a temperature range of roughly 25-28.9 °C.
Tank requirements
- Minimum tank volume: 250 L
- Temperature: 24-26 °C
- pH: 8.1-8.4
- Specific gravity: 1.024-1.026
- dKH: 8-12
- Adult size: 10-12 cm
- Lifespan: 8-15 years
Diet
Herbivorous; feeds primarily on filamentous algae. In aquaria it needs a mature tank rich in microalgae for grazing supplemented with marine algae and prepared foods.
Reef compatibility
Reef compatibility is variable; being primarily an algae grazer it is among the more reef-tolerant dwarf angels, though it may occasionally nip polyps. Maintain specific gravity 1.024-1.026 and dKH 8-12.
Compatibility
Semi-aggressive, especially toward other dwarf angels; avoid keeping multiple Centropyge in one tank and avoid aggressive damsels. Suitable tankmates include tangs, clownfish, wrasses and gobies.
Breeding
It usually lives in small harems of a male and one to three females and is a protogynous hermaphrodite; a female may change to male when no male is present.
Conservation status
IUCN Red List: Least Concern (assessed 2009). It appears in the aquarium trade.
Yellow Angel (Centropyge heraldi) Breeding Guide
Overview
The yellow angel, Centropyge heraldi, is a solid-yellow dwarf angelfish of the Indo-Pacific, reaching around 12 cm. Like the rest of the genus it lives on reefs and grazes algae and detritus. As a pelagic spawner with planktonic larvae it is not reproduced in home aquaria.
Sexing
Centropyge are protogynous hermaphrodites: all individuals begin as females and the dominant fish in a group changes to male within days. There is no stable external sex marker, so sex follows harem hierarchy rather than appearance.
Conditioning
Dwarf angels live in harems of one dominant male with several females, so a breeding programme begins by assembling such a group in a large, mature system. Because the genus is intolerant of conspecifics in confined space, maintaining a stable harem is difficult in a home aquarium.
Spawning Behavior & Trigger
As in other dwarf angels, the male courts a female near dusk and the pair rise into the water column to release eggs and sperm. This upward pelagic spawning ascent cannot be reproduced reliably in a typical aquarium.
Egg & Fry Care
Eggs and larvae are pelagic and very small. The newly hatched larvae need tiny live prey such as cultured copepod nauplii through a long planktonic phase before metamorphosis, which is the central technical obstacle to rearing dwarf angels outside a hatchery.
Common Challenges
No documented home breeding of the yellow angel exists. Reproducing dusk pelagic spawning and then feeding and raising the minute larvae keeps this species a research- and commercial-scale challenge rather than a home-aquarium project.