It’s that time of year when reef organisms with any kind of festive link feature heavily, and let’s face it, it can get a bit repetitive with the usual suspects cropping up year after year. Centropyge heraldi isn’t one of those normally considered though, despite it’s obvious (if slightly tweaked) link with the English Christmas Carol of similar name. For the Holy, there’s even a resurrection in the story of this species.
With a colour scheme that would brighten up any drab Winter’s day, C. heraldi is one of 35(ish) species in the dwarf angelfish genus Centropyge. It’s very similar to C. flavissima, the Lemonpeel Angel, although that species can be distinguished by its distinctive blue iris, which the Herald’s doesn’t have. Despite this, C. heraldi is sometimes named the “False Lemonpeel” angel. In terms of habits, it’s also pretty standard for dwarf angels… generally well-behaved but a risk with sessile invertebrates. It’s probably one of the more delicate dwarf species though, and not likely to be available as captive-bred at the time of writing.
Where C. heraldi gets really interesting, and downright confounding, is in the variety of forms that it exhibits. Beyond the “standard” uniform plain coloured fish, C. heraldi can sport a varying degree of black on it’s body. Some specimens show this sooty dusting all over their bodies, while in others, it is restricted to perhaps just a patch behind their eye. In captivity, this colour can come or go, just to add to the confusion. Many specimens have black-trimmed dorsal fins, and even darkened anal and caudal fins in rare cases (although recent studies have linked some of these specimens to C. bicolor, rather than C. heraldi). Doubtless to say that hybridisation is behind some of these cases. A genetic study in 2016 resurrected the classic black-trimmed dorsal variant from the Southwestern Pacific back to individual species status. Previously named C. woodheadi by Rudie Kuiter in 1998, but then synonymised with C. heraldi, this Southwestern Pacific species is now back to being C. woodheadi again!
Whatever the name, C. heraldi is far from “boring or plain” in our opinion. Next time you are in a fish shop, keep your eyes open for one and take the time to look closely to see if it really is what it claims to be. For now let’s all just sing it’s praises!
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