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King Angelfish

Family: Pomacanthidae

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Holacanthus passerPhoto © Animal-World: Courtesy David Brough

     The King angelfish is an example of a fish that looks completely different as an adult than it does as a juvenile!

     An adult King Angelfish is shown above. The juvenile is more colorful with blue-white stripes on a light orange background.

For more Information on keeping this fish see:
Guide to a Happy, Healthy Marine Aquarium

Maintenance difficulty:      The King Angelfish is moderately difficult to keep.

Maintenance:      This angelfish survives on sponges so make sure you can get an angel formula with sponge in it. It is important that you feed angelfish all kinds of live, frozen, and prepared formula foods. Best to feed small amounts several times a day. A good formula that can be made at home consists of mussels, shrimp, squid, and spinach.

Habitat: Natural geographic location:      King Angelfish are found in reef areas of the Eastern Pacific: Gulf of California to Peru, including the Galapagos Islands. Found at depths from 4 to 30 meters.

Natural Foods:      Eats sponges, tunicates, and other benthic invertebrates. These fish act as cleaner fish, eating external parasites, from hammerhead sharks!.

Social Behaviors:      Found singly in pairs, or groups. In the aquarium they become aggressive towards their own species so you should keep only one per aquarium.

Sexual differences:      Unknown.

Light: Recommended light levels:      No special requirements.

Breeding/Reproduction:      Not accomplished in captivity. See Breeding Marine Fish page for a description of how they reproduce in the wild.

King Angelfish (juvenile) Photo  © Animal-World: Courtesy Hiroyuki Tanaka

Temperature:      No special requirements. Normal temperatures for marine fish lies between 75 and 79 degrees.

Length/Diameter of fish:      King Angelfish adults can grow to 25 cm (10 inches).

Minimum Tank Length/Size:      A minimum 60 gallon aquarium is recommended.

Water Movement: Weak, Moderate, Strong      No special requirements.

Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom      No special requirements.

Availability:      This fish is generally rarely available and is expensive.

Author: David Brough. CFS.

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Latest Comments
I had a king angelfish for 27 years and I can say they are the most colorful fish I had every seen. Reply chris 2009-11-10
The King Angelfish is surely a beauty to lay eyes on. I had mine all for a mere week, and within that week it ate and seem to do extremely well, and I awoke one morning to find it dead. It gave no warning that it was even sick or dying. I immediately tested the water to see what could have happened to it, all the testings were fine. All I can say is that maybe this fish is exactly like it says, moderately hardy. Reply alaica parker 2007-02-24
My Passer is a periodic hellion, but like him any way, and he lives with a Queen, an enormous French angel, and a blue-ringed angel as well. He was raised with the blue ringed and queen since they were babies, it worked out, but have tried it the other way and introduced an older one and that was a disaster. The french angel is 12 inches and she/he keeps everyone in check including my queen trigger - they all reside in a 280 gallon tank now, but when the 3 angels I raised together were babies, I brought them up in a 55 gallon for about 2 years. Use a lot of vitamins! Get one! Brian Reply Brian 2005-05-17
They are very good pets! Reply angelica 2005-03-03
ok i do not personally keep these fish, but i plan to. I have read that the males have yellow pectoral fins, and females have white Reply Tom Jorden 2004-04-22
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