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Interesting Facts about Lemon Peel Angelfish

[Phylum: Chordata] [Class: Actinopterygii] [Order: Perciformes] [Family: Pomacanthidae]

There are several variations of Centropyge flavissima, but it's easy to identify the true lemonpeel angelfish by the sky-blue highlights that encircle its eyes.

This segment contains fun facts and interesting information about lemonpeel angelfish, including where they live, what they eat, and how they reproduce.

Centropyge Flavissima Habitats and Range

Angelfishes and butterflyfishes rank among the most conspicuous of all ray-finned vertebrate creatures that inhabit coral reef formations, such as atolls and barrier reefs.

As a result, more than eighty marine angelfish species thrive in various saltwater environments around the world.

The biggest angelfishes spend most of their lives around shallow corals above 20 metres (66 feet) and at sunken shipwrecks.

Most Perciformes are quite bold in their natural habitat, and often swim close to scuba divers and skin divers.

By and large, the Indo-Pacific region is the best place to find bright yellow lemon peel angelfish. They inhabit most of the dive sites in Japan, the majority of the Indian Ocean islands, and many of the barrier reefs at Australia dive sites.

Pro Tip: Angelfish classification differs in taxonomy for "Cichliformes" (tropical cichlids) and "Pterophyllum fish" (freshwater angelfish) - often kept in captivity (e.g. as part of a fish keeping hobby.

Lemonpeel Angelfish Characteristics

Despite being closely related to butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae), ocean angelfish have stronger facial support from preopercle bones. These robust "boomerang-shaped" structures are gill covers that help them to breathe and feed.

Almost all angelfishes are a hardy and bold species when swimming around the reef. But, they become more timid and seek shelter in rocky crevices when darkness falls.

Yellow Lemonpeel Angelfish Interesting Facts and Information Here's the thing:

One of the standout features of "true" lemonpeel angelfish is the vivid yellow body colouration.

You should also see sky-blue markings encircling their eyes and around the outer edges of their pectoral, dorsal, caudal, and anal fins.

The spine of the preoperculum (i.e. a crescent-shaped bone structure behind each eye) is also light blue in colour.

Juveniles have a large black eyespot (ocellus), flanked by a blue perimeter.

They have thirteen (13) spines on the dorsal fin and up to twenty one (21) soft rays. The anal fin has three spines and sixteen (16) soft rays.

Like the blue ring angelfish species, Centropyge flavissima has a small mouth. Even so, at full maturity lemon peel angelfish can grow to fourteen (14) centimetres long (about 5 inches).

Pro Tip: The false lemonpeel angelfish (Centropyge heraldi), sometimes called the herald's angelfish, lacks any of the characteristic blue highlights around the eyes and fin tips.

What Do Lemonpeel Angelfish Eat?

The classification of angelfish defines their individual feeding habits. For example, marine angelfishes of the family Pomacanthidae (also called swallowtail or lyretail angelfish) are typical planktivores (e.g. they feed on planktonic organisms, filamentous green algae, and zooplankton in the water column).

Whereas, a staple food source for most of the large angelfish species includes benthic invertebrates (crustaceans, marine worms), bryozoans (moss animals), hydroids, sea sponges, and salpa (barrel-shaped tunicates)

How Do Yellow Angelfish Reproduce?

A pronounced shift in colouration combines with maturity and social ranking for many of the angelfish phylum. Put another way, the characteristics of juvenile angelfishes see a dramatic change and colour shift as they develop into adulthood.

Lemonpeel angelfish are protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning females can change gender to become a functional male if the dominant male dies or is removed from the harem.

But wait - there's more:

Angelfishes are pelagic spawners. Hence, they release between 150 and one thousand miniscule buoyant eggs into the water column.

The eggs float around with plankton in ocean currents until they hatch. As a consequence of that, most of them fall victim to a range of planktonic feeders, such as large marine mammals.

Threats and Predators

Saltwater angelfish have several natural predators, especially barracudas, large open ocean fishes, and most of the shark phylum.

Are Angelfish Poisonous?

Some large angelfish are edible and fished for human consumption for food. But, caution is needed because some species are not safe to eat and may cause a foodborne illness called ciguatera poisoning. Moreover, ciguatoxin has similar symptoms to pufferfish poisoning.

Pro Tip: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species last assessed many of the angelfish phylum in 2009. They cited lemonpeel angelfishes (Centropyge flavissima) as being of "Least Concern" (LC).

Related Information and Help Guides

Note: The short video [5:03 seconds] from "Deep Reef" contains footage of the bright yellow lemonpeel angelfish displaying its typical behavioural and feeding traits.