Potter's angelfish

Care at a glance

Overview

The Potter's angelfish is a grazing dwarf angel from Hawaii for an established saltwater tank. It suits an experienced keeper.

Caring for the Potter's angelfish

Give the Potter's angelfish a long-established tank of at least 65 gal (245 L), with heavy live rock cover and a mature algae film. It is notably slow to settle into a new tank and has little patience for unstable conditions. A mature, stable system suits it better than a new setup.

Keep the water at 72 to 79°F (22 to 26°C) and a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. It is a committed grazer that needs plenty of established algae growth. Add two to three small feedings a day of algae-based and meaty foods. A new arrival can go off food for a stretch.

The Potter's angelfish is mostly peaceful. Keep only one male per tank, and choose its tank mates with caution. Reef keepers rate it caution. It will usually leave corals alone if well fed, but otherwise it may pick at soft corals or clam mantles.

Breeding it is hard, and the species is tricky to reproduce even outside the home aquarium. Researchers have only recently begun to work out how to rear its larvae in aquaculture.

Good to know

Centropyge potteri belongs to the family Pomacanthidae and also goes by Hawaiian angelfish and Potter's dwarf angelfish. Like other Centropyge, it is a protogynous hermaphrodite living in a harem with one dominant male. Its orange body is marbled with blue, and its tail is a dark blue-black.

In the wild

The Potter's angelfish is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll. It lives over coral, rock and rubble on seaward reefs. Juveniles stay shallow, while adults range down to considerably deeper water. It grazes algae constantly and never wanders far from shelter.

Common questions

Related species

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