🐠 Passer Angelfish (Holacanthus passer)
A Vivid Orange Body With a Bold White Bar and Electric-Blue Trim • A True East Pacific Rarity • A Bold, Hardy Centrepiece
 
📋 The Passer Angelfish, also known as the King Angelfish, is a striking large angelfish, with a vivid orange body crossed by a bold white bar and accented with fine electric-blue striping and trim. Juveniles look completely different, orange-yellow with rounded blue-rimmed fins and blue striping toward the tail, undergoing a dramatic colour transformation as they mature.
It comes exclusively from the Eastern Pacific, from the Gulf of California south through Central America to Peru, including the Galápagos Islands, rare in a trade largely centred on Indo-Pacific fish, which is directly reflected in its price. An interesting natural history detail: males are up to 50% longer and 300% heavier than females, forming pair bonds during the late-summer breeding season. Every Passer Angelfish we ship is feeding well.
It's a bold, hardy species once established, and tankmates need to be selected carefully to match its confident temperament, since it can be assertive, especially toward other angelfish. It's primarily a sponge feeder in the wild, and it's not reef safe, and will nip at stony and soft corals and clam mantles, making it best suited to a spacious fish-only or FOWLR aquarium. It reaches up to 36cm, so plan on at least 450L, and 950L or more for a full-grown adult.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Vivid Orange, Blue and White: A striking large angelfish pattern
💎 East Pacific Rarity: Uncommon in a largely Indo-Pacific-focused trade
👶 Dramatic Juvenile-to-Adult Transformation: Completely different colouration at each stage
♂️♀️ Size Dimorphism: Males up to 50% longer and 300% heavier than females
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Will nip at corals and clam mantles