🐠 Purple Masked Angelfish (Centropyge venusta)
A Bright Yellow Body With a Deep Blue-to-Purple Triangular Mask • A Rare Deep-Water Showpiece • A Striking Centrepiece for a Mature Tank
 
📋 The Purple Masked Angelfish, also known as the Venustus Angelfish or Blue-Backed Angelfish, has a striking appearance: a bright yellow body with a deep blue-to-purple triangular patch covering the eyes and extending as a saddle across the back, giving it a superhero-like "masked" look.
It comes from caves and deep reef slopes across the Indo-Pacific, including Fiji, the Philippines, and Vanuatu, rare in the trade and collected from meaningfully deep water. Interestingly, it's known to naturally hybridise with the Multi-Barred Angelfish in the wild. Every Purple Masked Angelfish we ship is feeding well, and we favour captive-bred stock, which is meaningfully hardier and readier for aquarium life than wild-caught specimens.
It's shy when first introduced, hiding in caves and crevices before gradually becoming more outgoing and establishing territory, so it's best added as the last fish to a mature tank. It's reef safe with caution, and a well-fed specimen in a spacious tank is meaningfully less likely to nip at sessile invertebrates and clam mantles. It's territorial toward other dwarf angelfish, and should be the only Centropyge species present. It reaches up to 10cm, so plan on at least 265L.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Yellow Body With a Purple-Blue Mask: A striking, unmistakable pattern
💎 A Deep-Water Rarity: Uncommon in the trade, reflected in its price
🍽️ Ships Feeding Well: We favour meaningfully hardier captive-bred stock
🙈 Shy Initially: Best added as the last fish to an established tank
⚠️ Reef Safe With Caution: Consistent feeding reduces nipping risk