Underwater Uniqueness!

Every once in a while, the ocean presents us with something different. Sometimes it's two fish hybridizing and producing an offspring that we rarely see. On much more rare occasions, nature produces us a genetic anomaly that results in something gorgeous and different. In some cases, this is a totally unique aberration, in other cases, it can be an early step in the process of speciation! Today is one of the days where something unique has found its way here.

Asfur Angels are a common fish in their home range, along the western edge of the Indian Ocean up into the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Obviously, this is about as far from North America as you can get and on top of this, much of the region suffers from frequent instability. This all culminates in us not seeing see Asfur Angels here nearly as much as we'd like. What we see even less, is the white variant. Most Asfur Angels are black with a splash of iridescent blue on their foreheads and a large yellow swath on their side with a matching tail. It is a gorgeous fish that photography never seems to do justice to. The White Asfur trades out the yellow for porcelain white making them even more stark, and incredibly, even more rare.

Luckily, for us as aquarium keepers, pretty much everything else about them is the same, making them excellent aquarium choices for their hardiness, temperament and great looks! They are undemanding aquarium denizens if given appropriate conditions and food. Most Asfur Angels will never get bigger than ten to twelve inches or so, (though in the interest of full disclosure, the largest one collected is just shy of 16 inches!). Even a ten-inch fish is going to need a decent sized aquarium to be happy long term, and you should have, or at least plan for, a tank of 150 gallons or more. The longer and wider this tank is, the better as the White Asfur Angel isn't going to need a ton of depth to the tank but will appreciate the swimming space. You should supply them with plenty of rocks, caves and swim-through opportunities, but balance this rock work with open space for them to swim. High flow will help keep the tank clean and offer them more exercise. There is no requirement for a substrate and a bare bottom tank would be totally appropriate.

Pomacanthus asfur doesn't have any standout specific needs as far as water quality goes. While portions of their native range are famous for high salinity, this is not a requirement for successful husbandry of the animal. A specific gravity of anywhere between 1.020 and 1.026 will be fine for them as long as it remains stable. The far southern portion of the White Asfur's wild range is subtropical, and these fish can be kept long term in cool water tanks with temps down to the low 60s. This being said, we suggest keeping your display in the mid 70's, which is much easier for the vast majority of us, and more natural for where the fish are usually coming from. Keep the pH between 7.8 and 8.4 and nitrates under 10ppm.

When feeding your White Asfur, you need to realize that all Pomacanthus genus fish are grazers in the wild; nibbling on nearly everything in their path as they swim along. Watching one eat on the reef would lead one to the conclusion that they mostly consume sponges and tunicates, but studies on their diet have shown that White Asfurs also eat a wide variety small invertebrate living on and in those sponges. Even with this “picky” wild diet, all Asfurs are usually easy to feed, (which is not always the case with other large Angels). Diet variety is one of the most important aspects of keeping any Marine Angelfish and it should be a focus for the hobbyist who chooses to keep one. They are perfect candidates for Nutramar's Shots which are stuck to rocks or glass low in the tank which allows the Angel to graze on it in a natural way. We use the Algae and Color Boost shot and pellets when feeding the Asfurs, and they also get a mix of thawed foods including Gamma mysis, Chopped Mussel, Chopped Prawn, Brine + Spirulina, Brine + Omega 3, Vegetarian Diet and a favorite, Cockle-in-Shell. Here we feed twice a day to spread out their intake which helps mimic them getting food throughout the day. You could feed them as many times a day as you wanted, as long as it was the same amount of food total. For example, if we fed 10 grams of food in one meal per day, we'd give them the whole 10 grams. Conversely, if you had five feedings, each meal would have to be two grams.

Most of the fish in the genus Pomacanthus are gregarious, boisterous fellows; they are often the extroverts of the aquarium world. The White Asfur Angel is not this fish. They are a little more of a wallflower, they tend to be shy, read books and feel awkward in parties. This is especially true when you first introduce them to your aquarium, but if you followed our instructions about giving them plenty of hiding places, this will actually help you see them more often. Perhaps they feel more secure if they know there's somewhere to easily escape to. The White Asfur should be (and deserves to be) the only Angel in the tank but they are fine with most other fish. Once they get acclimated, their size and speed might be overwhelming for really timid small fish like Firefish or something similar, so we'd recommend not choosing them as tankmates either. Lastly, while we do sometimes see aquacultured Asfurs, the White Stripe Asfur is wild, and so grew up eating sponges, tunicates and nibbling pretty much everything in site to see if it is edible. As a result, we can't recommend them for reef style aquariums. We know some of you have seen someone else try to keep Pomacanthus in their reef tank. If you want to try it, it's up to you. Just don't come crying to us when your Asfur wipes out your gorgeous Millepora colony in an afternoon (that memory still stings).

While the popularity of “Biotope” style aquariums seems to come and go, we remain big fans of them. If you're looking to do a Red Sea Biotope, the White Asfur Angel would be an incredible showpiece for this tank. There is a huge variety of other fish you could include in this, depending on the size of the tank you have. This is by no means an exhaustive list but think about species like Five Band Sargent Major Damsel, Pink Bar Goby (and a shrimp buddy!), Bicinctus Clownfish, Lyretail Hogfish, Diana's Hogfish, Sohal Tang, Purple Tang, Blue and Gold Fusiler, Marine Betta, Valentini Puffer, Threadfin Butterflies, Red Sea Raccoon Butterflies, Kleinii Butterflies, Semilarvatus Butterflies, Black and White (dimidiata) Chromis, Coral Hawkfish, Slingjaw Wrasse, Green Bird Wrasse, Goldenstripe Soapfish, Checkerboard Wrasse, Banner Butterflies, Blue Stripe Snappers, Pine Cone Soldiers, Sixline Wrasse, Lunar Wrasse, Orchid Dottyback, Blonde Naso Tang, Lyretail Anthias, Niger Trigger, Desjardinii Tangs, even Pineapple fish! Just start looking through our livestock listings elsewhere here on the site. If you see “Red Sea” as a possible source for that fish, it could be in a Red Sea Biotope (this doesn't mean they'd be good tankmates, so do a bit more research once you've narrowed down your list. We've intentionally left a few species off here because of their overly timid nature and we haven't put any Eels on it, because Angels like to pick on stuff and your Eel may not like this if they get picked on!

Asfur Angels are a very beautiful, sustainable choice when it comes to a display anchoring Angel in the home aquarium and the White Asfur brings an exclusivity and stark contrast that the “normal” Asfur doesn't match. If you're a home aquarist looking for a flagship fish, they are hard to beat. For the aquarist looking for a Red Sea biotope, the Asfur Angel is a perfect showpiece. Ask your Local Fish Store about getting you one of these durable, gorgeous fish from Quality Marine, but ask quick, the supply is extremely limited, and we don't see the White Asfur very often!