Rock Beauty Angelfish Approx. 3″ Juvenile – Locally Caught & Quarantined (Holacanthus tricolor)

Description

You are buying a Rock Beauty Angelfish (Holacanthus tricolor) — a healthy ~3″ juvenile hand-collected right here in the Florida Keys and fully quarantined in our facility. It is already eating prepared foods and ready for your display. Photographed under reef lighting. We have several of these juveniles in right now, so the photo is representative rather than the exact individual you will receive: a brilliant yellow-orange body with the signature large blue-black flank blotch and a blue-ringed eye.

About the Rock Beauty Angelfish (Holacanthus tricolor)

A prized Western Atlantic angelfish native to the reefs of the Florida Keys and Caribbean. Juveniles are mostly golden-yellow with a bold dark oval on the side that spreads across the rear of the body as the fish matures. Because ours is locally caught and quarantined rather than shipped in from overseas, it arrives less stressed, disease-screened, and already feeding — a far better start than a typical import.

Care Guide

A rewarding fish for an intermediate keeper with a mature system and plenty of live rock to graze.

• Diet: Omnivore with a natural taste for sponge. Offer a varied menu — angelfish preparations containing sponge, mysis, enriched brine, and marine algae/nori. Live rock for grazing helps.
• Minimum tank: A well-established aquarium with generous rockwork; give it room to grow, as larger systems suit it best over time.
• Temperament: Semi-aggressive and increasingly bold with size; best added later and given space from other angels.
• Reef caution: Not considered fully reef-safe — it may nip LPS, soft corals, zoanthids, clam mantles, and sponges. Ideal for a FOWLR or fish-focused system; keep with corals at your discretion.
• Water Parameters: Temp 76–78°F, salinity 1.020–1.026, pH 8.1–8.4. Stability matters more than exact numbers.

Locally caught & quarantined

Hand-collected in the Florida Keys and conditioned through our quarantine process — eating, alert, and ready to go.

Ships UPS Next Day Air every Tuesday and Wednesday from Key West, Florida. Packed in an insulated box with a heat or cold pack appropriate for current conditions and bagged with plenty of oxygen.

UPS Next Day Air · Live Arrival Guaranteed. See current rates, ship days and how a claim works.

Quarantine, and why it matters more than anything else here

Every fish should go through quarantine before it enters your display. A bare tank, a sponge filter, a heater, some PVC for cover, and four weeks of observation prevents the single most expensive mistake in the hobby — introducing ich or velvet into an established reef, where treating it means removing every fish anyway.

Acclimation on arrival

Float the sealed bag for 15 minutes to equalize temperature, then drip acclimate for 30 to 45 minutes. Keep the whole job under an hour: once the bag is open, the ammonia in the shipping water gets more toxic. Dim the lights or leave them off for the first day. Never add shipping water to your system. Net the fish across rather than pouring, and expect it to hide for the first 24 to 48 hours — a new fish that goes straight into the open is the exception, not the sign of a good one.

First feeding

Do not be alarmed if it refuses food for the first day or two. Offer a small amount of a high-quality frozen food in the evening when the tank is quiet. Most fish that are going to eat will start within 48 hours. A fish still refusing food after four or five days needs attention, not more food.

Compatibility

Add the least aggressive fish first and the most aggressive last, and rearrange rockwork when introducing a fish into an established territory — it resets the existing residents enough to give the newcomer a chance. Watch the first 48 hours closely for chasing that does not settle down.

Angelfish in particular need honest consideration in a reef tank. Many will sample coral, and whether a given individual does is largely unpredictable. Anyone keeping one in a reef is accepting that risk knowingly.