Though plain in appearance, the hardy Half-Black Angelfish stands out as an excellent addition to the home aquarium. One of the less aggressive of the family, the Half-Black Angelfish is one addition that is more likely to behave itself in your tank. The Half-Black Angelfish is well known for cross breeding in the wild with both the Eibls (C. eibli) and Lemonpeel Angelfish (C. flavissima) creating some interesting hybrid colorations. Either of which make great tank mates for the Half-Black Angelfish as long as they are all added at the same time. They are considered fairly reef safe as juveniles but may develop a taste, especially for brain type LPS corals as they mature. Keep their diet varied and keep them well fed to avoid this problem. They will not bother non-sessile invertebrates such as shrimp or crabs. Diet In the wild the Half Black angelfish has a varied diet consisting of algae and crustaceans. There are occasional specimens that live very long lives in reef aquaria as peaceful citizens but the majority of these fish will often turn for no apparent reason when they are older. This may be easily explained as many of the Centropyge family are predominately plankton eaters as juveniles and will switch to consuming it’s natural adult diet once fully grown. Sometimes all it takes is for an underfed individual to ‘test’ a food source. This being the case, be sure to add this specimen to a well established tank and feed frozen mysis shrimp, meaty crustaceans such as shrimp and clam. Be sure to include algae such as spirulina.
