Woodrow’s Angelfish, Holacanthus woodrowi

Woodrow’s Angelfish, Holacantus woodrowi, Males. Underwater photographs taken within Bahía Palmas, Los Barriles, Baja California Sur, November 2024. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Aaron Woodrow, Juneau, Alaska.

Woodrow’s Angelfish, Holacantus woodrowi, is a member of the Angelfish or Pomacanthidae Family, and is known in Mexico as ángel woodrow. Woodrow’s Angelfish is one of the first recognized hybrids in the Pomacanthidae Family being a naturally occurring hybrid of the Clarion Angelfish, Holacanthus clarionensis, and the King Angelfish, Holacanthus passer. It is not recognized within the scientific community as a true species. These hybrids display a striking blend of parental traits, showing the uniform dark brown body, white bar, white pelvic fins and a white mark at the corner of the mouth found in the King Angelfish and the and straight fin margins found in the Clarion Angelfish.

Woodrow’s Angelfish has a deep compressed body with dark brown body, a white bar behind the pectoral fin tips, orange anal, dorsal and caudal fins and white pelvic fins. The males have a light orange area on their upper lip and the corner of the mouth. Their anal and dorsal fins have wide straight margins and their caudal fin is slightly rounded.

Woodrow’s Angelfish is found in shallow waters in reef-associated environments close to the bottom. Their maximum length and weight has not been formally documented. Adults are omnivore and feed on a wide range of algae and invertebrates including sponges as well as corals, gorgonians, tunicates, and zoanthids. Juveniles feed on algae and detritus. Woodrow’s Angelfish is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, diet, growth, habitat, longevity, movement patterns, and reproduction. Their morphometrics have not been published in the scientific literature.

Woodrow’s Angelfish is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with a limited documented range with just three reported citings: the fish photographed above, a fish from the Robertson Expedition to the Revillagigedo National Park, November 2022, and a fish mixed in with several Clarion Angelfish collected in Mexican waters in 2009 and sold by the aquarium trade.

From a conservation perspective Woodrow’s Angelfish has not been formally evaluated.

Productive discussion with Dr. Robertson, Smithsonian Institute, Panama City noted. Ross indicated that the Clarion and King Angelfish are very closely related are that there is no evidence of a self-sustaining population of the Clarion Angelfish on the mainland. Their presence of the hydrid is attributed to sole individuals of clarionensis mixed in the numerous passer in coastal waters and sole individuals of passer being mixed in the numberous clarionensis in the Revillagigedo’s.