Newbie Question: Angelfish

[Noir]

Some angelfishes have different titles to them. Some are just angel, some are dwarf angel, some are pygmy.

Is it correct to assume that if I find a fish of the same name, but a different title, that they are the same fish?

ie. googling bi-color angelfish yields: bi-colour angelfish and Bicolour Pygmy angel.

When I see these things, is it safe to assume they're one and the same?

[fkshiu]

No. It is absolutely NOT safe to proceed this way.

The only way that you know that you are dealing with two fish of the same species is if they are identified by their latin name. It is the latin name which will have behind it a detailed list of taxonometric features specific to that particular species and accepted within the scientific community. And even then there is the risk of misidentification - LFS misidentify rarer species all the time.

In your example, the bicolor angel and bicolor pygmy angel are, in fact, common names for the same fish (Centropyge bicolor). This is because the bicolor angel is a type of pygmy angelfish and not because there is a non-pygmy bicolor angel. It is also commonly known as the blue and yellow angel and boray boray angel.