Fishes - Australian Museum Fish Site

Find a Fish

Blackspot Angelfish
Genicanthus melanospilos (Bleeker, 1857)

Blackspot Angelfish - male
A male Blackspot Angelfish at a depth of 20m, Great Detached Reef, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, November 2001. View larger image.
Blackspot Angelfish - female
A female Blackspot Angelfish at a depth of 25m, Wishbone Reef, Wreck Bay, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, November 2001. View larger image.
Blackspot Angelfish - male
A male Blackspot Angelfish at a depth of 27m, Northern Small Detached Reef, far northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, December 2001. View larger image.

Male Blackspot Angelfish are bluish white with narrow black bars on the body. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins have yellow spots. The caudal fin is lunate (glossary).

Female Blackspot Angelfish are yellow on top and blue below. The lunate caudal fin is bluish with a black stripe on the upper and lower edges.

Angelfish are related to the butterflyfishes (Family Chaetodontidae), but have a distinctive preopercular spine (glossary), that is lacking in the butterflyfishes.

This species grows to 18cm in length.

It inhabits offshore reef slopes and rubble areas that are interspersed with sand. Males are often seen with a harem of 3 to 4 females.

The Blackspot Angelfish is found in depths from 20m to 45m.

It feeds on plankton picked from currents, generally a few metres above the bottom.

This species occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western Pacific, from Malaysia, north to Japan, south to Australia and east to Fiji.

In Australia it is known from the northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland.

View a map of the collecting localities of specimens in the Australian Museum Fish Collection.

Further reading

  1. Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Western Australian Museum. Pp. 220.
  2. Allen, G.R., Steene, R. & M. Allen. 1998. A Guide to Angelfishes & Butterflyfishes. Odyssey Publishing/Tropical Reef Research. Pp. 250.
  3. Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. New Holland. Pp. 433.
  4. Myers, R.F. 1999. Micronesian Reef Fishes. Coral Graphics. Pp. 330.
  5. Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & R.C. Steene. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Crawford House Press. Pp. 557.
australian museum onlineabout the museumresearch and collectionsfeaturesexplore