Goldtail angelfish

The goldtail angelfish (Pomacanthus chrysurus), also called the earspot angelfish, is a marine ray-finned fish in the Pomacanthidae family. It lives in the western Indian Ocean. Unlike most other marine angelfish in its genus, the young and adults look quite similar. Juveniles have a blackish-brown body with many white vertical bars, a paler, more orange face marked with uneven blue lines, and a yellow tail fin. When they reach about 4 cm long, a white bar appears on the tail base. Both young and adults have a black spot on the upper front part of the body. Adults differ by having a darker face and no white bar on the tail base. The dorsal fin has 13–14 spines and 17–19 soft rays; the anal fin has 3 spines and 18–19 soft rays. They can grow up to 33 cm long. This fish is found from the Gulf of Aden south along East Africa to KwaZulu-Natal, including Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, and the Seychelles. It lives at depths of 1 to 30 meters on shallow coral or rocky reefs. Adults mainly eat sponges, tunicates, crustaceans, and zooplankton, while juveniles, found in shallower water, consume lots of algae. Otherwise, little is known about its biology. First described in 1831 by Georges Cuvier as Holocanthus flavissimus, the type locality may be an error for Madagascar. Some experts place it in the subgenus Acanthochaetodon. Its species name chrysurus means “gold tail,” referring to the yellow tail fin. It is rarely collected for the aquarium trade, and most available specimens come from Kenya.