Where Yellow angelfish has been recorded
GBIF occurrence records for Centropyge heraldi, mapped and tabulated by country.
1,471 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are published for Centropyge heraldi through GBIF, from 24 countries or marine areas. This page maps those records and lists where they come from. Occurrence records reflect where people have looked as well as where the species lives, so well-surveyed coastlines are over-represented.
- Georeferenced records
- 1,471
- Countries / areas
- 24
- Mapped locations
- 159
- Records sampled for the map
- 1,471
- Inland records omitted
- 8
- Gbif taxonkey
- 2396551
Evolutionary Roots & Taxonomic Identity
The queen angelfish first entered the scientific record in 1758 when Carl Linnaeus classified it as Chaetodon ciliaris in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, assigning a type locality in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. A French naturalist, Bernard Germain de Lacépède, later reassigned it to the genus Holacanthus in 1802—a name drawn from the Greek words for "full" and "spine." The species epithet ciliaris, meaning "fringed," nods to the fish's ciliate scales. Molecular evidence suggests the Holacanthus lineage originated between 10.2 and 7.6 million years ago, with the Guinean angelfish of West Africa sitting as the sister to every other member, pointing to a colonization of the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. The closure of the Isthmus of Panama roughly 3.5 to 3.1 million years ago isolated the Pacific populations. The queen angelfish's closest living relative is the sympatric Bermuda blue angelfish, from which it diverged approximately 1.5 million years ago. Despite that split, the two species still interbreed, producing the fertile Townsend angelfish, a hybrid that can itself mate with either parent species or with other hybrids.
Body Plan & Chromatic Diversity
The queen angelfish presents a broad, laterally compressed oval body capped by a triangular caudal fin, a shortened and somewhat blunt snout, and a small mouth lined with bristle-like teeth. Its dorsal fin carries fourteen spines alongside nineteen to twenty-one soft rays, while the anal fin bears three spines and twenty to twenty-one soft rays; both fins trail behind the body. The species can reach a total length of forty-five centimeters and a mass of roughly one thousand six hundred grams, with males tending to outsize females. The standard coloration features blue-green scales tipped in yellow, vivid yellow tail, pectoral, and pelvic fins, and orange-yellow tips on the dorsal and anal fins. The forehead bears a striking cobalt-blue ocellus ringed in electric blue and speckled with additional blue dots—the single feature that separates this species from its Bermuda cousin. Juveniles appear in dark blue with bright vertical stripes and a yellow pectoral patch. Remarkably, seven additional color morphs have been documented off the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago in Brazil, ranging from a predominantly gold or orange form to entirely white individuals, and a cobalt-blue-and-white variant was recorded near Dry Tortugas, Florida, in 2009.
Harem Life & Reproductive Rituals
The social architecture of the queen angelfish centers on a territorial male who maintains a harem of two to four females within a shared home range. Around midday the females disperse to forage independently at separate sites, while the male shuttles between them, rushing toward each, circling, and feeding in close proximity as a form of tending. The species is presumed to be a protogynous hermaphrodite, meaning individuals develop as females first; if the dominant male vanishes, the largest female in the harem can transform into a male and assume his role. Spawning takes place year-round but is most commonly observed around the full moon. Courtship involves the male displaying his flank to the female and flicking his pectoral fins. The resulting eggs are transparent and remain buoyant in the water column until they hatch. Young queen angelfish adopt an entirely different ecological niche: they serve as cleaner fish, establishing stations where they pick ectoparasites off the bodies of larger species, a role that gives them a dark-blue, vertically striped appearance quite unlike their parents.
Habitat, Feeding Niche & Conservation Outlook
Queen angelfish inhabit tropical and subtropical waters of the Western Atlantic, stretching from Florida through the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean down to Brazil, with their range extending as far east as Bermuda and the remote Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago. As benthic species they occupy coral reefs—showing a preference for soft corals—from shallow coastal waters down to depths of seventy meters, swimming either solitarily or in pairs. Their diet is notably selective: adults in the region of St. Thomas and Salvador, Bahia, derive roughly ninety percent of their intake from sponges, while populations at Saint Peter and Saint Paul consume more than thirty prey species, with sponges accounting for sixty-eight percent, algae for twenty-five, and bryozoans for five. Crucially, the proportion of each prey type eaten does not track its relative abundance in the environment; instead, the fish target rarer sponge species such as Geodia neptuni and Clathria calla. In the aquarium trade the queen angelfish has long been a popular export, particularly from Brazil. A 2010 assessment by the IUCN classified the species as least concern, noting that wild populations appeared stable at the time.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many countries has the Yellow angelfish been recorded in?
The species has been documented across 24 countries or marine areas, with 159 distinct mapped locations drawn from georeferenced data.
How many Yellow angelfish occurrence records exist?
A total of 1,471 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are publicly available through the GBIF database for Centropyge heraldi.
Why do some Yellow angelfish locations appear more on the map than others?
The distribution reflects survey effort as much as true range, so heavily studied coastlines naturally show up more often than less-explored regions.
Are there any Yellow angelfish records that don't appear on the distribution map?
Yes, eight inland records were excluded from the mapping because they fall outside the species' expected marine habitat.
Where can I find the full Yellow angelfish distribution data?
All 1,471 records are accessible through GBIF under taxon key 2396551, where they are mapped and tabulated by country.
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