Where Angelfish has been recorded
GBIF occurrence records for Holacanthus bermudensis, mapped and tabulated by country.
27,949 georeferenced occurrence records with coordinates are published for Holacanthus bermudensis through GBIF, from 13 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
- 27,949
- Countries / areas
- 13
- Mapped locations
- 59
- Records sampled for the map
- 3,000
- Inland records omitted
- 11
- Gbif taxonkey
- 5211460
Taxonomic Roots and Evolutionary Split
The queen angelfish entered the scientific record in 1758 when Carl Linnaeus catalogued it as Chaetodon ciliaris in the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, assigning it a type locality in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean. Nearly half a century later, French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède reclassified it into the genus Holacanthus, a name drawn from Ancient Greek words meaning "full" and "spine." The species epithet ciliaris, meaning "fringed," nods to the fish's ciliate scales. Molecular evidence suggests the broader Holacanthus lineage first appeared between 10.2 and 7.6 million years ago, with the West African Guinean angelfish sitting as the sister to every other member of the genus, pointing to an initial colonization of the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. The later closure of the Isthmus of Panama, roughly 3.5 to 3.1 million years ago, isolated the Pacific populations. The queen angelfish itself diverged from its closest relative, the Bermuda blue angelfish, approximately 1.5 million years ago. Despite that split, the two species still overlap in range and can produce a fertile hybrid called the Townsend angelfish, whose offspring remain capable of breeding with both parent species.
Body Plan and Colour Variation
The adult queen angelfish presents a broad, laterally compressed oval body capped by a triangular caudal fin, with a short, blunt snout and a small mouth lined with bristle-like teeth. Its dorsal fin carries fourteen spines plus between nineteen and twenty-one soft rays, while the anal fin bears three spines and twenty to twenty-one soft rays. The species reaches a maximum total length of forty-five centimetres and a weight of roughly one thousand six hundred grams, with males tending to outgrow females. The most striking feature is the forehead "crown": a cobalt-blue, eye-shaped spot ringed in electric blue and peppered with additional electric-blue dots, the single trait that separates this species from the visually similar Bermuda blue angelfish. Juveniles look entirely different, displaying dark blue bodies with bright vertical stripes and a yellow pectoral patch. Off the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago in Brazil, researchers have documented seven additional colour morphs, ranging from predominantly gold or bright orange to all-white, and a single cobalt-blue individual with white and orange markings was recorded near Dry Tortugas, Florida, in 2009. At least two wild fish at the archipelago showed a "pughead" deformity with a squashed upper jaw and protruding lower jaw.
Harem Life and Reproductive Rhythm
The social world of the queen angelfish revolves around a territorial male who maintains a harem of two to four females within a defined home range. The species is presumed to be protogynous, meaning individuals develop as females first, and if the dominant male vanishes, the largest female in the group is expected to undergo a sex change and assume his role. During the midday hours, each female leaves to forage independently at a separate location, while the male shuttles between them, rushing toward a female, circling her, and feeding alongside her in a constant display of attentiveness. Spawning takes place throughout the year but is most commonly observed around the full moon. Courtship involves the male presenting his flank to the female and flicking his pectoral fins. Once spawning occurs, the transparent eggs are released into the water column, where they remain suspended and floating until they hatch. The juveniles that emerge bear no resemblance to the adults, sporting dark blue bodies with bright vertical stripes, and they take on an entirely different ecological role as cleaner fish, picking ectoparasites off the bodies of larger reef species.
Reef Habitat and Selective Feeding
Queen angelfish inhabit tropical and subtropical waters of the western Atlantic, ranging from the Florida coast along the Gulf of Mexico and through the Caribbean down to Brazil, with their distribution extending as far east as Bermuda and the remote Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago. As benthic, bottom-dwelling fish, they occupy coral reef environments from shallow nearshore waters down to depths of seventy metres, preferring soft corals. Their diet is notably selective: adults consume sponges, tunicates, jellyfish, corals, plankton, and algae, but the proportion of each prey type in their stomachs does not track the relative abundance of those organisms in the surrounding reef. Off St. Thomas and Salvador, Bahia, sponges make up roughly ninety percent of adult intake, while at the Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, more than thirty prey species have been identified, with sponges accounting for sixty-eight percent, algae for twenty-five percent, and bryozoans for five percent. The angelfish there specifically target rarer sponge species such as Geodia neptuni, Erylus latens, Clathria calla, and Asteropus niger. In 2010, the IUCN assessed the wild population as stable and listed the species as least concern. The fish also remains a popular aquarium export, especially from Brazil.
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