French Angelfish

French Angelfish, Intermediate

The French Angelfish has a black body with the edges of its scales highlighted in bright yellow, giving it a chain-link appearance. It possesses a bright yellow ring around each eye and a patch of yellow at the base of its pectoral fins. Its fins are all black, and its tail is broadly rounded and nearly straight‑edged at the end. Juveniles are also black but are marked with three prominent vertical yellow bars. The tail of a juvenile is rounded with a yellow border, which, combined with the two yellow stripes near the back, creates a distinct oval shape on the rear part of its body.

This Angelfish is typically seen in pairs and is believed to form long-term bonds. These pairs often defend a shared territory and search for food together, and they are not shy. They primarily eat sponges but also consume various other invertebrates and algae. Juveniles act as cleaners, setting up cleaning stations where they remove parasites and other small organisms from a wide range of larger animals, including Jacks, Snappers, Moray Eels and Sea Turtles.