Deep-bodied like butterflyfish and told apart by a single character: a spine at the lower corner of the gill cover, which angelfish have and butterflyfish do not. Juveniles are usually marked so differently from adults that they were once described as separate species.
The juvenile patterns are the reason to look twice at a small angelfish. The emperor angelfish juvenile is white rings on dark blue and shares nothing with the adult; the rock beauty juvenile is yellow with one black spot that grows. Several juveniles also clean other fish, which the adults do not.
Most feed on sponge, and a few on almost nothing else, so they are found by searching the sponge rather than the coral. Adults hold a territory and the large species patrol it in pairs.
They are among the easier reef fish to photograph and among the harder to photograph well, because they turn side-on to a diver and keep moving. Waiting at a sponge the fish has been working is more productive than following it.
Every one has a page. They are shown as a list rather than as pictures because nothing has been photographed or logged for them yet, and a species with nothing behind it should not sit in front of one that has.
How many of the 25 carry a record at each destination. A species usually carries several, so these do not add up to 25.
All 1316 species in one index, with filters for destination, rarity and hazard.
