Marine life  /  Angelfish  /  Bicolor angelfish
Reviewed 2026-09-06
Species entry

Bicolor angelfish

Centropyge bicolor

Yellow front, blue back, and never out in the open for long.

Size
To 15 cm
Depth
5–35 m
Habitat
Rubble and coral heads
Active
Daylight
Range
Indo-Pacific
Rarity
Lembeh Strait
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
SP-01
bicolor angelfish · full body · habitat
4:3 · min 2400px

A dwarf angelfish to about 15 cm, cleanly divided: bright yellow head and tail, deep blue middle, and a blue bar over the eye. Nothing else in the region carries the same split, and the only difficulty is that the fish is almost never still — it moves between coral heads in short darting runs and turns side-on into a crevice as soon as a diver stops.

It lives in small groups of a male and several females over rubble and coral, feeding on algae and small invertebrates. Photographing it is a matter of picking one coral head, settling, and waiting for the circuit to come back round rather than following. Recorded from around 5 m to about 40 m, and generally more numerous at the lower end of that range where rubble meets reef.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Lembeh Strait Indonesia editorial estimate
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
Year-round
5–35 m
Rubble and coral heads
Bali Indonesia editorial estimate
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
Year-round
5–40 m
Reef slopes and rubble
Anilao Philippines editorial estimate
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
Year-round
5–35 m
Rubble and coral reef
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea editorial estimate
2 stars of 5, usually seen in a week
Year-round
5–40 m
Coral reef and rubble

Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.

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