A turbid-water angelfish that lives around jetties and wrecks more than on clean reef.
To about 45 cm, orange-brown crossed by curved blue lines running up and back from behind the pectoral fin, a blue ring above the gill cover that gives the fish its name, blue lines through the eye and a white tail. Juveniles are dark with vertical white and blue bars and a rounded tail.
Unlike most large angelfish it favours turbid, sheltered water — harbours, jetty pilings, wrecks and silty reef — which puts it firmly within reach of divers at the muck destinations. Adults are usually in pairs and keep to a limited range around fixed structure, so an individual can be found in the same place across a trip. It feeds on sponges and tunicates. Recorded from about 3 to 30 m.
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.