Dark blue-grey with a single vertical white bar and a yellow tail. The eastern Pacific angelfish, and juveniles clean other fish.
To about 36 cm. Velvety blue-grey with a narrow white bar on the side level with the rear edge of the pectoral fin and a round patch of small white spots on the nape. The sexes differ in the pelvic fins, white in the male and pale yellow in the female. Juveniles are orange in front and brown behind with five or six narrow blue bars.
At Revillagigedo the fish to rule out is the Clarion angelfish, which is brownish-orange with a bright orange patch behind the head and orange fins where this one is blue-grey with a white bar. The two hybridise, so some individuals will not key out cleanly and should be left unnamed. Against the Cortez angelfish, one white bar against yellow bars.
One to eighty metres on rock and coralline ground. Pairs are monogamous but do not defend an exclusive territory. It grazes by day and spawns daily through the lunar cycle. Juveniles clean parasites off other fish, and are sometimes found in tide pools.
It is commercially collected for aquariums at a premium price, with moderate to high fishing vulnerability and low resilience. Its confusion species, the Clarion angelfish, is listed as Vulnerable and is on CITES Appendix II.
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.