Pale grey shading to black at the tail, and one of the most numerous small angelfish here.
A small angelfish to about 12 cm, pale grey-tan at the front darkening progressively to near-black on the rear third and tail, with fine blue edging to the anal and dorsal fins and a blue ring around the eye. It hybridises with the eibli angelfish where their ranges meet, producing fish with faint orange bars; those are more often reported from the eastern Indian Ocean than from here.
It is one of the more common fish on rubble and coral rubble margins across the region and is often the first angelfish a diver sees on a slope. It feeds on algae, keeps to a small area, and darts under coral at close approach. Recorded from around 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.