Purple-blue with an orange flank, and the dwarf angelfish most likely to be deep and in rubble.
A small angelfish to about 10 cm, deep blue to purple over the head, fins and margins with an orange to brick-red flank crossed by fine dark vertical lines. It is one of the most variable reef fishes in the region: some populations are almost wholly purple with only a trace of orange, others are orange over most of the body, and the two extremes look like different species until the fine flank lines are seen. The bicolor angelfish Centropyge bicolor is cleanly divided into a yellow front and a blue rear with no flecking, and the keyhole angelfish Centropyge tibicen is dark with a single pale bar, so neither is a lasting problem.
It grazes algae and detritus over rubble and coral rock, and it is the dwarf angelfish most often found below 30 m, with records to about 60 m. It rarely leaves cover for more than a few seconds, working the gaps between rubble pieces and turning back into them at any movement, which makes it one of the harder small fish here to photograph well. Because it uses rubble rather than living coral it holds up better at the muck destinations than the coral-tied angelfishes, though it is still easier on the clear coral slopes of Bali and Papua New Guinea.
Small groups of a male and several females are usual on well-developed slopes; on rubble it is more often solitary. Recorded from about 8 to 60 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.