ANGELFISH

Marine fish have such fanciful common names. Take angels for instance: Royal, Emperor, Queen, Regal. Now just where did those come from? Especially because these guys neither look nor act royal. Nor Angelic.

Marine angelfish are from the family Pomacanthidae which is a pretty big clan. It contains seven genera and about 86 species. There are also freshwater angelfish or tropical cichlids (Pterophyllum) from the Amazon. Equally beautiful, but not the same thing at all.

The angelfish most divers see tend to be larger marine species, from the Holocanthus and Pomocanthus groups, rather than dwarf angels ones from the Centropyge group. These are the ones with regal nicknames.
The most important or defining feature of marine angels is the distinct spine that forms part of their gill covers. This characteristic is how they earned their Greek name, Pomacanthidae meaning "cover" and akantha meaning "thorn".

Other body features include small mouths, relatively large pectoral fins and rounded tail fins. Some, like Arabian angels, often have streamer-like extensions of the soft dorsal and anal fins. The largest species is the grey angelfish at around 60 centimetres while dwarf angels only reach about 15 centimetres.

Smaller angels are easily confused with butterflyfish. They are all rather stunning creatures with a similar shape, but spot that thorn and you know you’re looking at an angel.

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