TankBud

Lamarck's angelfish

Genicanthus lamarck

Also known as Lamarck Angelfish, Blackstriped Angelfish

SaltwaterFish

Lamarck's angelfish (Genicanthus lamarck)
Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
72–79°F
22–26°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
9.8 in
25 cm
Minimum tank
124 gal
470 L
Temperament
Peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Middle
Difficulty
Medium
Breeding
Hard
Rarity
Common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Pomacanthidae
Origin
Indo-West Pacific, from the Indo-Malayan region to Vanuatu, north to southern Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef

Overview

Lamarck's angelfish are genuinely peaceful and, as a planktivore, they leave corals, clams, and other invertebrates alone entirely, making this one reef safe. Keep a single fish, a bonded pair, or one male with a harem of females, but never two males together. Feed small meals of mysis, marine algae, and angelfish preparations several times a day in a spacious tank with open water above the rock.

In the wild

Lamarck's angelfish live on Indo-West Pacific reef crests and deep reef slopes, from about 10 to 50 meters, forming harems of three to seven fish that hover together in midwater to feed on plankton. Unlike the large Pomacanthus angels, this is not a fish that hugs the rock looking for food; it wants open swimming room over live rock and a sandy bottom, more like a mid-water reef fish than a grazer.

Good to know

Genicanthus lamarck reaches about 25 cm and is strongly sexually dimorphic: males are almost teardrop-shaped with black pelvic fins, a few stripes radiating from the eye, and long flowing filaments trailing off the tail, while females have white pelvic fins and a broad black band along the top and bottom edges of the body. The species can change sex from female to male, and the two sexes look different enough that they were once mistaken for separate species entirely. It is named for the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Did you know

Males and females look so different, a teardrop-shaped male with flowing tail streamers next to a banded, white-finned female, that the species was first captive-bred only in 2017, at an aquarium in New York, well over a century after it was first described.

Weekly picks

Tank mates

Lamarck's angelfish is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the middle. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

What size tank does a Lamarck's angelfish need?

A Lamarck's angelfish needs at least 124 gal (470 L). It spends most of its time in the middle.

What temperature and pH does a Lamarck's angelfish need?

A Lamarck's angelfish is comfortable at 72–79°F (22–26°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a Lamarck's angelfish get?

An adult Lamarck's angelfish reaches about 9.8 in (25 cm).

Related species