Regal Angelfish

Care at a glance

Overview

Regal angelfish are not especially aggressive, but they are notoriously hard to keep fed: wild adults often refuse standard aquarium foods and can starve before they adapt, so many keepers insist on watching one eat in the store before buying. Offer sponge-based angelfish preparations and live foods like mysis to start, in a large, mature tank with strong algae growth. Reef keepers should treat this one with caution: some individuals leave corals alone, but others nip at large-polyp stony corals, zoanthids, and clam mantles, so it is safer in a fish-only or FOWLR system than a prized reef.

In the wild

Regal angelfish have one of the widest ranges of any angelfish, spanning the Indo-Pacific from the Red Sea and East Africa to the Tuamotu Islands, living on lagoon and seaward reefs near caves from the surface to 48 meters or deeper. In the wild they graze almost exclusively on sponges and tunicates growing on the reef. A tank needs to be large and thoroughly mature, with established algae and sponge growth on the rock, since this species depends on food sources that take a long time to build up in a new aquarium.

Good to know

Pygoplites diacanthus is the only species in its genus. It grows to about 25 cm and can live 15 years or more, with an orange body wrapped in electric blue diagonal bands and a blue-ringed, eye-like marking on the soft dorsal fin. Unlike the large Pomacanthus angels, the juvenile pattern is close to the adult's, so there is no dramatic color change to track as it grows.

Did you know

A Bali-based angelfish hatchery produced the first captive-bred regal angelfish in 2019, and those tank-raised fish take pellets and frozen food right away, sidestepping the feeding standoffs that make wild-caught adults such a gamble.

Related species

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  Flagfin Angelfish

  Apolemichthys trimaculatus

  10.2 in (26 cm)100 gal (380 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Majestic Angelfish

  Pomacanthus navarchus

  11.8 in (30 cm)145 gal (550 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Keyhole Angelfish

  Centropyge tibicen

  7.9 in (20 cm)70 gal (265 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Bandit Angelfish

  Apolemichthys arcuatus

  7.1 in (18 cm)90 gal (340 L)73–79°F (23–26°C)

• 

  Swallowtail Angelfish

  Genicanthus melanospilos

  7.1 in (18 cm)106 gal (400 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Vermiculated Angelfish

  Chaetodontoplus mesoleucus

  7.1 in (18 cm)66 gal (250 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)