Gray Angelfish (Pomacanthus arcuatus) is probably the most common Angelfish to be found here in our Bayahibe area.

They are mostly observed in pairs; the Gray Angelfish live among coral reefs at depths between 6-100 feet (2-30 m), at night the reef offers for them lots of hiding places from predators. Fully grown Gray Angelfish is the largest Angelfish from that group growing up to 2 feet. Theirs reproduction spawning activities occur from April through September.

The juvenile Gray Angelfish prefer more grassy areas and shallow reefs. The whole body is very dark brown, almost black, with five yellow strips. One yellow strip runs from the forehead cross the mouth and yellow ring around the lips. The tail is yellow with black blocks trimmed white or transparent.

When the juveniles turn into adults, the yellow stripes disappear and the whole body changes to gray to grayish-brown color. The body is slim, discus-shaped, with small mouth full of many tiny teeth. The dorsal and anal fins are covered by scales and both are extended into filaments passing the tail fin. Large gray – brown spot develop a in the center of the scales. The fins become darker along the edges, with white trim on back edge of dorsal, anal and tail fins. Inner face of pectoral fin turns into yellow. The mouth area is white.

Gray Angelfish feeds on different algae, sponges, invertebrates including tunicates, hydroids, gorgonians, zoantharians, and bryozoans. Beside algae and detritus, juveniles feed on ectoparasites at the “cleaning stations” as they clean other fish like wrasses, jacks, grunts, snappers, surgeonfish and morays just to name a few

Gray Angelfish appears relatively brave, curious and mostly not afraid of divers, for that reason it’s popular and easy subject for underwater photographers.

Tags: fish

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 12:20 PM and is filed under *Sharky's Blog*, Underwater Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.