Pomacanthus xanthometopon
species of fish
Pomacanthus xanthometopon is a marine ray-finned fish, a marine angelfish belonging to the family Pomacanthidae found in shallow parts of the Indo-Pacific. It is commonly known as the blueface angelfish or the yellowface angelfish because of its striking facial colouration.
Taxonomy
Pomacanthus xanthometopon was first formally described in 1853 as Holocanthus xanthometopon by the Dutch ichthyologist and herpetologist Pieter Bleeker (1819–1878) with the type locality given as Telok betong, Sumatra in Indonesia. The species is placed by some authorities in the subgenus Euxiphipops,. The specific name of this species, xantometopon means "yellow forehead", a reference to the yellow "mask" across its eyes.
Distribution and habitat
Pomacanthus xanthometopon is found on coral reefs in the eastern part of the tropical Indo-Pacific. Its range includes the Maldive Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, northern Australia and Micronesia. It has occasionally been observed off the coast of Florida. It favours lagoons, outer reef slopes and channels at depths down to about 25 metres (82 ft) and is often found among rocks and near caves. The juveniles frequently live inside caves.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q882944. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1853, 1819 and 1878.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pomacanthus xanthometopon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.