Hawaiian Reef Fish and Japanese Angelfish

Japanese Angelfish (Centropyge interruptus) are a rare Hawaiian reef fish found on reefs and ledges deeper than 60 feet in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of Kure, Midway, and Pearl & Hermes. Like Potter’s Angelfish, they live in small groups of one male and several females. In addition to algae and detritus, they feed on the feces of plankton-eating damselfish, and are usually found where these are abundant.

It has an orange-yellow body with purplish blue spots completed with a bright yellow tail. In bright waters, the oranges and blues of this fish are electric. The spots are larger towards the tail, and the bottom part the rear of the fish gradually becomes purple. Males have more blue on the head than females and the margins of their soft dorsal and anal fins are blue with horizontal black markings. Blue facial dots become lines on males, and they can attain a length 6 inches.