---
title: Yellowbar Angelfish (Pomacanthus maculosus)
scientific_name: Pomacanthus maculosus
common_name: Yellowbar Angelfish
taxon: Angelfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-22T21:08:38.865Z
updated: 2026-08-13T23:07:59.301Z
tags: Yellowbar Angelfish, Pomacanthus maculosus, Angelfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/angelfishes/yellowbar-angelfish
---

# Yellowbar Angelfish (*Pomacanthus maculosus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Angelfishes (*Pomacanthidae*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Depth:** 4-60 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Reef slopes, wrecks and silty bays with structure
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- blue-gray body with a curved yellow crescent tapering toward the belly
- fine blue speckling over the body, yellow tail
- juveniles black with curved white and blue bars
- length up to 50 cm

Half a meter (20 in) of blue-gray angelfish with a yellow crescent curving down its side, cruising a wreck or a slope at an unhurried pace and turning away exactly when the camera is ready.

The crescent is the field mark. Its neighbor the Arabian Angelfish carries a broad straight yellow bar; on this fish the yellow curves and tapers toward the belly like a comma. Both are blue, both are large, and both are constantly mixed up.

It is one of the larger angelfishes and one of the more adaptable: it does well on silty inshore reefs and around wrecks, where the sponges and tunicates it feeds on grow thickly, and it is more tolerant of poor visibility than most of its family.

Angelfish of this size make a low drumming sound when alarmed, produced with muscles against the swim bladder - divers occasionally feel it rather than hear it. Juveniles look entirely different, black with curved pale bars, and work as cleaners on the reef before they take up the adult pattern.

## Also known as

- **English:** yellowbar angelfish, Halfmoon Angelfish, yellowblotch angelfish
- **Arabic:** سمك الملاك أصفر الشريط, سمك الملاك نصف القمر, Anfooz
- **Hebrew:** קיסר הכתם
- **French:** Poisson-ange géographe
- **Italian:** Pesce angelo persiano
- **German:** Arabischer Kaiserfisch, Sichel-Kaiserfisch, Sichelkaiserfisch
- **Spanish:** Pez ángel de barra amarilla, Ángel media luna
- **Portuguese:** Lebre mancha amarela, Lebre velha, Peixe-anjo-meia-lua
- **Dutch:** Bruid van de Zee
- **Swedish:** Halvmånekejsare
- **Polish:** Ustniczek cetkowany, ustniczek cętkowany
- **Czech:** pomec skvrnitý
- **Japanese:** Sedakayakko, セダカヤッコ
- **Chinese:** 斑紋刺蓋魚
- **Russian:** Аравийская рыба-ангел
- **CA:** Peix àngel mitja lluna
- **DA:** Halvmånekejserfisk

## Scientific synonyms

- *Chaetodon asfur var. caerulescens* Forsskål, 1775
- *Chaetodon maculosus* Forsskål, 1775
- *Holacanthus aruset* Lacepède, 1802
- *Holacanthus caerulescens* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Holacanthus striatus* Rüppell, 1836
- *Pomacanthodes aruset* (Lacepède, 1802)
- *Pomacanthodes caerulescens* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Pomacanthodes coerulescens* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Pomacanthodes haddaja* Cuv., 1831
- *Pomacanthodes lineatus* Ruppell, 1828
- *Pomacanthodes maculosus* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Pomacanthodes striatus* (Rüppell, 1836)
- *Pomacanthops filamentosus* Smith, 1955
- *Pomacanthus caerulescens* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Pomacanthus striatus* (Rüppell, 1836)

## Range

Djibouti, Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/angelfishes/yellowbar-angelfish)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*