---
title: Threespot Dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus)
scientific_name: Dascyllus trimaculatus
common_name: Threespot Dascyllus
taxon: Pomacentridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-30T21:38:52.340Z
updated: 2026-08-17T15:37:26.847Z
tags: Threespot Dascyllus, Dascyllus trimaculatus, Pomacentridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/threespot-dascyllus
---

# Threespot Dascyllus (*Dascyllus trimaculatus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Pomacentridae (*Pomacentridae*)
- **Size:** 13 cm
- **Depth:** 1-55 m
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Coral heads and boulders on reef slopes; juveniles in anemones and urchins
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- black oval body with a white spot on each flank and one on the forehead
- spots fade with age, so large adults look almost plain black
- juveniles among anemone tentacles or inside urchin spines
- hovers a meter or two above a coral head and drops into it when threatened
- up to 13 cm

The domino. Three white spots on a black fish, one on each flank and one on the forehead, and they fade as it grows, so the largest adults are nearly plain black with the pattern barely readable.

The interesting part is the young. A juvenile threespot does what a clownfish does: it lives among the tentacles of a large anemone, protected from the stinging cells, and it will use fire coral or the spine thicket of a Diadema urchin in the same way. It is not a clownfish and has no lasting partnership with the anemone. It borrows the shelter for the few months it is small enough to be worth eating, then leaves and joins the adults on the coral heads.

Adults hover in loose groups a meter or two above a coral head or boulder, picking copepods and other plankton out of the water and grazing algae, and they drop into the coral the instant anything comes at them.

Males clear a patch of rock, court passing females over it, and then guard the eggs laid on it, fanning them until they hatch.

## Also known as

- **English:** domino, Threespot Damselfish, threespot dascyllus
- **French:** Demoiselle à trois taches, Domino Noir
- **Japanese:** ミツボシクロスズメダイ, Mitsuboshikurosuzumedai
- **Chinese:** 三斑圓雀鯛, 三斑宅泥魚, 三斑宅泥鱼
- **Russian:** Трехпятнистый дасцил
- **TAH:** 'atoti

## Scientific synonyms

- *Dascyllus axillaris* Smith, 1935
- *Dascyllus niger* Bleeker, 1847
- *Dascyllus trimaculatum* (Rüppell, 1829)
- *Dascyllus unicolor* Bennett, 1831
- *Pomacentrus nuchalis* Anonymous [Bennett], 1830
- *Pomacentrus trimaculatus* Rüppell, 1829
- *Sparus nigricans* Gronow, 1854

## Range

Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/threespot-dascyllus)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*