🐠 French Angelfish (Pomacanthus paru)
A Black Body With Each Scale Edged in Shimmering Gold • A Rare Western Atlantic Find • A Long-Lived, Dominant Centrepiece
 
📋 The French Angelfish is a striking large angelfish, with a black body where each scale is edged in golden yellow, giving adults a shimmering, almost sequined appearance, along with a broad orange-yellow bar at the pectoral fin base and elegant trailing dorsal, anal, and tail fins.
It comes from the Western Atlantic, from Florida and the Bahamas through the Caribbean to Brazil, rare in a trade largely focused on Indo-Pacific fish, which is reflected in its price. A charming natural history detail: juveniles are well-known "cleaner" fish in the wild, picking parasites off much larger fish that visit their cleaning stations. Every French Angelfish we ship is feeding well.
It's not reef safe, and will nip at sponges, soft and stony corals, and clam mantles, making it best suited to a spacious fish-only or FOWLR aquarium. It's a dominant, semi-aggressive species that tends to take over a tank as it matures, particularly toward other angelfish, so it should generally be the only angelfish present. It's also a long-lived species, with wild individuals recorded living over 20 years, a real long-term commitment, but a rewarding one for keepers with the space and setup to match. It reaches up to 41cm, so plan on at least 380L for juveniles, and 830L or more for a full-grown adult.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Shimmering Gold-Edged Black Scales: A striking, almost sequined appearance
💎 A Western Atlantic Rarity: Uncommon in a largely Indo-Pacific-focused trade
🐟 Charming Juvenile Cleaner Behaviour: Wild juveniles pick parasites from larger fish
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Will nip at sponges, corals, and clam mantles
⏳ Long-Lived: Wild individuals recorded living over 20 years