🐠 Grey Poma Angelfish (Chaetodontoplus melanosoma)
Marine Fish-Only Angelfish • Black Velvet Body With Yellow Fin Trim • Genuine Feeding Sensitivity • Advanced Marine Fish
 
⚠️ Important Feeding Information — Please Read First
We want to be genuinely upfront on this one. The Grey Poma Angelfish, also called the Black Velvet Angelfish, is documented as a genuinely shy species that can refuse food when first introduced. If not fed several times daily during this settling-in period, it can decline quickly and become emaciated, and some retailers rate this species Expert-level for exactly this reason. Before buying, please only consider a specimen that's already out front and readily accepting food, and ask us about a specimen's feeding history first.
 
📋 The Grey Poma Angelfish (Chaetodontoplus melanosoma) has an overall black-to-dark-brown "velvet" body with a splash of light grey along the upper body, a yellowish-brown face, and yellow edging along the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins. Females can be distinguished by an entirely yellow caudal fin.
Native to seaward reef faces and slopes across the Indo-Pacific, particularly around New Guinea, this species is found in areas with strong tidal flows, feeding on algae, sponges, tunicates, and crustaceans.
This species is genuinely not reef safe, and will nip at soft and stony corals, zoanthids, and clam mantles, making it best suited to a spacious, already well-established fish-only or FOWLR aquarium with plenty of live rock and caves.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Black Velvet Body With Yellow Trim: A striking, understated large angelfish
⚠️ Genuine Feeding Sensitivity: Can refuse food and decline quickly without frequent feeding on introduction
🌿 Not Reef Safe: Will nip at corals, zoanthids, and clam mantles
♀️ Visible Sexual Dimorphism: Females have an entirely yellow caudal fin
🧠 Advanced Keepers Recommended: Genuinely more delicate than many large angelfish