🐠 Scribbled Angelfish (Chaetodontoplus duboulayi)
A Dark Blue-Black Body With a Bold Yellow Vertical Band • Fine Scribble Markings, Males Only • An Iconic Northern Australian Species
 
📋 The Scribbled Angelfish, also known as Duboulay's Angelfish, has a striking appearance: a dark blue-black body, a yellow snout, and a broad yellow vertical band behind the eye with a white patch, extending into a curving yellow line along the back to the tail. The species gets its common name from the fine scribble-like markings across the body, but this is a male-only feature, with males showing wavy blue lines while females display more subtle blue spots or speckling instead.
It comes from Northern Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, extending to southern New Guinea and nearby Indonesian waters, an Australian icon and one of the most popular members of its genus. Every Scribbled Angelfish we ship is feeding well, and we favour captive-bred stock, increasingly available and adapting more readily than wild-caught specimens.
This species can be shy at first, especially during acclimation, so plentiful hiding places and calmer tankmates help it settle in. It's not reef safe, and its naturally varied diet of sponges and tunicates means it will nip at most stony corals and clam mantles, though it generally leaves soft corals like Sinularia, Lobophytum, and mushroom corals alone. It reaches up to 26cm, so plan on at least 380L.
 
💡 Highlights
🎨 Dark Blue Body With Scribble Markings: A striking, iconic Australian angelfish
♂️♀️ Sexual Dimorphism: Only males show the namesake scribble pattern
🙈 Shy Initially: Provide plenty of hiding places and calm tankmates
⚠️ Not Reef Safe: Will nip at most stony corals and clam mantles
🌾 Increasingly Captive-Bred: Adapts more readily than wild-caught stock