Regal angelfish

Amazing fact

Young regal angelfish have an eye-like spot on their dorsal fin.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海

Regal angelfish in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

Young regal angelfish have an eye-like spot on their dorsal fin.

Source新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — ニシキヤッコ

THE REAL WORLD

The real Regal angelfish

Scientific name: Pygoplites diacanthus
Japanese name: ニシキヤッコ
Group: Ocean animals

Order: Perciformes
Family: Pomacanthidae
Genus: Pygoplites

Facts about the real animal.

It lives from the Izu and Ogasawara islands, Yakushima and the Ryukyus to Taiwan and the Indo-West Pacific.

鳥羽水族館 — ニシキヤッコ

Adults have several white-to-blue bars on the body, edged with yellow and black.

鳥羽水族館 — ニシキヤッコ

How the Regal angelfish lives

It lives on coral reefs and rocky reefs. It eats sponges, sea squirts and algae attached to coral bases and rocks. Young fish hide in caves, often upside down against the roof.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海沖縄美ら海水族館 U.S. Geological Survey

Basic data

Range: Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, Iwo Jima, Yakushima, Ryukyu Islands, Minamidaito Island, and elsewhere

鳥羽水族館

Where the Regal angelfish has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan Asia World oceans Ocean

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: ニシキヤッコ
简体中文: 甲尻鱼
繁體中文: 雙棘甲尻魚
한국어: 로열에인절피시
Español: Pez ángel real
Français: Poisson-ange duc
Deutsch: Pfauen-Kaiserfisch
Português (Brasil): Peixe-anjo-real
Italiano: Pesce angelo reale
العربية: سمكة ملاك ملكي
Bahasa Indonesia: Injel doreng
Русский: Королевский ангел
ไทย: ปลาสินสมุทรบั้งเหลือง

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

鳥羽水族館 — ニシキヤッコChecked: 2026-11-04
新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — ニシキヤッコChecked: 2026-11-07
U.S. Geological Survey — Regal angelfish (Pygoplites diacanthus) - Species ProfileChecked: 2026-11-07
沖縄美ら海水族館 — ニシキヤッコChecked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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