Freshwater angelfish
No sign-up needed. You can save notes on this device.
An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Freshwater angelfish have deeper body colors in clear water.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Freshwater angelfish
- Scientific name
- Pterophyllum scalare
- Japanese name
- スカラレエンゼル（エンゼルフィッシュ）
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Blenniiformes
- Family
- Cichlidae
- Genus
- Pterophyllum
Where the name “Freshwater angelfish” comes from
Pterophyllum, the genus name, combines Greek words for fin or sail and leaf. The name is thought to refer to its tall, broad, triangular dorsal fin.
FishBaseIt lives in the upper and middle Amazon River. It is the fish that many bred varieties of angelfish come from.
Its body is a thin disc, and its dorsal and anal fins stretch out long. Its silvery body has dark vertical bars.
It lives in swamps and flooded land thick with water plants. The male and female together guard the eggs laid on water plants.
How the Freshwater angelfish lives
During the breeding season, the male courts the female. The male and female remain a pair throughout the brooding period. The male and female defend each other against attackers.
FishBaseBasic data
- Range
- Upper and middle Amazon River
Where the Freshwater 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
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
- 简体中文
- 大神仙鱼
- 繁體中文
- 大神仙魚
- Español
- Escalar
- Français
- Scalaire
- Deutsch
- Skalar
- Português (Brasil)
- Acará
- Italiano
- Scalare
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Ikan bidadari
- Русский
- Обыкновенная скалярия
- Türkçe
- Melek balığı
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 — スカラレエンゼルChecked: 2026-11-03
- FishBase — Pterophyllum scalareChecked: 2026-11-03
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.
Report a mistakeRELATIVES
Others in Cichlidae
MORE TO MEET
