Pomacanthus

Pomacanthus from Ancient Greek poma, meaning "cover", and ákantha, meaning "spine", is a genus of marine angelfish that is usually found around reefs and coral. Some of the notable places one can see these vari-coloured fish includes the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Sipidan off the southern coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Generally the patterns and colors of these fish undergo a major transformation from juvenile to adult forms. The juveniles may even appear to be a different species.

Species

The following 13 species are classified within the genus Pomacanthus:<ref name = Fishbase>{{#invoke:Cite taxon|main|fishbase|genus=|species=|subspecies=}}</ref>

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
File:EM DSC 2212 (2877792781).jpg	P. annularis (Bloch, 1787)	Bluering angelfish	the Indo-West Pacific oceans from East Africa, throughout Indonesia and New Guinea to New Caledonia, north to southern Japan.
File:Pomacanthus arcuatus.jpg	P. arcuatus (Linnaeus, 1758)	Gray angelfish	western Atlantic from New England to the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and also the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean, including the Antilles
File:Pomacanthus asfur 2.jpg	P. asfur (Forsskål, 1775)	Arabian angelfish	the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to Zanzibar. It can be found also in the Persian Gulf. And Meditteranean
File:Pomacanthus chrysurus - poisson ange a oreille taché - Aqua Porte Dorée 10.JPG	P. chrysurus (Cuvier, 1831)	Goldtail angelfish	western Indian Ocean (South Africa including Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar)
File:Emperor angelfish, Pomacanthus imperator.jpg	P. imperator (Bloch, 1787)	Emperor angelfish	the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Red Sea to Hawaii,the Austral Islands and Mediterranean
File:Yellowbar angelfish.jpg	P. maculosus (Forsskål, 1775)	Yellowbar angelfish	the Persian Gulf, the northwestern Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and Mediterranean
File:Bluegirdled angelfish (Pomacanthus navarchus) (46982094954).jpg	P. navarchus (Cuvier, 1831)	Blue-girdled angelfish	the Indo-Pacific region
File:Beauty and Brains (8457803488).jpg	P. paru (Bloch, 1787)	French angelfish	western Atlantic from New York and the Bahamas to Brazil, and also the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, including the Antilles, Roatan, and the eastern Atlantic from around Ascension Island and St. Paul's Rocks
File:Pomacanthus rhomboides, Sodwana Bay.jpg	P. rhomboides (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1908)	Old woman angelfish	western Indian Ocean
File:Semicircle angelfish (Pomacanthus semicirculatus).jpg	P. semicirculatus (Cuvier, 1831)	Semicircle angelfish	east coast of Africa to Fiji and Japan, the east coast of Australia and New Caledonia.
File:Pomacanthus sexstriatus 01.jpg	P. sexstriatus (Cuvier, 1831)	Sixbar angelfish	South Pacific reefs, most commonly the Great Barrier Reef of Australia's north-east coast
File:Blaukopf-Kaiserfisch (Pomacanthus xantometopon) 01.jpg	P. xanthometopon (Bleeker, 1853)	Yellowface angelfish, Blueface angelfish	Maldive Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, northern Australia and Micronesia
File:Pomacanthus zonipectus 240870066 (cropped).jpg	P. zonipectus (Gill, 1862)	Cortez angelfish	Eastern Pacific

Systematics

The genus Pomacanthus was created in 1802 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825) with the type species being designated as Chaetodon arcuatus.<ref name = CofF/> The name is a compound of poma meaning"lid" and acanthus which means "thorn", a reference to the prominents spine on the rear margin of the operculum, a feature shared by all the marine angelfishes.<ref name = ETYFish>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Some authorities divide the genus up into the following subgenera:<ref name = ETYFish/>

• Pomacanthus Lacépède, 1802
  • Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) arcuatus
  • Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) paru
  • Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) zonipectus
• Acanthochaetodon Bleeker, 1876
  • Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) annularis
  • Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) chrysurus
  • Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) imperator
  • Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) rhomboides
• Arusetta Fraser-Brunner, 1933
  • Pomacanthus (Arusetta) asfur
  • Pomacanthus (Arusetta) maculosus
  • Pomacanthus (Arusetta) semicirculatus
• Euxiphipops Fraser-Brunner 1934
  • Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) navarchus
  • Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) sexstriatus
  • Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) xanthometopon