''Pomacanthus'' from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

''poma'', meaning "cover", and ''ákantha'', meaning "spine", is a genus of marine angelfish that is usually found around

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition of sand or wave eros ...

and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

. Some of the notable places one can see these vari-coloured fish includes the

Maldives The Maldives, officially the Republic of Maldives, and historically known as the Maldive Islands, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in South Asia located in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India, abou ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

, and Sipidan off the southern coast of

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. 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'':

Systematics

The genus ''Pomacanthus'' was created in 1802 by the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825) with the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

being designated as ''Chaetodon arcuatus''. 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. Some authorities divide the genus up into the following subgenera: * ''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''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q762409 Pomacanthidae Extant Late Cretaceous first appearances Marine fish genera Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède