Threespot angelfish

About this species

Apolemichthys trimaculatus, the threespot angelfish or flagfin angelfish, is a demersal marine ray-finned fish in the angelfish family Pomacanthidae. It has a wide Indo-Pacific distribution.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Apolemichthys trimaculatus”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 70 records
February: 103 records
March: 167 records
April: 278 records
May: 214 records
June: 173 records
July: 95 records
August: 70 records
September: 110 records
October: 132 records
November: 108 records
December: 102 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 9–32 m · Deepest record: 100 m

0–10 m: 91 records
10–20 m: 345 records
20–30 m: 227 records
30–40 m: 13 records
40–50 m: 17 records
50–60 m: 24 records
60–70 m: 3 records
70–80 m: 9 records
80–90 m: 9 records
90–100 m: 4 records
100–110 m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 24–29 °C

24–26 °C: 24 records
26–28 °C: 39 records
28–30 °C: 439 records

Photos

(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Tom Heijnen, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Georgina Jones, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bernie Wong, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ben Costamagna, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Threespot angelfish, Flagfish, Three Spot Angel, threespot angelfish, Three-spot Angelfish, Three Spot Angelfish

Names in 6 more languages

German: Dreipunkt-Rauchkaiserfisch
Filipino: Bunak, Mameng
French: Papillon jaune, Poisson ange à trois taches, Poisson-ange à trois taches, Poisson-ange trois taches, Poisson-ange trois taches, Poisson-ange à trois taches
Japanese: Shiten-yakko, シテンヤッコ
Thai: ปลาสินสมุทรลิปสติก
Simplified Chinese: 三点阿波鱼, 三點神仙, 三點阿波魚, 三點阿波魚(三斑刺蝶魚, 藍嘴新娘

Other scientific names: Holacanthus trimaculatus

Similar species

Banded Angelfish
Apolemichthys arcuatus
Reunion angelfish
Apolemichthys guezei
Tiger Angelfish
Apolemichthys kingi
Red Sea angelfish
Apolemichthys xanthotis
Yellowtail angelfish
Apolemichthys xanthurus
Coral Beauty
Centropyge bispinosa

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
1,174 open-data records from 1831 to 2022.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.