Angelfish

About this species

Enoplosus armatus, commonly referred to as the old wife, is a species of centrarchiform ray-finned fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia. It is the only genus and species in the family Enoplosidae.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Old wife”, 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: 723 records
February: 518 records
March: 691 records
April: 575 records
May: 417 records
June: 393 records
July: 207 records
August: 279 records
September: 268 records
October: 263 records
November: 419 records
December: 560 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–46 m · Deepest record: 120 m

0–10 m: 147 records
10–20 m: 105 records
20–30 m: 38 records
30–40 m: 13 records
40–50 m: 4 records
50–60 m: 8 records
60–70 m: 6 records
70–80 m: 11 records
80–90 m: 6 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 15–27 °C

14–16 °C: 98 records
16–18 °C: 9 records
18–20 °C: 24 records
20–22 °C: 63 records
22–24 °C: 10 records
24–26 °C: 1 records
26–28 °C: 1 records

Photos

(c) John Witton, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bryce Watts-Parker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Andrew Harvey, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Josh Nitschke, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Zara, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Belinda Forbes, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Angelfish, Bastard Dory, Double Scalare, Long-spined Chaetodon, Moonlighter, old wife, Zebra-fish, Zebra Fish

Names in 4 more languages

German: Doppel-Rückenflosser
Spanish: Pez Gallo Bastardo
Thai: ปลาโอลด์ไวฟ์
Simplified Chinese: 盔姥鲈

Other scientific names: Chaetodon armatus

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).
4,279 open-data records from 1898 to 2023.
Species data updated November 2, 2026.