Ocellate Damselfish

About this species

Pomacentrus vaiuli, the ocellate damselfish, is a species of damselfish in the family Pomacentridae from the Pacific Ocean. It occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade. It grows to a size of 10 cm (3.9 in) in length.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Pomacentrus vaiuli”, 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: 92 records
February: 2,108 records
March: 1,873 records
April: 3,381 records
May: 1,962 records
June: 1,275 records
July: 1,428 records
August: 1,205 records
September: 1,265 records
October: 1,412 records
November: 309 records
December: 83 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–23 m · Deepest record: 75 m

0–10 m: 5,072 records
10–20 m: 7,031 records
20–30 m: 3,022 records
30–40 m: 20 records
40–50 m: 4 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 1 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 23–30 °C

22–24 °C: 2 records
24–26 °C: 43 records
26–28 °C: 195 records
28–30 °C: 675 records

Photos

(c) Debra Baker, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi), some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Forest Botial-Jarvis, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Jay Brasher, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ben Costamagna, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Bernard DUPONT, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Ocellate Damselfish, princess damsel, Princess Damselfish

Names in 4 more languages

Spanish: Damita ocelada
French: Demoiselle princesse
Japanese: Kuro-megane-suzumedai, Kuromeganesuzumedai, クロメガネスズメダイ
Simplified Chinese: 厚殼仔, 王子雀鯛

Similar species

Blue Damsel
Pomacentrus coelestis
Amboina Damselfish
Pomacentrus amboinensis
Charcoal damsel
Pomacentrus brachialis
Philippine Damsel
Pomacentrus philippinus
Black-edged Damsel
Pomacentrus nigromarginatus
Black-spot Damsel
Pomacentrus stigma

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).
17,287 open-data records from 1902 to 2023.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.