French Angelfish in Cozumel

A near-black disc with every scale rimmed in bright yellow, giving a scaled, gilded look, plus a yellow bar at the base of the pectoral fin and a yellow-ringed eye.

Quick ID

Where You Will See It In Cozumel

French Angelfish is tagged on reef profiles right along the west coast, across a depth band of roughly 9 to 98 feet.

Without a boat. It turns up at Tikkila Shallow and Chankanaab Shallow — all shore entries, so you dive them on your own schedule.

Deeper, and on the walls. It also shows up on San Francisco Wall.

Where else the habitat suits it. The depth and reef type also line up at Casa Blanca, Chankanaab Bolones, Chen Rio, Chun-Chacaab, Colombia Deep and Columbia Shallows, though those are not sites where we have it logged.

Conditions change the odds more than the site does — the current, the time of day and how much the group has already stirred up the sand. Ask your guide what they have been seeing that week.

Behaviour

One of the few reef fish that will swim towards a diver. Juveniles are black with vivid yellow bars and act as cleaners, picking parasites off larger fish.

Commonly Confused With

• Gray angelfish — Gray angelfish is paler overall, and the inside of its mouth and the trailing tail edge are pale — the French has a squared dark tail and yellow scale rims.
• Juvenile French vs juvenile gray — Juvenile French have curved yellow bars; juvenile gray have straight bars and a clear tail panel.

Diving Etiquette And Safety

Do not feed. Their confidence around divers is natural, and feeding turns it into dependence.

Part of the Cozumel marine life guide · see Cozumel dive sites · plan your Cozumel dive trip

Photo: Albert Kok, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.