Blue-striped Angelfish

Blue-striped Angelfish

The Blue-Striped Angelfish Chaetodontoplus septentrionalis is a mid-sized angel with an absolutely stunning adult coloration. Its adorned with brilliant blue horizontal stripes contrasted against an orange to brownish body. Hence it is also known as the Blueline Angelfish or Blue-lined Angelfish. The face is variable and can have squiggly blue stripes, irregular blue spots, or can even be a solid blue. It grows just shy of 10 inches (25 cm) in length, and is quite hardy once its initial shyness has abated and it begins to feed. With its distinctive beauty and hardy nature, it makes a spectacular aquarium showpiece.

Juveniles are attractive too, being mostly black with bright bold yellow accents. They start out with a yellow band at the rear of the head, a yellow tail fin, and yellow margins along the back of the dorsal and anal fins. But as they mature they begin the fascinating metamorphosis into adult coloration. At about 1 inch or so (2.5 – 3 cm) their color begins to lighten, becoming a brown with faint blue stripes along the body and on the face. Gradually the yellow markings fade from all but the tail fin, replaced by vibrant blue stripes on a yellow or orangish brown background.