Chaetodontoplus melanosoma - Black Velvet Angelfish

The Black Velvet Angelfish, also known as the Gray Poma, is primarily black with a gray patch of varying size on its head and the upper horizontal half of its body. Its tail and the posterior tip of its dorsal fin are edged with yellow.

The Black Velvet Angelfish is shy and can be difficult to acclimate. It requires an aquarium of at least 50 gallons with plenty of hiding places. It is not a good reef inhabitant, as it nibbles on hard and soft corals (sessile invertebrates) and clam mantles.

It is hermaphroditic, very difficult to breed in an aquarium, and impossible to distinguish between male and female by colouring.

The Black Velvet Angelfish prefers a diet consisting of spirulina, seaweed, quality angelfish preparations, shrimp and other meaty foods, as well as live rock to graze on filamentous algae and diatoms.