Common Name: Scaly Damsel

Distribution: Rare in the Solitary Islands Marine Park. Distributed throughout the Indo-West Pacific region: from the Andaman Sea to Melanesia and Tonga, north to southern Japan, south to the Great Barrier Reef. In Australia recorded from reefs in the North West Shelf region of Western Australia, the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, south to the New South Wales border.

Ecological Notes: Frequents outer reef slopes, passages and lagoons. Depth range from 1 – 12 m.

Additional Notes: Pale grey body, sometimes with yellow on upper back, dorsal, anal and tail fins. Feed on zooplankton in the water column, occur singly or in small groups. Distinct pairing during breeding, eggs adhere to the substrate where they are aerated and guarded by the male. Grows to 9 cm.

References: R. Stuart-Smith, G. Edgar, A. Green, I. Shaw, Tropical Marine Fishes of Australia. Reed New Holland Publishers, 2015. p.275.

Atlas of Living Australia website at https://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=Pomacentrus+lepidogenys. Accessed 02/07/18.

FishBase. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2018. World Wide Web electronic publication. https://fishbase.ca/summary/Pomacentrus-lepidogenys.html. Accessed 02/07/18.