Chaetodontoplus ballinae

The Ballina Angelfish can be recognised by its distinctive colouration. It is pearly grey to whitish with a broad region of black covering much of the back and pectoral fin base. There are black areas through the mouth and eye. The pectoral and caudal fins are yellow.

This species grows to 20cm in length.

It occurs in subtropical marine waters at depths between 15m and 120m.

The Ballina Angelfish is only known from coastal northern New South Wales and Balls Pyramid (view image of Ball's Pyramid on NORFANZ website), near Lord Howe Island, New South Wales.

It is protected in New South Wales waters (further information).

The species was described in 1959 by G.P. Whitley, Curator of the Australian Museum Fish Department for 42 years. He described the species based on a single specimen caught off Ballina, northern New South Wales (view type information).

It wasn't until 1978 that another specimen was collected by K. Graham (NSW Fisheries), working aboard the FRV Kapala. This fish was trawled from a depth of around 120m off Evans Head (AMS I.22515-001).

Three specimens were obtained in 1994 by P. Parker at a depth of 25m near Ball's Pyramid (AMS I.34842-001).

The NORFANZ expedition in 2003 trawled three specimens at a depth of 90m, near Ball's Pyramid, south-east of Lord Howe Island (see image). K. Graham and K. Parkinson (NORFANZ voyage participants) registered one of these specimens into the Australian Museum Fish Collection (AMS I.42727-004).