Pomacentrus sulfureus
Bright yellow reef regular seen year-round in South Sinai and Marsa Alam, thriving in 26-29C water across the Red Sea.
A small, deep-bodied fish that flashes an almost uniform bright yellow to golden colour across the whole body, sometimes with a faint dusky patch near the gill cover. At around 7 cm it is easy to overlook among busier reef fish, but its constant hovering just above the coral and its unbroken yellow tone (no bars or stripes) are the giveaways. It rarely strays far from a chosen patch of coral or rubble it treats as home.
Look for it hovering a few centimetres above its home patch of reef, picking at algae and tiny invertebrates in the water column and darting back to cover the moment it feels crowded. It sticks to shallow water, generally 1 to 5 metres, so it is a fixture on reef flats and shallow coral gardens rather than deeper walls. Divers rarely get more than a passing glance before it retreats into a coral head, but it is common enough that another one is usually close by.
Like most damselfish, individuals often defend a small patch of coral or algae against intruders many times their own size, which is why they dart at passing divers' fins or cameras rather than fleeing outright.
No clear seasonal pattern shows up in the data, and with a comfortable niche of 26.3 to 29.2C, it is present on these reefs year-round. Plan around your destination's general dive season rather than a specific window for this fish.
Reef neighbours a diver could mistake it for. Use the identification notes above to tell them apart.
This is very much a Red Sea fish for most divers: it is most commonly logged across South Sinai, Marsa Alam and the Deep South, and the Red Sea Riviera in Egypt, which together account for the bulk of sightings. Outside Egypt it turns up reliably in the Inner Islands of Seychelles and along Aqaba in Jordan, with smaller but steady populations in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Coast, Tanzania's Zanzibar, and Eilat in Israel.
Mapping where Sulphur Damselfish is logged…
They are a reliable sighting across Egypt's Red Sea, especially South Sinai and Marsa Alam, and also show up well in Seychelles' Inner Islands and Jordan's Aqaba coast. Smaller populations exist in Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Israel, Madagascar, and Kenya.
There is no strong seasonal signal, so they are seen year-round on Red Sea and East African reefs. Their preferred water temperature of roughly 26 to 29C matches most of the diving calendar in these regions.
Look for a small, oval-bodied fish in a solid bright yellow colour, about 7 cm long, hovering close to shallow coral. It lacks the bars or eyespots of many other damselfish, which makes the plain yellow tone the easiest clue.
They stay small, topping out around 7 cm, which is typical for reef damselfish. You will almost always see them at that size regardless of location.
They can be feisty for their size, darting at fins or camera domes that get too close to their patch of coral, but this is territorial bluffing rather than any real threat. They pose no danger to divers.
Site and sighting data is aggregated from diver logs, iNaturalist and GBIF. For taxonomy and conservation status:
Yellowtail Clownfish
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