Chaetodontoplus melanosoma has a body which has an overall black or brown colouration with an ochre face and yellowish-orange spots across the forehead.

It lives in central Indonesia around western Java, Bali, Komodo, Flores, Sulawesi, and northeastern Kalimantan.

It is also found in Sabah in Malaysia and in the Sulu Archipelago, Cebu, and southern Luzon in the Philippines.

[1] Chaetodontoplus melanosoma occurs at depths of approximately 5 to 30 metres in outer rocky or coastal reefs, and is often found in areas with strong currents or upwellings of cooler water.

[5] Chaetodontoplus melanosoma was first formally described in 1855 as Holocanthus melanosoma by the Dutch ichthyologist, herpetologist and physician Pieter Bleeker (1819-1878) with the type locality given as Lawajong on Solor in Indonesia.