There is also an obvious black spot on the posterior portion of the dorsal fin which fades as the fish ages.

It extends north to the southern Ryukyu Islands of Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef of Queensland.

Like all other angelfish it is a protogynous hermaphrodite, with all individuals being female initially and the dominant ones changing to males.

[7] Paracentropyge multifasciata was first formally described as Holocanthus multifasciatus in 1911 by the American ichthyologists Hugh McCormick Smith (1869-1941) and Lewis Radcliffe (1880-1950) with the type locality given as Puerto Galera on Mindoro in the Philippines.

[8] When Warren E. Burgess created the genus Paracentropyge he named H. multifasciatus as its type species.

Applying freshwater dips before placing P. multifasciata in their tanks is usually sufficient to prevent the introduction of protozoans via these fish.

[10] Barred angelfish are social fish and should be kept in pairs or larger groups in large enough reef tank settings.