See text Platax is a genus of Indo-Pacific, reef-associated fish belonging to the family Ephippidae.

Adults are rather disc-shaped fish, with laterally compressed bodies and large dorsal and anal fins that give individuals a somewhat triangular profile.

Most Platax species can be found in higher latitudes, as high as the Ryukyu Islands in Japan and as far south as the eastern coast of Australia.

He assigned the genus to the batfish species Platax boersii, a classification which still holds to this day.

Another species that has been mistakenly classified as a Platax is the common freshwater angelfish, Pterophyllum scalare.

In a joint effort with Valenciennes, Cuvier published a natural history work in 1831 where the freshwater angelfish was classified as Platax scalaris.

[7] The freshwater angelfish, of course is not as closely related to the marine batfish as to warrant classification in the same genus.