The rock beauty is easily distinguished from other members of the family by its distinctive black and yellow coloration. The head and tail are bright yellow, and this yellow creates a border around the black body. The lips, eyes, and margins of the dorsal and anal fins are an iridescent blue. Worlwide distribution of the rock beauty. The rock beauty is smaller than other angelfishes in the Atlantic, reaching a maximum size of about one-foot.
Adults generally form long lasting, perhaps even monogamous, pairs.
Often these pairs consist of a large and a small individual, perhaps suggesting a sexual dimorphism that may exist in this species. There is, however, no difference in the coloration of the sexes. The pair mates by rising slowly up in the water column, bringing the bellies close together, and releasing large amounts of sperm and eggs into the water. The female can release anywhere from 25 to 75 thousand eggs each evening, and as many as ten million eggs during each spawning cycle. The eggs are transparent, spherical, and pelagic, each containing a single droplet of oil to provide buoyancy.