Panamic Sergeant Major

Abudefduf troschelii are found widely throughout the Eastern Pacific and are endemic to this area. They are commonly found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and the United States to name a few. In these places, this species is abundant in coralline and sandy bottoms, but they can also be found at rocky bottoms and tide pools where they are usually found in large aggregations. Furthermore, this species can be found in the pelagic area of the neritic feeding on plankton. This neritic area where A. troschelii are commonly found, is made up of massive corals, deep rocky walls, and shallow exposed reef.

These Eastern Pacific damselfish are feeders whose diet consists mainly of plankton in the pelagic zone and mid-water, but they also graze on benthic invertebrates and algae on their coral reef habitat. These feeding tendencies make them an omnivorous species. The physical structure of the A. troschelii mouth is one that it small but conveniently located so that it can easily feed on small plankton suspended in the water column and small bits of algae attached to pieces of benthic structure.