This species is common throughout the northwest Atlantic (Warner 1984) and Caribbean coral reefs (Herbing and Hunte 1991, Warner and Schultz 1992). It is one of the most abundant species throughout the West Indies (Florida Museum of Natural History-Ichthyology Department).

Through a series of underwater visual surveys, 1,334 individuals and 2,335 individuals were observed in La Parguera Region, Puerto Rico and Rincón Region, Puerto Rico, respectively, and this species has been observed to be one of the most abundant reef fish species in both regions (Richard et al. 2006). In the Virgin Islands (USA), fish density has been reported at 3.4 individuals m² and over 10,000 individuals have been observed at any one time at the aggregation (Warner 1995). It is one of the most frequently sighted species in Bonaire reefs, Netherlands Antilles (Pattengill-Semmens undated), and 5,087 individuals were observed in Barbados Marine Reserve, Barbados between August and December, in 1992 (Rakitin and Kramer 1996).

In addition, it is known that population varies according to the size of reefs, with about 200 individuals living on a small reef (under 600 m²) and up to 10,000 individuals on some of the larger reefs (over 1,000 m²) (Warner 1984).

Unknown