Several specimens of the pseudochromid Manonichthys alleni, with total length ranging from 45 to 60 mm, were observed at depths of 19–28 m in a coral reef in the Davao Gulf in the southern Philippines. Each specimen lived within a separate colony of the tubular sponge Callyspongia aerizusa. This constitutes the first record in the Philippine archipelago of a dottyback so far only known from Indonesian and Malaysian waters.