Mongoose
Mongoose | ||||||||||||
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Striped coral guardian ( Paracirrhites forsteri ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Cirrhitidae | ||||||||||||
Bleeker , 1859 |
The family of the tufted perch (Cirrhitidae), also known as the coral guardian, belongs to the subordination of the tufted perch-like and includes about 35 species in 10 genera , which are usually 10 centimeters long. Some species are also up to 20 centimeters long , Cirrhitus rivulatus from the Eastern Pacific up to 60 centimeters long. With the exception of two species from the Atlantic , all mongoose from the Indo-Pacific including the Red Sea and the Gulf of California occur, always in pronounced coral reefs .
Appearance
Most tufted perches, such as the monocle coral guardian ( Paracirrhites arcatus ), have a typical perch shape, with a stocky body, a beefy head with a large mouth and clearly visible hard fin rays. One exception is the long- snouted coral guardian ( Oxycirrhites typus ), which, adapted to life in gorgonians , has a very slender shape.
The colors of the individual species, but also within a species, can vary greatly. Some species have tuft-like projections on the spines of the dorsal fin, which have led to the name tufted perch .
behavior
The name coral guardian comes from the fact that the animals are often found lying on corals , where they hook into depressions of the coral with individual rays of the pectoral fins , if necessary . They feed on crustaceans , small fish and plankton as stalkers . Mound perch live territorially in the harem with two to seven females, the largest being the male. They are protogynous follow-up hermaphrodites, so they are female in their youth and can transform themselves into males if the order in the harem group requires it, i.e. H. when the old man dies.
The animals spawn at dusk, with both partners quickly swimming to the surface of the water and ejecting eggs and sperm there. The larvae live pelagically for several weeks .
Mollusks are sometimes kept in saltwater aquariums.
Genera and species
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Amblycirrhitus Gill, 1862
- Amblycirrhitus bimacula (Jenkins, 1903)
- Amblycirrhitus earnshawi Lubbock, 1978
- Amblycirrhitus oxyrhynchos (Bleeker, 1858)
- Amblycirrhitus pinos (Mowbray in Breder, 1927)
- Amblycirrhitus unimacula (Kamohara, 1957)
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Cirrhitichthys Bleeker, 1857
- Cirrhitichthys aprinus (Cuvier, 1829)
- Yellow coral guardian ( Cirrhitichthys aureus ) (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843)
- Cirrhitichthys bleekeri Day, 1874
- Cirrhitichthys calliurus Regan, 1905
- Falks Coral Guardian ( Cirrhitichthys falco ) Randall, 1963
- Cirrhitichthys guichenoti (Sauvage, 1880)
- Spotted coral guardian ( Cirrhitichthys oxycephalus ) (Bleeker, 1855)
- Cirrhitichthys randalli Kotthaus, 1976
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Cirrhitops Smith, 1951
- Cirrhitops fasciatus (Bennett, 1828)
- Cirrhitops hubbardi (Schultz, 1943)
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Cirrhitus Lacepède, 1803
- Cirrhitus albopunctatus Schultz, 1950
- Cirrhitus atlanticus Osório, 1893
- Giant coral guardian ( Cirrhitus pinnulatus ) (Forster in Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- Cirrhitus rivulatus Valenciennes, 1846
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Cristacirrhitus Randall, 2001
- Cristacirrhitus punctatus (Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829)
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Cyprinocirrhites Tanaka, 1917
- Cyprinocirrhites polyactis (Bleeker, 1874)
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Isocirrhitus Randall, 1963
- Isocirrhitus sexfasciatus (Schultz in Schultz et al., 1960)
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Itycirrhitus Randall, 2001
- Itycirrhitus wilhelmi (Lavenberg & Yañez, 1972)
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Neocirrhites Castelnau, 1873
- Fire coral guardian ( Neocirrhites armatus ) Castelnau, 1873
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Notocirrhitus Randall, 2001
- Notocirrhitus splendens (Ogilby, 1889)
- Oxycirrhites Bleeker, 1857
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Paracirrhites Bleeker, 1874
- Forster's tufted perch ( Paracirrhites forsteri ) Schneider in Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- Monocle coral guardian ( Paracirrhites arcatus ) Cuvier, 1829
literature
- Kurt Fiedler: Textbook of Special Zoology, Volume II, Part 2: Fish. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1991, ISBN 3-334-00339-6 .
- Joseph S. Nelson: Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 1. Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-020-1 .
- Rudie H. Kuiter / Helmut Debelius : Atlas of the marine fish. Kosmos-Verlag 2006, ISBN 3-440-09562-2 .
- KORALLE, marine aquarium specialist magazine, No. 36 December / January 2005/2006, Natur und Tier Verlag Münster, ISSN 1439-779X
Web links
- Munchaws on Fishbase.org (English)