Yellowtail Filefish
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Yellowtail Filefish ( Cantherhines dumerilii ) |
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| Cantherhines dumerilii | ||||||||||||
| ( Hollard , 1854) |
The yellowtail filefish ( Cantherhines dumerilii ), also known as the gray filefish , lives widespread in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific from the east coast of Africa to the west coast of America from Mexico to Colombia. To the north you can still find it on the coast of Japan and Hawaii , to the south on Algoa Bay in South Africa, near Rapa Iti , Ducie and Lord Howe Island . It occurs particularly frequently around oceanic islands .
Way of life
The fish can be found singly or in pairs in outer reefs at depths of one to 35 meters. They are shy and flee in caves and crevices when disturbed.
Young fish live pelagic and often stay under floating objects. Yellowtail filefish feed on the polyps of branchy hard corals , sponges , bog animals , sea urchins , molluscs and algae .
features
Yellowtail filefish are up to 38 centimeters long and have a gray to yellow-brown, high-backed body. On the back half you can see twelve faint darker horizontal stripes. The lips are white and there is a yellow ring around the eyes. Dorsal, anal and pectoral fins are light yellow, the caudal fin is bright yellow to orange with dark fin rays. Males have a field of bristly orange outgrowths on the base of their tail; the ring around the eyes and the caudal fin are more strongly colored.
Young fish are gray-brown, the head and body are covered by round white spots.
Fin formula : dorsal II / 34–39, anal 28–35
literature
- Baensch, Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 6 Non-Perciformes (non-perch-like) . Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-116-X
- Ewald Lieske, Robert F. Myers: Coral fish of the world . Year Top Special Verlag Hamburg, ISBN 3-86132-112-2
- Dieter Eichler, Robert F. Myers: Coral fish Indo-Pacific . Jahr-Verlag GmbG & Co., ISBN 3-86132-225-0
Web links
- Yellowtail Filefish on Fishbase.org (English)