Chelmon
| Chelmon | ||||||||||||
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Copper Striped Tweezer Fish ( Chelmon rostratus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chelmon | ||||||||||||
| Cloquet , 1817 |
Chelmon is a species of butterfly fish (Chaetodon)that is poor in species and has only three very similar species. The species are 18 to 20 centimeters long, have high backs and are drawn by a pattern of broad, copper-colored to brownish bands on a silvery-white background. The dorsal and anal fins are pulled out and still emphasize the tall body. The snout is extended very long, which gave the fish the common German name pincer fish. Adult chelmon are territorial and live solitary or in pairs in coral reefs and estuaries . Chelmon rostratus and the juvenile fish of Chelmon muelleri have a large eye-spot in the soft-rayed part of the dorsal fin . Chelmon species feed on small invertebrates that they can pull with their long snouts from dense coral stocks and crevices. They are closely related to the subtropical pincer fish of the genus Chelmonops and are considered to be their sister group .
species
- Copper striped tweezer fish ( Chelmon rostratus ) (Linnaeus, 1758) ( type species ); occurs in the central Indo-Pacific from the Andaman Sea to the Ryūkyū Islands and Australia .
- Western Australian Pincer Fish ( Chelmon marginalis ) Richardson, 1842; occurs on the coast of northern Australia from Western Australia to the northern Great Barrier Reef and on the coast of New Guinea . It differs from Chelmon rostratus by the missing central copper-colored band and the missing eye spot.
- Müller's Pincer Fish ( Chelmon muelleri ) Klunzinger, 1879; occurs on the coast of Queensland and northwestern Australia mainly over the muddy seabed. Young fish are similar to Chelmon rostratus . In adult fish, the rear half of the body increasingly darkens, so that the typical drawing of the Chelmon species is ultimately barely recognizable.
literature
- Helmut Debelius , Rudie H. Kuiter : Butterfly fish, Chaetodon . Ulmer Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8001-4243-0
- Roger C. Steene: Butterfly and Angelfish, Volume 1 . Mergus Verlag, 1977, ISBN 3-88244-001-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fessler, Jennifer L. & Westneat, Mark W. (2007): Molecular phylogenetics of the butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae): Taxonomy and biogeography of a global coral reef fish family. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 45 (1): 50-68. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2007.05.018
Web links
- Chelmon on Fishbase.org (English)