Fusilier damselfish
| Fusilier damselfish | ||||||||||||
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male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the subfamily | ||||||||||||
| Lepidozyginae | ||||||||||||
| Allen , 1991 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Lepidocygus | ||||||||||||
| Günther , 1862 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Lepidozygus tapeinosoma | ||||||||||||
| ( Bleeker , 1856) | ||||||||||||
The fusilier damselfish ( Lepidozygus tapeinosoma ) is a small marine fish that grows to about ten centimeters in length and is found in the tropical Indo-Pacific from the coast of East Africa to the Line Islands , the Tuamotu Archipelago and the Marquesas . Its distribution area reaches the Ryūkyū Islands in the north, New Caledonia in the south .
features
The fusilier damselfish resembles the fusiliers (Caesioninae) with its slim shape and way of life . It is able to change its color depending on its surroundings. Fish that hunt plankton high above the reef are green-silvery. They darken their body color when they hide in the reef. In the Maldives , pairs of parents guarding their clutches were found to be colored with colored bands. Males show a yellow spot on the end of the dorsal fin. During courtship , their back turns olive green. The connected dorsal fin is supported by twelve hard and 14 to 18 soft rays. In the anal fin there are two hard and 15 to 16 soft rays. In the pectoral fins one counts 21 to 22 fin rays . In a side line row (SL) there are 19 to 20 scales. The number of gill trap rays is 25 to 29.
Way of life
Fusilier damselfish live in large schools, in lagoons with high currents and over outer reefs in water depths of one to 30 meters. They are often seen in company with anthias . Fusilier damselfish feed on zooplankton .
Systematics
The fusilier damselfish is the only species in the genus Lepidozygus . The Australian ichthyologist Gerald R. Allen puts the genus in its own subfamily, the Lepidozyginae. The systematic special position of the genus was confirmed in later phylogenetic studies.
The following cladogram shows the position of the fusilier damselfish within the damselfish:
| Damselfish |
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literature
- Gerald R. Allen : Damselfish of the World . Mergus Verlag, Melle 1991, ISBN 3-88244-007-4
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 7 Perciformes (perch-like) , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1998, ISBN 3-88244-107-0
- Ewald Lieske / Robert F. Myers: Coral fish of the world . 1994, year publisher, ISBN 3-86132-112-2
- Dieter Eichler / Robert F. Myers: Korallenfische Indopazifik , Jahr-Verlag GmbH & Co., 1997, ISBN 3-86132-225-0
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Cooper, Smith, Westneat: Exploring the radiation of a diverse reef fish family: Phylogenetics of the damselfishes (Pomacentridae), with new classifications based on molecular analyzes of all genera. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 52, Issue 1, July 2009, Pages 1-16, doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2008.12.010
Web links
- Fusilier damselfish on Fishbase.org (English)