Yellow masked tweezer fish
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Yellow Masked Tweezer Fish ( Forcipiger flavissimus ) |
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| Forcipiger flavissimus | ||||||||||||
| Jordan & McGregor , 1898 |
The yellow masked tweezer fish ( Forcipiger flavissimus ) is a species from the butterfly fish family (Chaetodon). It has the largest range of all butterfly fish species. It extends from the Red Sea and the east coast of Africa across the entire tropical Indian Ocean and Pacific to southern Baja California , the Revillagigedo and Galápagos Islands and the Pacific coast of Panama . The northern limit of the distribution area lies on the coasts of southern Japan and Hawaii , in the south they are found near Lord Howe Island .
features
The yellow masked tweezer fish becomes 22 centimeters long. Its body is flattened on the sides, high back and of a yellow base color. The top of the head is dark, the underside white. Dorsal and anal fins are yellow with light blue posterior margins. In some regions, especially in the Pacific, it forms melanistic , brown or black morphs . The snout is drawn out very long, longer than that of Chelmon , but shorter than that of the tube-mouthed tweezer fish ( Forcipiger longirostris ), which gave the fish the common German name tweezers. In the rear, soft-rayed part of the anal fin , it has a small eye-spot .
Fin formula : Dorsal XII – XIII / 19–25, Anale III / 17–19.
Except in the length of the snout, it differs from the very similar tube-mouthed tweezer fish only in the slightly larger mouth and the larger number of dorsal fin spines.
Way of life
The yellow masked tweezer fish lives individually or in small groups of up to five individual animals, adults mainly in pairs in coral and rock reefs . Mixed groups with Forcipiger longirostris are often formed, in which Forcipiger flavissimus always predominates in numbers. It feeds on small invertebrates, including hydroids , fish eggs and small crustaceans, but preferably the Ambulakralfüßchen the echinoderms and the gills of polychaete (Polychaeta).
literature
- Rudie H. Kuiter , Helmut Debelius : Butterfly fish, Chaetodon . Ulmer Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8001-4243-0 .
- Gerald R. Allen : Butterfly and Angelfish, Volume 2 . Mergus Verlag, 1979, ISBN 3-88244-002-3 .
Web links
- Yellow longnose butterflyfish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Forcipiger flavissimus inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.2. Posted by: Myers, R. & Pratchett, M., 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2014.