Circle thorn surgeonfish
| Circle thorn surgeonfish | ||||||||||||
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Circle thorn surgeonfish |
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| Acanthurus tennentii | ||||||||||||
| Günther , 1861 |
The circle thorn surgeonfish ( Acanthurus tennentii ) is a species from the surgeon fish family and belongs to the subfamily of the scalpel doctor fish .
distribution
The circle thorn surgeonfish lives in the western part of the Indian Ocean and is distributed there from the coasts of East Africa via the Maldives to the island of Bali . He prefers to stay on stony ground in front of coral reefs and can be observed there at a depth of 3 to 20 meters.
Appearance
Like all types of surgeonfish, the circular thorn surgeonfish has a laterally flattened body that is longitudinally oval in shape. The body color is gray-beige to olive. The body length is up to 30 cm.
The blade on the base of the tail, also known as the "scalpel", is clearly visible and is set off from the rest of the body by a blue to blue-black ring. As usual with the actual surgeon fish (Acanthurinae), the scalpel is mobile and applied to the body when it is at rest. The scalpel is not connected to any muscles, so the circular thorn surgeonfish cannot actively straighten them up. Instead, they are passively erected by flapping their tails on the outwardly curved (concave) side of the tail peduncle at an angle of approximately 80 degrees.
The circle thorn surgeonfish is named after the very conspicuous black spots that are almost semicircular in shape and are located behind the eyes.
Life form
The circle thorn surgeonfish is one of the surgeon fish species that feed primarily on algae.
literature
- Helmut Göthel: Color Atlas Marine Fauna - Red Sea, Indian Ocean (Maldives). Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-7266-6
- Stanislav Frank: marine fish. Werner Dausien Verlag, Hanau 1998, ISBN 3-7684-2940-7
- André Luty: Doctor fish - way of life - care - species. Dähne Verlag, Ettlingen 1999, ISBN 3-921684-61-7
- Andreas Vilcinskas: Marine animals of the tropics. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-440-07943-0
Web links
- Circle thorn surgeonfish on Fishbase.org (English)