Saw doctor fish
| Saw doctor fish | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Galapagos surgeonfish ( P. laticlavius ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Prionurus | ||||||||||||
| Lacépède , 1804 |
The saw doctor fish ( Prionurus ) are a genus of doctor fish and belong to the scalpel doctor fish (Acanthurinae). They have 5–21 sharp, immobile “scalpels” at the base of their tail, which they can use to defend themselves and also injure people. Saw doctor fish are 20 to 70 centimeters long. As pure herbivores, the animals graze on algae from coral reefs .
species
There are seven types.
- African surgeonfish ( Prionurus biafraensis (Blache & Rossignol, 1961))
- Prionurus chrysurus Randall, 2001
- Galapagos surgeonfish ( Prionurus laticlavius (Valenciennes, 1846))
- Spotted surgeonfish ( Prionurus maculatus Ogilby, 1887)
- Prionurus microlepidotus Lacepède, 1804
- Spotted surgeonfish ( Prionurus punctatus Gill, 1862)
- Prionurus scalprum Valenciennes, 1835
swell
- Joseph S. Nelson , Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- André Luty: Doctor fish - way of life - care - species. Dähne Verlag, Ettlingen 1999, ISBN 3-921684-61-7 .
- Helmut Debelius / Rudie H. Kuiter : Doctor fish and their relatives. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3669-4 .
Remarks
Web links
Commons : Saw Doctor Fish ( Prionurus ) - Collection of images, videos and audio files
- Prionurus on Fishbase.org (English)