Slender rainbow wrasse

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Slender rainbow wrasse
Male (above) and female (below) individual

Male (above) and female (below) individual

Systematics
Perch relatives (Percomorphaceae)
Order : Labriformes
Family : Wrasse (Labridae)
Subfamily : Junker Wrasse (Julidinae)
Genre : Suezichthys
Type : Slender rainbow wrasse
Scientific name
Suezichthys arquatus
Russell , 1985

The slender rainbow wrasse ( Suezichthys arquatus ) belongs to the genus Corinae or Julidinae within the wrasse family, described by JLB Smith in 1957 as Suezia , renamed Suezichthys in 1958 for priority reasons . The naming Suezichthys done well in terms of the centenary of the start of construction (1857) of the Suez Canal and less on the basis of the distribution of the genus - although an early type ( caudovittatus to northern Red Sea occurs hour 1898th). Suezichthys arquatus was not delimited as a separate species until 1985.

features

This small (13 cm) Indo-Australian wrasse is extremely colorful. The species name arquatus is probably an allusion to the rainbow (Altlat. Arquus , classical arcus ; arquatus "rainbow colors "). Characteristic are two oblique blue bands from the interopercular to the lower part of the opercular. The dorsal fin is red, behind and yellowish at the base. The anal fin is dark burgundy red, the caudal fin below red, above yellow. The pectoral fin rays have fine red lines, the base is yellow. The pelvic fins are blue. Often (especially in juvenile fish and females) there are eye spots : on the rear end of the dorsalis (a black spot also on the front end) and in the upper half of the base of the tail. The trunk is often yellow to carmine red with (approx. 6) light or dark transverse bands or a longitudinal ligament. The central field of each scale can be turquoise blue, and when these spots merge, largely turquoise blue individuals emerge. Between the head and the dorsal fin there are five scales (rarely four or only three); behind the eye there are two rows of scales and under the eye there are three on the "cheek".

The meristic (countable) features are subfamily characteristics: 25 vertebrae (and approx. 3 scales per “segment”, i.e. myotome ); ( Fin formula :) D IX / 11, A III / 10, P 10-11, VI / 5, C 11. In old animals (ie males, 5–7 years old) the caudal fin becomes asymmetrical (as in many also benthophage Sciaenidae ). The sideline runs quite far dorsally (on the back: above it there are only 3 rows of scales, below 7).

Occurrence

Western Pacific: New Caledonia, New South Wales, Norfolk Island, New Zealand (NE coast), Kermadec, also Bonin Islands (Japan: Ogasawara).

Way of life

The fish lives in reefs (lagoons) over sand like most related labrids (in 25-100 m depth). As a food fish, it does not play a significant role because of its small size. Wild caught can be brought into the aquarium hobby with much more profit.

literature

  • JLB Smith (1957): List of the fishes of the family Labridae in the western Indian Ocean with new records and five new species. Ichthyological Bulletin of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology 7: 99-114 ( online ).
  • - (1958): Rare fishes from South Africa. South African J. of Science 54: 319-323.
  • BC Russell (1985): Revision of the Indo-Pacific labrid fish genus Suezichthys, with descriptions of four new species. Indo-Pacific Fishes 2: 1–21.

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