Slender lipfish
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Slender lipfish ( Suezichthys gracilis ) |
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| Suezichthys gracilis | ||||||||||||
| ( Steindachner & Döderlein , 1887) |
The slender lipfish ( Suezichthys gracilis ) is a marine fish from the wrasse family and differs from Suezichthys arquatus by its simpler coloration and larger scales. The species was first brought to Europe by Ludwig Döderlein with his fish collection from Japan and then described as Labrichthys gracilis ; this genus is now one of the cleaner wrasse .
features
The up to 18 cm long Indo-Australian representative of the Junker wrasse is particularly characterized by a dark yellow-green stripe from the upper jaw through the eye to the upper edge of the gill cover . The lower jaw and "cheeks", pectoral and pelvic fins are yellowish. The trunk is usually reddish, lilac to bluish (sometimes with light bands), with a red or dark longitudinal band; the ventral side is lighter. The black spot in the front of the dorsal fin only becomes clear in the male phase. Between the head and the dorsal fin there are five scales (more rarely four); behind the eye there are two or three rows of scales and under the eye there are three on the "cheek".
There are hardly any differences in the meristic (countable) characteristics (P 13-14; side line with 26 scales) to the other (approx. 9) Suezichthys species (cf. Suezichthys arquatus ).
Occurrence
The slender lipfish inhabit the western Pacific and are found there in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Caledonia and Australia, among others. From the Indian Ocean it is only reported from the Persian Gulf.
Way of life
The fish lives in reef lagoons over sand like most related wrasse, especially near solitary sticks or rocks. The diet consists mainly of benthic crustaceans and polystyrene . Live catches are welcome in show aquariums.
literature
- F. Steindachner and L. Döderlein (1887): Contributions to the knowledge of the fish of Japan (IV.) .- Memoranda of the mathematical and natural science class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna 53 (1st department): 257–296, plates 1 -4.
- BC Russell (1985): Revision of the Indo-Pacific labrid fish genus Suezichthys, with descriptions of four new species. Indo-Pacific Fishes 2: 1–21.
Web link
Slender lipfish on Fishbase.org (English)
- Suezichthys gracilis inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Russell, B., 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2014.