Black-capped fairy bass
| Black-capped fairy bass | ||||||||||||
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Black-capped fairy bass, underwater shot near Roatan , Honduras. |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Gramma melacara | ||||||||||||
| Böhlke & Randall , 1963 | ||||||||||||
The black- capped fairy bass ( Gramma melacara ) is a small marine fish that is found in the Caribbean and is widespread there. The species has so far been detected on the coasts of the Bahamas , Cubas , Hispaniolas , Jamaica and Grand Caymans , as well as on the west coast of Central America ( Belize , Honduras ) and the north coast of South America ( Colombia ). It is probably even more common.
features
The black-capped fairy bass reaches a maximum length of 8 cm. The black-capped fairy bass differs from the two-tone king fairy perch ( Gramma loreto ), which is purple on the front and yellow on the back, in its almost entire body, which is purple. Only on the top of the head is a black zone that extends from the tip of the snout over the eyes to the front half of the dorsal fin. The tail fin of the black-capped fairy bass is crescent-shaped with pointed upper and lower lobes. The pelvic fins are much shorter than the king fairy bass and just reach the beginning of the anal fin.
- Fin formula : dorsal fin XIII– (XIV) / (8) –9, anal fin III / 10, pectorals 16–18.
habitat
The black-capped fairy bass appears sympatric with the king fairy bass. While the former prefers shallow water, the black-capped fairy bass detaches it at depths below 30 m and occurs at depths of 180 m. There he lives hidden in crevices and caves on the steep outer reef edges . When the black-capped fairy bass is closer to the cave roof than the cave floor, it often swims upside down. The substrate-breeding species has already been reared in the aquarium.
literature
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 1 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, 1997, ISBN 3-88244-110-0
- RD Mooi, Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin, USA: Grammatidae. in Kent E. Carpenter: The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2 Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes and American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5, pages 1371-1372 PDF
Web links
- Gramma melacara on Fishbase.org (English)